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GT Distortion

bendik.ph

Chimp
Oct 6, 2011
21
0
how much sag did you guys set up your fox rp23 in the distortion? i set mine on 10mm at propedal 1 and 9mm on propedal 3. should i add more air or reduce?
 

climbingbubba

Monkey
May 24, 2007
354
0
I am running right around 30% sag. It sounds like a lot but the big is fairly progressive so it resists bottoming out really well. The other guys from the shop are running the same amount as well.
I am too tired to do the math on how many mm's it is though ha ha
 

ZoRo

Turbo Monkey
Sep 28, 2004
1,224
11
MTL
Droppingmachine, what's the trick for sneaking a frame or two in Canada? Can we ever have those as a frame here or it's complete only?
 

dropmachine

Turbo Monkey
Sep 7, 2001
2,922
10
Your face.
I dunno! I have been scouring ebay for them, and pinkbike, and nothing!

Best thing to do is maybe find one and see if the shop will strip it down.

Paging CB... :D
 

climbingbubba

Monkey
May 24, 2007
354
0
They are way hard to get and the two the local shop got for me and him took a lot of effort. They could probably track down another one but it would probably require down payment and such. Just to show that someone was serious and ready to buy. Shipping it to canada would be a bit of a pain but throwing enough money at something always creates opportunities ha ha
 

bendik.ph

Chimp
Oct 6, 2011
21
0
I am running right around 30% sag. It sounds like a lot but the big is fairly progressive so it resists bottoming out really well. The other guys from the shop are running the same amount as well.
I am too tired to do the math on how many mm's it is though ha ha
i have been trying different air pressures on the fox rp23 which came with the distortion, and i found out what works for me is to put the equivalent of my weight in pounds. i measured the sag and it is about 30% at propedal 3.
 

climbingbubba

Monkey
May 24, 2007
354
0
I didn't run any propedal at all. The bike climbs like a mountain goat as is. I was actually shocked about how well it accelerates while standing and mashing on the pedals.

How do you like the bike so far?
 

yuroshek

Turbo Monkey
Jun 26, 2007
2,438
0
Arizona!
I didn't run any propedal at all. The bike climbs like a mountain goat as is. I was actually shocked about how well it accelerates while standing and mashing on the pedals.
This bike does climb very well, I have a single 36t chainring up front and do 1,000'+ climbs on it no problem.
 

bendik.ph

Chimp
Oct 6, 2011
21
0
when i want to pedal standing i just lock my sektor. it climbs well. there is just one thing i need to change and that is my 175mm crank. they hit rocks quite often.
 

dropmachine

Turbo Monkey
Sep 7, 2001
2,922
10
Your face.
Won a Distortion 3 on ebay and the bastard tried to sub in some XC bike instead. PISSED.

Now I just found out that GT has signed on with Forzani in Canada, which is like Ferrari signing on with Ringling Brothers clowns for representation. Sigh.

I will get one of these goddam bikes somehow...
 

yuroshek

Turbo Monkey
Jun 26, 2007
2,438
0
Arizona!
So does anyone have anything they don't or service related issues that they have had. I've read a lot of posts about the gt sanction and force having a lot of frame creaking.
The creaking comes from dirty pivots, the I-Drive system is so easy to pull apart and rebuild. When it creaks pull it apart and just clean it all, doesnt take long and the bearings are easy to replace. They are your normal sealed 45* headset bearings. Keep it clean and your bike will be nice and quiet, Ive only took mine apart once in the past 10 months which is not bad considering how many miles I have on it.

Dennis
 

Routier07

Monkey
Mar 14, 2009
259
0
Now I just found out that GT has signed on with Forzani in Canada, which is like Ferrari signing on with Ringling Brothers clowns for representation. Sigh.
Great. I guess that's to be expected when a big marketing firm like Dorel owns a bike brand. I'm shocked they haven't tried to do the same with Cannondale in Canada yet...

So that means GT will be available in Source for Sports, Sportcheks...
 

dropmachine

Turbo Monkey
Sep 7, 2001
2,922
10
Your face.
Who knows. All i know is they are HORRIBLE. We did a deal with them one year with Iron Horse (exclusive in Canada to SportChek) and they didn't understand why I was freaking out when I went into the biggest store and they put all the manitou forks on BACKWARDS. I asked random sales people the easiest questions I could, and they all failed miserably.

