The major announcement from GT this year has been a move of all production manufacturing “offshore” or to Taiwan to you or me, closing down nearly all California manufacturing. They will retain a small custom building ‘micro factory’ for turning out pre-production prototypes but even team bikes will be constructed by those more likely to have eaten rice rather than burritos for lunch.

As for these bikes full of Eastern promise, here’s the rundown on the changes for ’01.

Team and Race bikes have been on a crash diet. The I-Drive team uses a slightly longer mid frame with slackened steering geometry, recessed headset system and totally reworked eccentric bearings, housing and shell. Cable stops are moved further out of muds way, disc mounts are fitted and the whole rear swingarm is more compact. Along with various tubing profiling and butting tricks and a few titanium details this carves over 1lb off the frame weight.

Travel is also down from 5in+ to 3in which gets rid of the wallowy mid section that made the bike feel so sluggish in certain situations. The I-Drive still provides phenomenal traction but there’s less tendency for the bike to bury its head making it a stunning technical climber and a lively singletracker.

Longer centre section and less travel have also improved DH stability and stopped knees hitting shifters, while the pert rump whips through corners for fast exits and quick line changes. It is all dressed up in wish list carbon and magnesium kit to drop complete bike weight below 24lb, a genuine XC contender which goes a long way to explaining how team rider Roland Green took the Silver medal at the World Champs on one.

The same Uberkit has been draped over the Zaskar Team edition too, which has been stripped of masses of excess weight and stiffness by the same team responsible for the Pro road team Lotto bikes. Finer butting in tubes and cast / CNC sections such as the bottom bracket shell, recessed headset, re-sculpted minimalist dropouts, tiny seatpost collar with titanium bolts, all save a bunch of weight and provide a smoother less abusive ride. the same slower steering longer front end gives better stretch and high speed confidence, and with bike mass as low as 21lbs the Mavic / Michelin tubeless tyres can be fired up hills or off start lines significantly faster than we’re used to.

The ZR road series – as used by Team Lotto (well apart from a couple of
Scandium specials GT admitted to) loses a bunch of weight through tube and fixture fettling as well as a new 11/8″ Aheadset, and keyhole aero carbon fork (the profile where a round space is left round the tyre to smooth airflow). Front end stability and tracking is good without being as jarring as other 1 1/8″ road bikes we’ve tried such as the Trek OCLV, and the whole bike feels extremely well mannered at all speeds. That’ll be that Euro pro input then.

At the other end of the scales a full production version of Steve Peats DH-I
is now available as frame only or a mid priced but perfectly workable
complete bike with Hayes brakes, Monster T’s etc.

Steve Peat has also been giving input for the new GT Ruckus jump bike. Scabby matt grey paintjob, big custom drawn flare ended top tube, fat square stays, pierced top tube and so on, all look the part but they only let us stroke it gently as it was a tin photo only sample. There’s an impressive selection of truly mental riders on the GT staff, and they’ve got one of the best BMX backgrounds going, so we’re prepared to believ it’ll do all the appropriate airborne things rather well.

On the bikes that most of us will be riding GT have taken the higher fronted, more laid back geometry of this years Zaskar X (which we liked a lot once we adjusted to the slow front) and applied it all across the range with a side order of riser bars, which should increase control and confidence on the trails that make mountain biking worth doing. I-Drives keep the same 5in+ travel though they have shaved some weight out of the eccentric and lengthened it enough to stop knee knocking. We’ll let you know when we get one ready to ride.