1996 GT Avalanche on FB Marketplace - Had to save it!

[JustinFox]

I spotted this GT Avalanche on FB Marketplace listed as a 1992, but I'm pretty sure it's a 1996?

I've finally gotten quite comfortable with being in lycra, but getting back out on the trails was always inevitable. A small taste of gravel on my newly acquired Kona Jake the Snake cyclocross bike instantly took me back to riding a rigid 90's hardtail. I was looking for vintage brake boosters on eBay last night then this popped up on Marketplace today for $120 AUD.

Looking at the listing photos it looked like a small (15"). I messaged the seller and asked them to measure the centre of the top tube to the BB and BAM! It was a 15 inch! I offered $100 AUD cash and if he accepted I could pick it up right now. He accepted and welp, now it's mine.

If this was a car it would have a rats nest in the engine bay. The bike is in pretty rough shape, but these things don't break and man I was so excited to strip it down and start polishing the frame.

Weight if anyone is interested is 12.98kg's. Having done a full restoration on my 80's steel Paino road bike, then eventually turning that into a weight weenie build my plan was to skip the full resto job on this, leave some patina (rat rod styles) and go for style points (purple bits? I always wanted purple bits!). My build process has always been trial and error (IE: the most expensive way to play). So... we'll see!

 

[JustinFox]

What a mess.

Thank G the BB came out.

Big ding in the top tube and also the downtube. Adds character... right?!

 

[JustinFox]

NOS Scott AT-4 PRO bars.

So tempting to use them for this bike, but thinking I might save them as there's just something special about having them unused.

That's me on the left in 1990 with a GT... Outpost? It was a low end bike, and I dreamed of owning an Avalanche back then (yes you read that right, an Avalanche! I never wanted a Zaskar, not even sure why!).

I've spent days going down the rabbit hole. Flite saddles, RINGLE skewers!, Tioga T-Bone stems, Onza bar ends, Avocet and Cateye computers lol!

John Tomac was my hero. I followed his races through Mountain Bike magazines. His legendary Tioga advertisement is still baked into my brain. What a rebel and what I'd do (pay) for a Tioga disc wheel.

 

[JustinFox]

Stripping the bike down was SO fun and worth the price of admission alone.

Cleaning up the frame was not so fun, but it's as good as it's going to get, for now.

Forks work, kind of? They're going to be useless for anything but the big hits.

I ripped the drivetrain off my Kona Jake the Snake cyclocross bike. It's a microSHIFT Advent X 10-Speed. The GXP BB and XX crankset went right on too. At this stage I was just too itchy to ride the thing so I prioritised getting it going before anything else.

Every man, woman and their dog was at Bunnings (local hardware store) the other day. Sandpaper, scouring pads, autosol, McDonalds, bottle of cheap red wine, Pearl Jam and elbow grease.

I've had SO much fun stripping the bike down and having so much fun starting to put it back together again. It's been so nostalgic and so rewarding. No torque wrenches necessary, it's all about feel, and man I got pretty lucky with the stripdown as nothing was seized.

At this stage I just really want to ride (thrash) this thing, and so I've decided to just clean up the frame a little and rock the patina. The wheelset (no logos but could be Velocity wheels and a small sticker says DT Spokes) still spin well and run true. They're heavy but I don't think I could find ready made alloy wheels that would be much lighter (would have to build some up). I've taken the SRAM TruVativ XX crankset from the Kona Jake the Snake (perfect as it's a MTB crankset thus no need for spacers on the GXP BB) as well as the 10-Speed MicroSHIFT Advent X rear derailleur (re-used chain and cassette too, just need the MicroSHIFT Advent shifter which is cheap as chips).

The fork has 110mm of travel which raises the front a fair bit. I'm much more used to this laid back position coming from an "all mountain" dual suspension bike, but part of me wants to lower the front end to stay true to what mountain bikes were like when I was younger. It's a lower end fork too, so the temptation to track down something better is strong. For now I'm going to try to re-use as much of the parts as I can, but a shorter stem and some really wide riser bars would make for a much more capable bike on the trails. We'll see.

 

[JustinFox]

New Old Stock!

I went down to the storage cage in my unit and dug through plastic containers in search for bits and this is all the stuff I found. Pretty hilarious that I’ve been holding on to this stuff for 15+ years!

The fat Maxxis 2.3 High Roller front and fast rolling 2.1 Kenda Small Block 8 on the rear was how I liked to run my old dual suspension bike. Took me ages to dial in that combo. Lots of grip at the front in corners, and the tail would slide out when leaning hard at speed which really suited my riding style. The WTB Rocket V saddle must have come new on my old Giant Reign 1. The Tioga saddle and bottle cage are rad, so too the weight weenie Maxxis tubes.

