I had finally gotten quite comfortable with being in skin tight lycra, but getting back out on the trails was always inevitable. I was trawling through Facebook Marketplace (as usual) and a 1996 GT Avalanche popped up for $120.
Looking at the (very bad) listing photos it looked like a small frame. 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 cash and if he accepted I could pick it up right now. He accepted and welp, it was mine!
If this was a car it would have a rats nest in the engine bay. The bike was 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.
Having done a full restoration on my 80’s steel Paino road bike, then eventually turning that into a weight weenie build many years later, the plan was to skip the full resto job on this, leave some patina and go for style points with purple bits.
The day I got it home.
Frame had long lost it’s mirror finish.
The chain was so rusty that it had siezed up, in fact every single part was rusted to hell.
Thank fuck the BB came out! Apart from that, everything came off fairly easily.
After a couple of sessions with wet and dry sandpaper + autosol + rags the frame came up pretty nice.
First test ride with bits from my parts bin.
I was dying to see what the bike felt like to ride so I whacked a whole lot of bits from my parts bin on it and went out for a blat. Turns out the bike was sooooo sketchy. I was legit being bucked off the pedals, but hey! It was SO FUN!
I hunted down some Rock Shox Mag 21’s. They look damn clean, but as expected they don’t work too well. One side leaks air, but the other holds air well so all good (for now).
I’m usually a ‘less is more’ kinda guy, but I wanted to relive my 90’s here, so I had to at least try to get a little colourful.
More and more purple bits kept coming in the mail. These parts were made by Ringle back in the day, but a company called Improved Parts has lovingly recreated them.
A couple of years ago Nick and I were out of breath after 1 lap of Centennial Park, but with good friends of ZEN Gina, Reggie and Eugene we rode 86km’s from Sydney to Wollongong and with the help of donations we raised $1,560 for MS!
Despite the slow rolling tyres, forks bottoming out and my cassette and headset coming loose, it was a great day out! I stopped in to a rest stop half way and a volunteer mechanic put a spacer behind the cassette which only made things worse as my gears were way out of tune for the rest of the ride (YOLO!).
The GT got a LOT of love throughout the day though (this makes me happy), one guy even asked me if he could take a photo of it! Great vibes, great ride!
Nasho Run!
All smiles on Sea Cliff Bridge with Gina.
Classic re-released Smoke and Dart tyres. Had to have them!
I decided to install the King headset cups upside down. Why? Because I can!
Took many months, but I finally managed to source a complete period correct Shimano Deore XT groupset (it’s amazing how well this stuff works today).
Peak 90’s!
I finally found a set of Spin Composites CRP (carbon reinforced plastic) Tri-Spokes, the holy grail! At this stage my 1996 GT Avalanche has reached it’s final form. I’m SO happy, it’s ridiculous.
That’s me on the left (and Eugene on the right). This photo was taken in 1990. I used to ride that teal GT Talera to school.
1990 me dreamed of owning a GT Avalanche. Not a GT Zaskar like everyone else… that was a pro bike that only the filthy rich could afford. I just really wanted an Avalanche and now I finally have one (hey it only took me 35 years!).