Hey, everyone,
Someone in my town has the aforementioned bike. I haven’t looked at it and these are are the best pictures he has for now. Were these decent bikes? I don’t have anything like this in my collection and love the aesthetic and ATB / gravel style of the bike. I haven’t been able to find a catalog or even many pictures online to confirm the date. I’d appreciate any advice!
by gladhandbart
7 Comments
I can’t tell if it’s a great bike, but it’s at least a good bike. The frame tubing is imprtant and hard to read. It has Suntour power shifter thumb shifters which are top notch. It looks like forged dropouts and the wishbone stem is cool. GT had frames manufactured in Taiwan likely, but they did good work. It looks intact.
GT was a reputable bmx brand back then. I’m not familiar with their mountain bikes from this period. I would expect it be pretty heavy but it’ll ride fine. Cleaned up, it would be a cool rough stuff cruiser. It looks rad. If it fits and is a reasonable price you should go for it.
Wonderful find!
That’s a 1985 Backwoods, the first ATB/MTB frame by GT. You can tell by the canti rear brakes, the 1986 had chainstay-mounted U-brakes. I have an ’86 Timberline, which was one step below with slightly different parts. It looks very original, although I’m not sure about the pedals, seat and seat post. The frame is chromoly Ishiwata tubing. As a GT fan, I love it. It’s a heavy, classic ATB but it makes for a great daily rider and a real ATB.
What do you want to know?
Yes, those are good bikes. It’s got op of the line (for 86) on there. XT brakes, looks like XT hubs, XC Pro shifters. Slingshot copy stem. Can’t see the drive side though
It’s a solid fixerupper for sure. Complete tuneup incoming. It will run for decades.
Killer find. Buy it now.
How did these compare to early ATB / MTBs by Diamondback and others? I was researching to find anything about comparing these bikes from the mid to late 80s without much luck.