I have a 160mm Fox 36 on my spitfire (127mm rear) and it feels just fine.
Esp with the slack HT like these bikes both have.
GT Distortion
- Thread starter yuroshek
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- old gt > new gt
Esp with the slack HT like these bikes both have.
the question remains...what logo does he wear on his socks? White stripe or not?
This bike must be T1TS for riding A-Line
I hope all of your balls turn into cubes.
Somehow i will find one....
Somehow i will find one....
Yea good eye, some small changes to the set up since Ive been out here in AZ.
Fox 36 set at 140mm
Answer Pro Taper 720 1" rise bars.
Maxxis Minion 2.5 front
Maxxis High roller 2.5 rear
Both are set up tubeless.
Rockshox Reverb post
Formula The One brakes
Shimano PD-M530 pedals (same style as the XT or XTR and are working awesome!)
Complete right now I believe its about 32lbs
someone please explain the magic behind this bike, i mean it looks great and im sure it rides great but been a while since there has been a thread like this about a big box trail bike...
not knocking you guys that are owners, just curious why everyone is nuts about it...
not knocking you guys that are owners, just curious why everyone is nuts about it...
Its a medium. They're always mediums. Have only seen one large for sale, which I bought, and found out it was an ebay scam.
Manhatten, the thing about that bike is the number suggest it will essentially be what mountain biking is really all about. It won't be good at anything in particular, but it will just be a blast to ride everywhere. Its a bike that seems based on having fun, instead of fitting into some ridiculous predefined slot the industry says you have to adhere to. I think with an adjustable fork, that little bastard bike really could go anywhere and be fun.
Now somebody give me one.
Man, it sucks you can't find a large anywhere. The shop guys I have been referring people to have been trying hard to track frames down but haven't been able to. They got lucky with ours.
I also haven't seen any larges really around. Mine is one of the few I have seen that wasn't posted by GT themselves. Must not have made too many. I have been keeping an eye out for you guys though. Too bad that blue one for sale on pinkbike isn't a large. I love that color. I am not a huge fan of my grey/purple color scheme but the bike is so fun I don't care. A black or Blue one would be ideal. My friends white/blue one is sick as well though.
I also haven't seen any larges really around. Mine is one of the few I have seen that wasn't posted by GT themselves. Must not have made too many. I have been keeping an eye out for you guys though. Too bad that blue one for sale on pinkbike isn't a large. I love that color. I am not a huge fan of my grey/purple color scheme but the bike is so fun I don't care. A black or Blue one would be ideal. My friends white/blue one is sick as well though.
Ok fair I hear you 100% just built a tool for exactly that job as well...with 1 degree steeper head angle
to me just sounds like a lot of searching for an almost unavailable frame that doesnt have anything unique going on...there is tons of stuff out there man.
out of curiosity, what bike did you build up that can handle the same situations as the Distortion? I had looked for a while and didn't find anything close except 4x/SS bikes but those won't work for taller people due to the short seat tube.Ok fair I hear you 100% just built a tool for exactly that job as well...with 1 degree steeper head angle
Transition Bandit – I know it doesn’t fit square into this category but it kind of does when you look at it. This head angle stuff has got a bit crazy anything much slacker than 67 really kills your climbing and tight woods ability. If you want it slacker than stock, angleset. I am coming off more of AM bikes in the past, and don’t miss them thus far. This bike is going with me to the Northern Territories, Oregon-Whist/Vanc, moab/CO this year along with daily riding. Dropper post on the way and have a 36 dropped to 150mm for certain terrain. It’s a brilliant bike so far.
looks pretty nice. I had a spitfire which is a pretty similar bike to the bandit. fun bikes for sure. I needed a bike that can be used as a FR bike as well though. I wanted a bike that could XC and hit the local DJ's without swapping anything. Thats where I felt my Blur lt2 and spitfire fell short. Not sure how much abuse the bandit is supposed to take though, maybe it could work fine for big hits.
As for the HA. I was having problems switching between a 67 degree AM bike and a 63 degree DH bike. I personally don't like riding anything with steeper than 66 degree HA but I think its just what I have gotten used to and my local terrain (utah)
Oh, and I love transition bikes. between me and my wife we have owned a dirtbag, bottlerocket, blindside, 2 doubles, syren, and trans am. I would love to try a tr250 as well, maybe in the future.
