GT Press Camp – GT has three all-new hardtail mountain bikes meant for every sort of jumping and hucking, two of which are new model names, the La Bomba (above), the Ruckus DJ and the reintroduction of the Avalanche model with the Avalanche X, a long travel, all mountain hardtail.
The La Bomba is a slopestyle bike built for dual slalom and 4X that can pinch hit on a pump track or at the dirt jump park. Â It comes in Medium and Large sizing in Safety Orange paint, blue trim and house brand purple ano hubs. It’s spec’d with Maxxis HighRoller tires, which have some pretty tall knobs, so DJ’ers and pump track riders will probably wanna swap rubber.
Hit ‘more’ to see close up photos and the other models and specs…
The La Bomba’s spec highlights include: Rockshox Recon 100mm travel fork with 20×110 Maxle, coil spring and chromoly steerer tube; SRAM X7shifters, X9 rear derailleur, Shimano brakes. Headtube is tapered, but comes with reducers and non-tapered fork.
The included FSA headset has a reducer at the bottom to accommodate the non-tapered fork. Many of GT’s 2011 mountain bikes use full length cable housing to keep the gunk out, playing into their “reliability” mantra.
It comes with an e.thirteen chainguide and built-in ISCG05 tabs.
The rear dropouts are replaceable should you case a landing or want to upgrade to a bigger axle format.
Box sections make up the front of the chainstays with a large diameter bridge should make for a pretty tough frame.
The stays offer ample clearance for running really fat tires or letting mud from rainy races slip past without slowing you down. The La Bomba will retail for $1,379.
The Ruckus DJ is keeps it real with steel by using a shiny chromoly frame with a 100mm fork. Where the La Bamba is built more around slopestyle riding, the Ruckus DJ is built for dirt jump. It has shorter chainstays and DJ specific geometry. Oh, and it’s bringin’ back the purple ano big time!
Many of the components are GT’s housebrand, with purple on the bar, headset, spacers, seatpost, rims, chainring and hubs, with white making up all the other none-chrome parts.
Skulls and Roses adorn the frame.
Gussets are on the top of the top tube and bottom of the downtube to beef up the steering section.
The 1.0 version shown here gets a Rockshox fork and Shimano hydraulic brakes. There’s also a bright yellow/green 2.0 with an SR Suntour fork and Tektro hydraulic stoppers. MSRP is $929 for the 2.0, pricing isn’t set for the 1.0 yet.
As with a lot of GT’s new bikes, the customization carries across many of the bits and pieces, creating a well coordinate matchy-matchy look that’s all the rage at the dirt track these days.
Boom. Purple!
When you really wanna get down (the mountain) and dirty, the Avalanche X brings back GT’s rough and tumble hardtail nameplate with a super long travel hardtail that’s built to handle all the mountain you can throw at it. Spec highlights include Rockshox Sektor RL with 15x100mm thru axle and 140mm travel, SRAM X7 shifters with X9 rear derailleur and Shimano SLX front der and 2x crankset with bash guard, GT slimline flat pedals, Shimano hydraulic disc brakes and Maxxis High Roller tires on Alex rims and GT hubs.
The Avalanche X has GT’s trademark triple triangle with hydroformed top- and downtubes, ZeroStack headtube and alloy frame.
Shimano bottom bracket mates into the bottom bracket shell that looks like it should remain plenty stiff thanks to tall chainstays and wide, ovalized downtube.
Dropouts are replaceable to let you repair damage or use different axle sizes. It comes with a standard QR setup.
GT’s Alterra housebrand parts make up the cockpit. MSRP is $1,599.
