A day in the Bikemagic office is always made a little more exciting with the sight of a courier dragging a huge bike box up the stairs. The last couple of months have been hectic, with a non-stop stream of product releases from the industry, so it’s finally good to actually see a few of the 2011 bikes arriving for testing duties.
The GT Sensor is the first 2011 bike we’ve received and is one we’ve been particularly looking forward to testing on UK soil for some time. You’ll remember we were flown out to Les Deux Alpes a couple of months ago to sample the latest from GT, and on a short XC jaunt on the last day of our trip it was the Sensor that most excited us. Now we can find out if it reacts as well to our local trails as it did to the stunning Alpine singletrack we were spoilt with.
To recap, the Sensor is GT’s shortest travel bike to employ the Independent Drivetrain (ID) suspension platform which relies on separating the drivetrain from the suspension, a clever approach to the tricky problem of reducing chain growth and pedal feedback. The hyrdofromed aluminium frame is quite a looker, with the raised main pivot and swoopy top tube lending the Sensor a unique look and it’s only when viewed from the non-drivetrain side that you can really appreciate how the ID works. It’ll still have you scratching your head a little, but one ride on it removes any doubts you might have.
Anyway, we’ll stop bleating on about it now. We’re going to spend the afternoon make a fort out of the huge pile of boxes you see stacked up behind the Sensor, and you can follow this link to our first ride article which gives you a little more detail on the new model. We’ll report back with a full review once we’ve hit a few trails on it.
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