As for the HA. I was having problems switching between a 67 degree AM bike and a 63 degree DH bike. I personally don't like riding anything with steeper than 66 degree HA but I think its just what I have gotten used to and my local terrain (utah)
Oh, and I love transition bikes. between me and my wife we have owned a dirtbag, bottlerocket, blindside, 2 doubles, syren, and trans am. I would love to try a tr250 as well, maybe in the future.
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Makes sense for sure, my daily riding around here does not warrant a 66 degree head angle so this was the proper choice. I am sure i'll get myself into trouble over the season on this bike in various spots but it works great for 80% of my xc/trail riding. Transition doesnt advertise it but if you are reasonably smooth it can take some larger moves (they are 142mm now as well).
The 250 is actually my dh bike, so pm me if you want any info on that.
The GT is cool for sure, was just asking the question of why this particular bike is getting so much chatter on the board. Good to see them making great stuff again.
Yeah man, if your ever up in SLC utah let me know, we could swap rides for a bit (either DH or trail bikes).
I think its so popular because its a pretty unique bike. Its low, slack, stiff, and lively but you can still pedal it to the top. It climbs like an XC bike but you can hit large jumps (tyler mccaul used it in crankworxs and other SS competitions).
People interested in the Distortion are usualy the same people looking for the same thing in a bike due to a similar riding trait. There are difinatley more trail bikes for DHers now with better geo but there is a small market of riders who want there trail bike to still be strong enough to handle drops and jumps, pedal well, climb ok but are generaly prepared to sacrifice a little of everything to have something of everything. Where I see alot of these bikes comming from is the slopestyle line up - Intense SS 1, Wildcard, Distortion etc. The one area that alot of trail bikes miss the requirment is a shorter seat toob and shorter chain stays. There are 125mm-140mm travel bikes that could fit the bill but that dam 19mm seat post on a large is not that much fun. The other end of the spectrum is seat toobs comming in at 15mm for a large which is crap(thinking Banshee Rampant). I think we have all tried to just have 1 bike and know its really difficult. It is however possible to have 1 bike that can be riden most of the time. The closest 1 bike I have ridden is my Delerium. It does well on everything but reall DJ stuff. I can still send it on the bigger 4x jumps but trying to carry speed through the triples etc is difficult. I usually hit the 4x/DJ track to work on my jumping to build confidence for the trails. So a full DJ bike is not really neccessary. My Wildcard is a blast on the track but I cant run it on the trails since its too small. If I could run my Delirium with a 180mm fork and burly wheels then have something like a Distortion for the track and trails my bases would be perfectly covered. I have looked around and to pick up a short travel trail bike which will have the strength, correct chainstay length and acceptable seat toob length is not very easy. The days of head angle issues are long gone with angle sets and with trail bike BBs quite low as standard getting the required Geo is not the challenge it used to be.
If you are looking for a trail bike that can climb well, sprint like a rocket, blast down the hills and still hit the jumps you will be hard pressed. I am seriously looking for shorter travel trail ripper to move more into Enduro ridding and I aint having much luck.
If you are looking for a trail bike that can climb well, sprint like a rocket, blast down the hills and still hit the jumps you will be hard pressed. I am seriously looking for shorter travel trail ripper to move more into Enduro ridding and I aint having much luck.
Cool man I usually get out there a couple times a year to visit a bud near cottonwood...But we usually jump right in the car and head out towards moab/fruita.
Perfect frame, ruined by rubbish parts.
Sigh. SEARCH CONTINUES>.....
Sigh. SEARCH CONTINUES>.....
I did the same thing with mine. It was tough, but I have a much nicer build because of it. Then I moved to Korea for a year and didn't bring it with me. I'm such a jackass.
Built it up last night, no rides on it yet.
I'll be selling and swapping the fork, shock, front der and shifter, rear shifter, crank set, and probably the bars. Not sure about the wheels yet.
Final build will probably be Fox Talas or Float RLC 32 or 36 (lowered), Float RP23, XT cranks 1x10, x.9 rear shifter. Stan's Flows if I replace the wheels.
