Thoughts on GT I-drive?

I bought one when they first came out (around 2000...I think). I rode it for about 12 years, great fun!. The suspension worked great, although I think it was a combination of great technical design and marketing hype, if I am honest! IIRC, the idea was that this i-drive design enabled smooth pedalling through the suspension action by enabling the bottom bracket to remain stable whilst the rear triangle moved. There's probably folk on here who can explain it better!

I've recently got mine it out of the loft and am building it up for my nephew, will be nice to see it rolling again.

One thing to check is the frame at the seat post. Sometimes the frame would crack around here. (although mine is fine after almost 25 years!)
 
Be great to see a build thread for it.
Ah.. sorry I didn’t take any photos. It would have been a different build thread as this one is a ‘solid’ build for my 13 yr old nephew, i.e. not too flash, with Acera and Tiagra components.

(Something else to check when buying one is the plastic cable guide under the bottom bracket. It is an unusual shape. Mine had cracked and I couldn’t find a new/replacement one. I was able to glue mine as the cable had kept the parts in place.)
 
Thinking of buying one of these locally. I-drive, proper tech advance or just a sales pitch?
If you decide to buy make sure to give it a good check over especially the moving parts for damage or wear and tear.
However, you can get spare from GT parts from BETD
I owned a 2001 iDrive 6.0 (brand new) from Halfords where I worked then, which soon got replaced with an pre-owned 2001 iDrive 4.0, which I rode to work for 4 years and nearly got stolen, but that's another story. I loved riding the iDrive 4.0, it's a great design, it did what it was designed to do.
 
I-Drive did/does actually work well, I had one in 2000-ish, my first full-suss bike and honestly it blew me away.
Would be interesting to see a build of one now.

 

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