I think the tyres are overkill, but I had to at least put them on to see what they looked like and to check clearances. Still nowhere near refining how this bike is going to look, and still waiting for brake levers and a shifter to come in the mail, but man I’m having a blast going down the 90’s MTB rabbit hole.

I've been slowly, but surely hunting down some cool bits. It's getting really hard to find new stuff for these old bikes. How cool is that retro packaging!

Kool Stop salmon pads (the best!) and Schwalbe Billy Bonkers! Good news is that there's still a lot of tyre choice out there for 26" wheels.

DMR V12 pedals in silver (what I'm used to so I'm super happy to rock them despite the weight penalty).

microSHIFT Advent 10-speed shifter is on and it's all working perfectly!

Having WAY too much fun with this. I've spent more time researching stuff than riding or building. I've gone down a lot of rabbit holes; single speed conversion? Eccentric bottom bracket? Magic Gears?! Rigid fork? Mullet set-up with a 24" wheel on the back?! Ah it's been so fun!

26" is pretty much dead though. It's basically impossible to buy an off-the-shelf 26" wheel with a 9-10-11-12-speed cassette. I'd have to custom build one if I wanted something lighter and all silver (I'm not a fan of the red anodised wheels).

The microSHIFT 10-speed Advent groupset is shifting so damn well. The shift unit is WAY better than the road lever/shifter so I'm super happy with that. I'm just waiting on brake levers, then I can go ride and see if I can live with such narrow flat bars out on the trails, and whether I might want to invest in some wide riser bars + shorter stem (and finally maybe sprinkle some purple anodised bits for bling).

 

[JustinFox]

I was on the vodka during the build the other day, and soon after taking the last photo late in the afternoon I decided I couldn't wait for my AliExpress brake levers to arrive so I raided the Extralite brake levers off my fixie.

By the time I was done it was night so I strapped on some lights and went for a blat around the block. I felt right at home on this thing! It's so playful that I found myself rolling down stairs instantly, then I started rolling up stairs, did some rad skids, wheelies, then I thought I'd huck some stairs and well, the front quick release skewer somehow (blame the vodka?!) slipped enough for the brake pads to lock against the tyre and I had a good stack in front of the local barber shop (he was very amused!).

With a bloody knee, elbow and dented pride I rolled down to the local burger haunt for a feed to contemplate what had just happened. This bike makes me feel like a kid again, but I'm 50! I need to chill.

This morning I got up and instead of joining the guys at the park on my SL8 Tarmac I thought I'd hit the trails instead!

And yeah... more revelations. This bike is so fun in an urban environment, but on the trails? Not so much. Some of the bits had rocky steps and I was bouncing around so much my feet almost came off the pedals a few times.

I could get fatter tyres, run lower pressures and SPD's too, but nah, this is underbiking! It's sketchy and exactly what I wanted. Having said all that I think the bike would be fine on gravel trails, the weekly grocery shop and night rides to the pub.

PS: Found a guy on FB Marketplace who had a nice Cannondale Super V for sale. Was too big for me, but more importantly it had a set of silver Ritchey wheels with an 8-Speed HG hub. I begged him to separate the wheels and he let me have them, but only because they were going on my GT! What a legend!

SPECS (so far):

1996 GT Avalanche

Frame: 15" (1748g)
Fork RST Delta Comp (1850g)
Hanger: GT (19g)
Headset: Aheadset (110g)
Shifter: microSHIFT Advent Trail Trigger Pro (119g)
Brake Levers: Extralite UltraLevers3 (46g)
Brakes: Deore V-Brake + BBB VeePipe noodles (227g)
Brake Pads: Koolstop Salmon: (124g)
Stem: RaceFace (140g)
Stem Spacers: Ritchey
Handlebar: KORE (168g)
Grips: ODI Ruffian (100g)
Crankset: TruVativ XX 170mm (530g)
BB: GXP (108g)
Chainring: Wolf Tooth 120 BCD 36T (54g)
Chain: Shimano 10-Speed (252g)
Pedals: DMR V12 (415g)
Rear Derailleur: MicroSHIFT Advent X (313g)
Wheelset: Ritchey Rock 440, Coda/Deore LX hubs (790g/1061g)
Quick Release Skewers: Zipp (77g)
Cassette: Shimano Deore 10-Speed 11-36T (365g)
Lockring: ZTTO (6g)
Seatpost: (230g)
Seatpost Clamp: (8g)
Saddle: Tioga MC Lite (198g)
Front Tyre: Kenda Small Bock 8 26" x 2.1" (619g)
Rear Tyre: Schwalbe Billy Bonkers 26" x 2.1" (533g)
Tubes: Maxxis Flyweight (96g/96g)

WEIGHT: 10.75kg

 

[PhillB]

I totally got the joy of riding a bike you always wanted from your posts! Love the photography as well.

I think the red rims look great, but keen to see what the silver Ritcheys look like too!

The early to mid 90's Avalanches were awesome bikes