GT Lobo Prototype Aluminium- with a little story off the net

I came accross this on the net and thought it something the peeps on here would like. Some of you may have seen it before, sorry if you have....

A chap in the states came accross this for $300. After it arrived it was clear it had been stolen at some point...All the pant had been stripped and every sticker removed. The brakes were like something he'd never seen before either..

After doing some investigating it turned out to be an American team GT riders bike that had been stolen. The brakes were prototype cable drum brakes from Shimano (which cost a cool $10,000 a set to produce and never made it to full production)

As you can see the frame doesn't have the curved seat tube like the finished Alu Lobo. The reason they ended up 'curving' the seat tube is that they couldn't get the shock far enough forward to not rub the tyre when at the end of its travel (a problem also found on the carbon version).

The boxxers are also pre-production versions with the bolt on brace.

The back end features box section chain-stays...the ones found on the carbon lobo (very similar to LTS's) were found to be prone to snaping because of the stress of the low down shock (compared to the LTS). This box section found its way on to the finished Alu Lobo. The one piece plates that connect the trunion to the frame and back end were also upgraded to much 'beefier' 2 piece versions. This was to make trunion adjustment much easier as you didn't have to take apart so much of the back end.

The chap who bought this contacted GT about the bike. GT very kindly gave him a brand new bike (some 10 years after the Lobo was made!) so that this could go into their museum at GT HQ.

I thought it was interesting, hope you did too!

Interesting that, thanks for posting it.

That's pretty damn cool, and of GT to give him a new bike in exchange for this one.

Those Shimano brakes are prototypes of the Rollerbrakes. They definitely did go in production and almost half of the new citybikes sold today in the Netherlands and Denmark are fitted with these Rollerbrakes.

They are great because they are almost maintenance free and they don't use brakepads (so never have to replace pads), instead it uses steel on steel rollers that set oblique when braking. They last pretty long.

Why they didn't work for DH? Well steel on steel braking; lots of heat and with the heat they start fading, even those big cooling fans mounted on the GT couldn't prevent fading. Plus they are relatively heavy.
So that's why they are mostly used in the flat countries

Am I the only one that thinks GT got a little more out of that transaction than the guy the bought the bike in the first place? :?

N/B":imd7tg4m said:

Am I the only one that thinks GT got a little more out of that transaction than the guy the bought the bike in the first place? :?

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I guess GT are pretty happy it turned up, yes.
But still it is a generous gesture (well, depends on the bike they gave him, I suppose). I think it is generous, because it is stolen goods,
so they could also have the guy get arrested for healing (at $300 for such a bike he could have known there is something fishy).

I think it is a pretty decent deal they both got without too much hassle, only too bad the thief that nicked the bike in the first place didn't get his penalty.

Very very interesting to see this bike, a pure mix between STS Lobo and alloy Lobo..

Thanks !

Wytze":28u3sest said:

Those Shimano brakes are prototypes of the Rollerbrakes. They definitely did go in production and almost half of the new citybikes sold today in the Netherlands and Denmark are fitted with these Rollerbrakes.

They are great because they are almost maintenance free and they don't use brakepads (so never have to replace pads), instead it uses steel on steel rollers that set oblique when braking. They last pretty long.

Why they didn't work for DH? Well steel on steel braking; lots of heat and with the heat they start fading, even those big cooling fans mounted on the GT couldn't prevent fading. Plus they are relatively heavy.
So that's why they are mostly used in the flat countries

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That's really interesting! I got all that info off the post I found. I thought I remember seeing team Animal testing some as well in 98-99ish..

I think if I'd have found this bike there's no way I'd have told GT.....I would defo have restored it the best I could then tell them haha! It defo would have been a labour of love..

ChrisBrown81":3vfbabtq said:

That's really interesting! I got all that info off the post I found. I thought I remember seeing team Animal testing some as well in 98-99ish..

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You did indeed, back in the day I was fortunate enough to ride on a regular basis with the Animal team, some of whom I'm still good friends with today. At that point in time they had full factory Shimano backing and the roller brakes which evolved into the Nexus range were temporarily fitted on Robin Kitchins Orange Mr O amongst other bikes. From memory they were (as already mentioned above) rather prone to brake fade so testing didn't take too long

Great little read if rather have a brand new one that that even if it was rare/team only.

If GT still have brand new lobos hanging around why won't they sell me one ? haha