GT LTS-DS Full Refurb

Gadro

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Here's my latest project, bought the bike from LGF a few weeks ago and decided to make it 'nice and shiny' again :cool:

I'm posting this thread not only show everyone the bike but hopefully to help anyone else who's thinking of doing a similar project

Here's a few pics of how it was and what's been done so far.....

Black and mean

LGFLTS-DS.jpg


Paint Stripper Madness !!

Stripping.jpg


Bare Metal Roughness. To polish this would take weeks so Powder Coating was my only real option. What colour to have? Decisions.....

LTSBare.jpg


Close up of the bare metal, just shows how rough it was underneath that black paint. A good tip for anyone replacing the Main Bearings, use a spark plug socket. Perfect size. Place over the bearing and give it a few taps with a hammer. Comes out really easy.

LTSBare2.jpg


Decided to go for a Gloss White with Red Decals. I was unable to source correct DS decals so have made do with some off eBay. Cost me £10.88 with postage from the USA.

I made some enquiries with a local Powder Coater and was quoted £30 for a White Gloss Powder Coat and Clear Coat. Bargain!!

Here's a couple of pics of what it turned out like. Not everyone will like it but it's so different from the regular Black and Polished Aluminium look that the more I look at it the more stunning it becomes.

FrameRefurb2.jpg


FrameRefurb3.jpg


FrameRefurb1.jpg


The bike originally came with a 'made to fit' Fox Vanilla rear shock unit. Although this worked well, I aint particularly over the moon of how it looks with that 'eye' just dangling in the air. I really wanted a NOS Super Deluxe unit, the same that was on my old STS build. Unable to source one as of yet but am still looking. I decided on fitting a Coupe Deluxe which I sourced from Icycles in the USA. Here's a link

http://store.icyclesusa.com/shared/Stor ... oducts.asp

They're doing a 'Recession Special' at the moment and this cost me £23.23 including shipping from the States to the UK!!

One of the original Trunion Chips had cracked so I sourced a new set from BETD. May seem expensive for a couple of bits of plastic, but without people like BETD a lot of LTS, STS owners are going to be with broken unusable bikes in the future. Here's a link

http://www.mountainbikecomponents.co.uk ... Sts+spares

The original Trunion Alan Key Bolts that came with the bike are quite simply crap. One of these buggers rounded on me and I had to use my Dremel to cut a slot in the screw head so I could use a screwdriver to get it out.Same thing happened on my STS build and I'm thinking that there's just a weakness there. So be warned if trying to do this yourself.

Here's a couple of pics of the new rear shock fitted

RockShoxCoupeDeluxe.jpg


RockShoxCoupeDeluxe2.jpg


The bike came with a Raceface Prodigy Chainset, which I'm keeping as I like the look and although not period correct suits the bike. It's got a couple of Red Anodised SRP Chainring Bolts and Red Anodised BB Bolt.

Chainset.jpg


FrameFull.jpg


I've now decided on a 8 speed XT gearing and V Brakes

XTRearMech.jpg
 
Xizang, thanks mate. Just PM'd you

The bike came with triple Judy XL's. Not a big fan of triples so I've decided on a set of Marzocchi Bombers. Took me a week or two to find a tidy set but finally managed to nab a set on eBay. Haven't had them yet but here's a pic from the listing to give you a flavour.

MarzocchiZ2.jpg


Seem to be OK, but may be a bit rough, fingers crossed

Sourced a NOS Syncros stem for the bike from Canada here's a pic

SyncrosStem.jpg


Still waiting on a few other bit and bobs, will post an update soon :cool:
 
Looks very nice :)

How doe sit ride? I seem to remember watching people bob up and down when peddlang on those things!
 
Gadro":1a6ara0e said:
A good tip for anyone replacing the Main Bearings, use a spark plug socket. Perfect size. Place over the bearing and give it a few taps with a hammer. Comes out really easy.
Nice. I used a 20p, a 10p and a 5p, whacked with a punch. You end up with dish-shaped coins, but 35p is a price I can cope with. :)
 
Re: re:

I used some Nitromors paint stripper and it worked a treat :)

Haven't ridden it yet, but there's bound to be some 'bob' when pushing hard.
 
Re: re:

Gadro":2fgxdjta said:
I used some Nitromors paint stripper and it worked a treat :)

Haven't ridden it yet, but there's bound to be some 'bob' when pushing hard.


I gave up and took my steelframe to the sandblaster today will cost me around 10euros so, I thought that it would be cheaper and easier...
 
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