GT
GT Bicycles
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GT Bicycles is a large American manufacturer of road, mountain, and bmx bicycles. The company was founded in 1979 by Gary Turner, a welding engineer and Richard Long, a bike shop owner. The company merged with Schwinn (Questor Partners) in 1998, but the conglomerate went bankrupt in 2001, and was acquired by Pacific Cycle. Dorel Industries acquired Pacific Cycle in 2004. GT itself acquired Auburn Racing and Dyno Products from Bob Morales plus Robinson Racing from the late Chuck Robinson in the late 1980s. GT is directly administered by Dorel although the Dyno label has been resurrected and is part of Pacific Cycle.
GT mountain bikes are often readily identifiable by the "triple triangle" frame design present in most hard-tail designs. Early BMX frames were also easily identifiable as the top tube seemed to bisect the seat tube and protrude beyond it by approximately an inch-and-a-half towards the rear of the frame. This innovative idea was claimed to reduce the amount of vibration transferred to the seat from the rear wheel. Later versions would actually have the customary "GT" letters stamped on the end of the protruding tube. Teams
As well as the manufacturing of bicycles, GT Bikes also has several teams[1] competing in BMX, mountain and road competitions.
Factory Racing Team & GT Freestyle Team, GT Airshow There are six riders in the BMX Race Team. Riley O'Neail, Luke Madill, Joey Bradford, Eric Rupe and Arielle Martin (Verhaaren) compete in competitions held globally.
GT Freestyle, Santa Ana/Huntington Beach
BMX Freestyle and GT BMX have a well documented history on video and in magazine coverage from publications like Freestylin/Go, BMX Plus, and Ride which all fostered young talent like Spike Jonze, Eddie Roman, and Mark Eaton and helped an entire generation of riders define themselves and their sport.
From the mid-eighties onward Team GT's Pro Freestyle riders were some of the biggest and most recognizable names in BMX
The GT BMX brand and team riders appear in the 'HellTrack' starting lineup scene in the BMX cult-classic film Rad. Famous names from the ranks of Teams past include X-Games Champions Dave Mirra, Jay Miron, Jamie Bestwick, Eddie Fiola, aka King of the Skateparks, Brian Scura 'Rad Dad' inventor of the Gyro, aka SST Oryg, Trevor Meyer, Martin Aparijo 'the Chairman' Josh White, Dino DeLuca, Dave Voelker, Brett Hernandez, Kevin Jones, Mark Eaton, Gary Pollak, Kevin the 'Gute' Gutierrez, Ruben Castillo, Robert Castillo, Jason Geoffery, Goro Tamai, Krys Dauchy, Adam Jung, James Holmes"he is the best on the team".
Along with Team Haro, Team GT helped shape the future of BMX Freestyle and helped pioneer a sport once deemed nothing more than a fad. GT produced some of the first Freestyle specific bikes in their early Performer and World Tour models. Later highly successful models were the Pro Freestyle Tour, which saw the first use of mountain bike style brake mounts for use of Dia-Compe 990, Dyno Pro Compe: one of the most ridden Flatland frames of the early Nineties. GT was also there for the birth of street riding in the late Eighties with the GT Agressor and Dyno Slammer bashgaurd models. GT also designed and sold the first flatland specific bike in the USA: the GT Show.
GT Bikes CURRENT Freestyle Team include the riders: Dave Dillewaard, Rob Wise, Eric Bahlman, Justin Coble, Bobby Kanode, and Calvin Krey. [edit] Mountain Team
Eight riders in the Mountain Team, compete in global competitions including Downhill, 4X , Trials, Freeride and Dirt jumping. The riders in the team are: Marc Beaumont, Hans Rey, Eric Carter, Roger Rinderknecht, Mick Hannah, Kevin Aiello, Andrew Cho, and Tyler McCaul. [edit] Road Team
GT Bikes are the team sponsors and bike supplier for Jelly Belly professional cycling team. Also Lotto pro cycling team (now Omega Pharma-Lotto) had Easton aluminium tubing GT frames. It was before carbon fibers were good enough for an almost complete substitution of aluminium, titanium, steel and even scandium as tubing material in the professional peloton. [edit] Co – Factory Team
The Co – Factory Team was founded in 2008.[2] The team is composed of riders from across the US riding for local dealer teams that represent GT Bicycles. [edit] Notable past Factory team members
Gary Ellis, Greg Hill, Tommy Brackens, Eddie Livingston, Danny Nelson, Eddie FiolaKevin Hull, X-Games Champions Jay Miron, Jamie Bestwick, Dave Mirra, Brian Scura 'Rad Dad' inventor of the Gyro, aka SST Oyrg, Trevor Meyer, Martin Aparijo 'the Chairman' Josh White, Dino DeLuca, Dave Voelker, Brett Hernandez, Kevin Jones, Mark Eaton, Gary Pollak, Kevin Gutierrez, Ruben Castillo, Robert Castillo, Jason Geoffery, Goro Tamai, Krys Dauchy, Adam Jung and James Holmes [edit] Models
BMX
Interceptor
Mach One
Pro Series
Pro Series (Team Model)
Speed Series
GT Zone ('04-'10)
Freestyle
Vertigo Performer Pro Performer Pro Freestyle Tour (older models were called the Pro World Tour) Pro Freestyle Tour (Team Model)
Road and Mountain
Psyclone (hard tail, hand made steel frame from GT Tech Shop, True Temper and Reynolds 853) CHUCKER(aluminium dirt jumper) RAVE RAGE Palomar Rebound (Steel, and then later aluminum, hardtail) Tequesta (Steel hardtail) Tempest Zaskar (Aluminum and recently Carbon fibre, hardtail) Xizang (Hand polished Titanium hardtail) Lightning (Titanium hardtail) Avalanche (All mountain hardtails) Pantera (All mountain hardtails) Karakoram (Steel Hardtail) Bravado (Tange Prestige Steel Hardtail -higher spec compared to Karakoram) Borrego (Steel Hardtail) Psyclone (Fillet Brazed Steel Hardtail) Richter 8 (Steel Hardtail) RTS (Full suspension) LTS (Full Suspension) STS (Carbonbikes) Sensor Force Sanction Lobo DH, DHi (Downhill bikes) i-drive Series iT-1 (Downhill/freeride Dual Suspension) Ruckus (freeride Hardtails and Duallys also Dirtbikes) Chucker (freeride/Dirt jump Hardtail) Outpost (Mountain Hardtail) Slipstream (Comfort) Timberline/Nomad (Comfort) Course (Very Rare Road, Reynolds 853) Aggressor (polished aluminum hardtail) Marathon Talera (Mountain Hardtail) ZR series (road bikes with a numerical designation, the lowest being the best spec'd bike (i.e., a ZR 1.0 was a better quality bike than a ZR 4.0). ZRX (Cyclocross) Vengeance Edge (Road Series) Lightning Fury (Unique full carbon downhill frame)
GT also manufactured a series of highly regarded Track bikes
GTB (Generic Track Bike) GT Pulse Jamie Skinner
James holmes Signiture alex frame
