While the mountain side of GT was keeping busy with the 25th anniversary of the Zaskar, the pavement/gravel/dirt side of the brand is carrying on where the Grade left off. Building on the success of the Triple Triangle all-road machine, GT is launching a few new build options that will make the bike even more versatile.
Even though the Grade technicaly wasn’t built for cross, the bike is still plenty capable of making its way around a CX course and now there will be a build ideally suited for just that. Called the Grade X, the SRAM Rival X 1x bike is meant to fit in somewhere between a dedicated cross racer and a fast gravel/dirt road bike. Joining it is a women’s Grade as well as new women’s mountain bike line with another version of the Zaskar Comp…
Running the same aluminum frame as the current Grade alloy, the Grade X does receive a carbon fork with a thru axle. Using a tapered 1.25 – 1.125 headset, standard bottom bracket and QR rear end, the frame is built with the Rival 1x group with hydraulic brakes and a reasonable build kit. Better still, the complete bike will sell for just $1,840.
Citing consumer demand, the Grade will also be available in a flatbar version with the aluminum frame and carbon fork with a quick release. Sold in three trim levels, the Expert level build includes a Shimano Claris/Sora 3×9 drivetain and will sell for $1,080, with the Elite priced at $880, and the Comp at $710.
Transitioning to the women’s product line, GT has all new products for the ladies who want to rip on the same bikes – not necessarily super girly options. As GT Pavement Product Manager Cait Dooley put it, their new slogan is “Feel like a woman, ride like a hard ass.” If you’ve ridden with Cait, you know that’s not just talk – she was ripping down some of the toughest trails at Deer Valley with me while she was on a bike with a non-working front brake. Using their connections with the Guru fit lab, GT determined that women don’t really need specific geometry changes to the frame which often hinder the performance of the bike. Instead, they simply need an extended size range with smaller frames available as an option. Also, the bikes need adjusted cockpits with bar and stem sizes appropriate for each frame size and women’s specific saddles.
Because it uses the same frame as the other alloy Grades, the geometry is the same but there are XXXS-XS frame sizes available to fit smaller riders. Available in both a Claris and a Sora GTw Grade build, the two bikes will sell for $990 and $880 respectively.
Along the same lines is the GTw Zaskar Comp. Technically the only new version of the Zaskar in aluminum, the GTw Comp uses the same geometry found in the LE Expert carbon build with 27.5″ wheels. While extremely hard to make out in pictures, each of the women’s GTw builds has a hidden she-devil somewhere on the bike to highlight the fact that GT believes “the devil is in the detials,” when it comes to dialing in a woman’s bike so that it rides just as aggressively as the “men’s” bikes in the line up.
Representing the only GTw Zaskar build in the series, the Comp uses a hydroformed GT Speed Metal frame with post mount disc brake tabs, QR rear axle, and a tapered headtube housing a RockShox 30 Gold TK Solo air fork. Using a mix of Shimano Deore and SLX components and a 2×10 drivetrain, the GTw Zaskar Comp comes in at $1,630.
Finally, the pavement side of things sees quite a few updates with bikes like the new Traffic. Running disc brakes like all bikes in the Pavement range, the Traffic as well as sport hybrids like the Transeo take design cues from the Grade with the Triple Triangle frame and tubing shapes. The Traffic 1.0 is a stylish city cruiser that includes full rack mounts, full coverage fenders, and fully reflective graphics. The 1.0 will sell for $660, while the 2.0 and 3.0 are more affordable at $550 and $470 respectively.
Availability on all of the dirt, pavement, and GTw models will fill in from now until September.
