A slight spring-loading effect occurs and then releases every time you pump the pedals on bumpy terrain. On the contrary, after the initial ‘getting used to it’ period, you’ll be using the effects of the chain growth, slight shock extension and shifting crankset to kick your way out of slow-down corners as soon as the roughest ground is out of the way. The surprise is that you rarely notice the downhill heft on flat trails, partly because the rear suspension doesn’t suck pedal power away. At 40lb (that’s 7lb more than the Marin, 6lb more than the Specialized and 4lb more than the Mythic), it’s a burden on climbs, although the gearing means nothing is out of the question if you work at it. It eats terrain like a downhill bike, and carries the associated heft. This bike is certainly at the downhill end of the all-mountain scale. Weakness: Its a little heavy, mine is an XL that weighs in at 33 lb. The rear shock is a basic Fox Float with no adjustments other than air pressure but thats okay because the I-drive system doesnt require a pro-pedal or lock out. It has undergone many bike parts changes from its original spec but it is still a very fu.
2007 gt idrive 4.0 mountain bike specs full#
Still, it’s a decent downhill-worthy fork at this price.Īs soon as you climb aboard the Ruckus you know it’s going to offer you a totally different ride experience to bikes like the Marin Rock Springs or Mythic Wraith. I-drive full suspension flattens the trail and climbs like a hardtail. In this Bike Shed video, I do a bike check on what GT Team iDrive. The rebound damping is good but there’s no leg-top compression adjustment so standing climbs are wallowy affairs. There’s loads of mud room and standover height and the rear dropouts and Manitou Stance Blunt fork are set up for through-axles. The frame is heavily reinforced in all the spots that matter and we love the way the linkage bearings are actually bottom bracket bearings that you can service with a bottom bracket tool. Beware though – the distance you can drop the saddle by is restricted by the shock position. With the saddle high you feel like you’re on a cross-country bike and with the saddle low you get the more compact feel of a downhill bike. But, for riders who feel at ease with the sizing, it works.
Some riders think it’s ugly and others find the radically sloping seat mast difficult to deal with because the reach changes so much as you change the saddle height.
2007 gt idrive 4.0 mountain bike specs how to#
But as with anything we don’t know how to repair, it’s easier to learn in a video.The frame looks complex but it’s actually very much a case of form follows function. In a nutshell, a simple truing job is the act of loosening the spokes on the side of the wheel the rim is bent towards and tightening those on the side it is bending away from. This particular I-Drive had a little tweak in its front wheel. It was made in a time before youtube, so it’s hard to imagine where it was going to get seen, which is maybe a good thing.Īfter watching that, maybe you’ve had enough history for the day, so we can talk a little about what we were actually fixing on this bike. But the I-Drive stood for well over a decade as proof that it’s ok to get weird once in a while, and there’s no better evidence than the launch video. Basically, it worked well enough for the concept to evolve into a couple other versions of the same general principle until GT finally abandoned it in 2018.
And the axle path, relative to the rest of the bike, was more rearward than traditional bikes of the time. And in a timely twist, they offered some of the benefits of a high main pivot because … well … they had a high main pivot … technically.īecause the bottom bracket moved with the rear triangle, it didn’t purely isolate suspension movement from your body weight, but it came close. They were efficient, supportive pedalers that remained relatively active whether or not you were on the gas.
But if you were to hop on a first-generation GT I-Drive today, apart from the outdated geometry, it might not feel that bad.ĭespite its convoluted appearance, I-Drive bikes worked pretty much as advertised. The unified rear triangles, softails and elastomer shocks seem nearly unrideable by today’s standards. Most of the unorthodox suspension designs of our sport’s awkward 90s stage have not aged well. Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members!
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