I'll be selling and swapping the fork, shock, front der and shifter, rear shifter, crank set, and probably the bars. Not sure about the wheels yet.
Final build will probably be Fox Talas or Float RLC 32 or 36 (lowered), Float RP23, XT cranks 1x10, x.9 rear shifter. Stan's Flows if I replace the wheels.
wow that is sick man!! I am so jealous of the black ones and even the new blue ones. I think the only way I would ever replace my distortion would be to get a different color then the grey/purple.
I'll be getting a good weekend of desert riding in next weekend on the distortion. Can't wait. I have my DH bike all built up with new parts and I still would rather ride my distortion this weekend. Sad but the distortion is just too fun.
I'll be getting a good weekend of desert riding in next weekend on the distortion. Can't wait. I have my DH bike all built up with new parts and I still would rather ride my distortion this weekend. Sad but the distortion is just too fun.
I hate you all.
Get the float 36 for sure. I have owned a revelation 150mm on another bike and didn't like it. It may have performed fine but looking down and seeing two little pencil legs (4 if you count my own ha ha) didn't inspire any confidence.
All 3 of the the people I ride with that have Distortions and another local guy who has one all have either lyrik's or float's. We are all DH guys. The whole bike is stiff feeling so do it a favor and compliment it with a rad fork.
I am in the process of upgrading my bike too. I want a KS LEV post eventually, easton havoc carbon bars, and I have a white lg1+ guide coming in tomorrow. I keep wanting to go tubeless too but am always scarred to on single ply tires but love all the benefits of tubeless.
Here is one of my friends distortions he just built up. He somehow got a white one which everyone else is jealous of. Him and his cousin own the bike shop that got mine as well. No luck finding other frames for you guys yet but the 2012's are in stock complete and you could always swap out parts and upgrade down the road.
Just got my Distortion 4weeks ago and its been the funnest full suspension I have ever ridden. I got the 2012 3.0. Doing upgrades as I go a week after getting it I put on Sun Ringle Charger Pros tubeless with Tioga Psycho Genius tires. Also did short cage x9 10spd xg1080 11-36 cassette and ti nitrate 10xspd kmc chain. Next will be X Fusion fork, E13 xc single cranks with 32 ring and lg1+. Last will be either a lev or new crankbrothers post. Heres a pic of it as of wheels and 10spd upgrade took over 2lbs off the stock weigth of 34.
http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/7745427/
http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/7745427/
Screw you guys, Im goin home.
Holy hell this bike rules. Rode it at our local DH spot. Was able to pedal it up the fire road then goof around on some single track at the top, then pointed it down the main DH line. I hit everything I hit on the DH bike fine for the most part, albeit the run isn't the most technical or gnarly DH run on the hill. The only weakness' I've noticed so far are braking power (Formula RX 180mm) and "hauling a$$" traction (Minion DHF 2.35 60a) but that's comparing to my DH bike on the DH track I know like the back of my hand. It climbs great with a 1x10 setup, feels super stiff, and handles the rough stuff like you'd expect an AM bike to handle it. The geo is spot on for its intended purpose. I dropped the fork to 120mm to climb which helps a lot though. I'm impressed.
As it sits now it's 34lbs... it will loose some weight when I take the Profiles cranks off for some Descendants and replace the generic boat anchor pedals with some CB Acids. Stans wheels might be in the near future depending on how the current wheels hold up.
As it sits now it's 34lbs... it will loose some weight when I take the Profiles cranks off for some Descendants and replace the generic boat anchor pedals with some CB Acids. Stans wheels might be in the near future depending on how the current wheels hold up.
I am going to run the velvet 140.
I took mine for a weekend of riding down in the desert and had a blast. Did some XC on some of the days and then some NASTY DH on one of the last days. This bike handled everything great. The DH was steep, rocky and long but the slack geo on the distortion handled it great. I wasn't going DH fast but it is the first time I have ever cleared the whole run top to bottom without having to put a foot down or walk a section. (grafton mesa in virgin utah if any of you know it). Also hit some 5-8 foot drops that weekend with ease. This bike can handle anything that you can dish out.