GT RTS

[Malicious Afterthought]

Hazard a guess at 26.8.

I took it down the shop, and the man measured it and said it was a 27. A 26.8 was too small, but the 27 in the shop only went in as far as my 27. So I took it home and have attacked the inside of the seat tube with fairy liquid and a toothbrush (should have used a screwdriver and sandpaper, in retrospect) and not the final inch and a half is going in. Albeit slowly.

 

[Malicious Afterthought]

Seatpost in! Although I think I'm not going to get it out again anytime soon.

I went out for a short ride with MrsA last night, me on the RTS, her on her Aggressor XC 3.0 (not impressed with the tektro disc brakes on her bike, but that's another story), as she's not really ever ridden a bike so I'm trying to teach her from the ground up (We've gotten as far as pedalling-in-an-almost-straight line,slalom slowly between the breaks in the white lines and "seriously, even if you grab a whole handful of front, you're not going over the bars").

It's very, very different to what I thought it would be like. Coasting along and bouncing up and down reveals no creaks, squeaks or groans which is a relief. Sprinting on the flat feels like it has a solid back end, but as soon as you begin to coast, the rear becomes supple again.

Riding it, it feels lighter and quicker than the Kona, which cannot be the case in the real world, but I think it hides the extra weight well. Moving on and off kerbs was a strange experience the first few times, as I kept trying to unweight the rear wheel and put it down gently. I think that I'm going to have to learn to ride this in a different way to my old bike. The new chain seems to shift well with the front chainset and rear cassette which is a relief, although the brakes need a bit of work. I've to work out how to get more air into my forks as well

Come Saturday, if I get enough of my revision done, I'll be going out with a friend and he'll have his Boardman with 5 inches of travel at both ends so we'll see how it holds up.

Future plans for it? not sure, I'd like to drop some weight from it (althogh my dropping a few piunds might be better and cheaper) and maybe switch to Magura rim brakes, but I'll keep it as is until needs must.

Overall I am very, very pleased.

 

[IDB1]

I really like these full sus bikes . . a lot!!. . very cool ride matey

Kona at the top's pretty cool too

 

[Malicious Afterthought]

I was able to take the RTS proper off road for the first time. it's really, really impressive. And fast. "10mph faster, everywhere" said one review, and it kinda felt like it, even through my wheezing climbs. Downhill, it's brilliant and far more capable than I am. I think I'm going to get a better front brake sooner, rather than later.

MaliA goes up

Saying "It climbs like a hardtail" doesn't really mean too much to me, but I've found that it's quite nimble and nifty going uphill, due to the geometry, despite the weight it is carrying

Comfort braking? probably

At the bottom safely

Work needing doing:

Tighten Aheadset - It became loose during the, erm, seat height adjustment (see below)

Improve front brake - New pads, source hydraulic rim brake, or front disk.

Sort out seatpost - Seatpost firmly stuck. After 45 minutes work with a heatgun, it wasn't moving, so I knocked the clamp holding assembly off with a hammer, and cut off an inch from the top instead, and remounted the clamp. Take that! Seems OK.

True Wheels

 

[ozpablo]

I have a 94 RTS-3 which started as a Purple frame... which was 7005 series aluminium. I had the frame replaced under warranty after a couple of years - the replacement frame they gave me is the same colour as yours and was 7005 series aluminium as well. I think 6000 series was the better aluminium and was used on the higher spec models (made in USA models).

 

[Malicious Afterthought]

As it is getting slightly warmer, and I'm going up to the peak district soon, I think I've almost got enough tuits to finally:

-tighten the aheadset (again)
-true the wheels
-sort out the rear brake

Or, rather, I'll chuck it into the local bike shop and get them to do it.

I'm still tempted to dump the V's and get maguras front and rear, but I'll see what I can do with the current set up first of all.

Anyway, there's a picture of me and the bike in Normandy this summer. The wife and I went for a ride along this track, for about 16km. So we get to where we want to go for lunch, and France being France, they've decided to not serve lunch, so the wife decides that sitting outside a cafe and drinking coffee is a preferable alternative to cycling back to the car. So, muggins here zooms back and the bike is actually pretty good on the flat. When I passes a couple of french people going the other way the bloke did a double take and shouted "C'est une RTS!" in amazement but I didn't hang about, instead rode on with a smile on my face.