I just guarantees that you'll pretty much only see low-lowmid price bikes, and anything more than that was bought by cool dad who wants to go MOUNTAIN BICYCLING cause he saw it on TV.

Its a shame, cause I think this is really a swing year for GT. Their lineup is awesome.


Oh for eBay, I won the auction, told the guy I was transferring funds from my bank account to paypal. Told him it would take afew days, as I am in Canada. Told him this 1 HOUR after the auction ended. 48 hours later he told me I took to long to pay, he sold the bike in store (after telling me it was in his warehouse and not providing pics) and then tried to sub in a Sensor 3.

Stand up dood all around.


I WILL get one of those goddam bikes somehow.
 

Rhubarb

Monkey
Jan 11, 2009
462
238
Wish I could get one of these. South Africa is not bringing them in. Sounds like the perfect small bike. We only getting Sensors?????
 

climbingbubba

Monkey
May 24, 2007
354
0
Still in love with mine. I keep trying to think of other bikes that could be used similarly but cant come up with any. Having a slack slopestyle bike mixed with an XC bike is just too fun.
 

Leppah

Turbo Monkey
Mar 12, 2008
2,294
3
Utar
I am to also very pleased to see gt back in the game.

Dhi still one of my favs bikes to date.

I'm with you. I had an old GT Dhi with the rotating I-drive and loved it. THen i had a newer style 5" travel GT. NOw i'm back on a 2006 DHI. I've always been happy with those bikes.
 

climbingbubba

Monkey
May 24, 2007
354
0
What's some of the longest rides you guys took one on? I'm gonna downsize my stable and replace two of the bikes with a distortion in large size. Well that is pending if you all concur that it can be an all day pedal machine and Dh shredder. "brown pow"
It pedals better then any bike I have owned but I have never owned a full blown XC bike. I have however had a Blur lt2 and Nomad and this pedals a lot better. It sprints like a hardtail and climbs some pretty techy stuff well. The only thing that would hinder it in the XC department is weight. Mine came in at 31.5 lbs but thats with a lowered lyrik, 750-850 gram tires, 1800 gram wheelset, height adjust seatpost, and various other stronger parts. you could easily get it in the 29lb range with a conservative build.

but....

if you go really light for XC it would make it worse for DH. Also, I would not call it a DH shredder when it comes to nasty, rocky, rooty trails. It could hold its own on flowy, pedally DH trails but with the minimal travel, when the trail gets nasty it takes a fair bit of energy to keep in control. Its plenty stable with it being so slack but it is a fairly harsh ride through the rocks. I have taken it down some nasty trails that require an XC approach but when it comes to resorts or shuttles I would grab my DH bike everytime.

I think its the perfect DHers XC/AM/FR bike. It pretty much covers everything the DH bike doesn't as long as your legs can handle a fair bit more abuse when comparing it to a 6" travel AM bike.

Again though, like I mentioned in pretty much all of my posts, I can't remember grinning so much during rides as I do on this bike and I have owned a ton of bikes over the last 5 years.
 

yuroshek

Turbo Monkey
Jun 26, 2007
2,438
0
Arizona!
Just did a 15 mile ride yesterday with 2.5s front and rear, 7 miles uphill with a 36t up front :) climbs well, although a bit tough at times with a low BB. Descending like a maniac makes up for it!
 

StyledAirtime

Monkey
May 24, 2006
245
1
NewZealand
this is my 2011 Distortion one.
got a sweet deal ,same price as the 2012 2.0 and a much sweeter spec I reckon.

1x10 with an mrp mini g2sl
to be honest im not a fan of the fork and that will get changed out eventually.

gt.jpg
 

climbingbubba

Monkey
May 24, 2007
354
0
Looks awesome. Us that the medium? How tall are you? And if you have the tools. What does it weigh and how high does the BB measure? There seems to be conflicting info out there in that measurement.
The bb height is lower then gt said. Mine was around 13" even. I haven't had any issues clipping pedals on even the rockiest of trails. You don't get pedal bob at all and with such little travel and sag your BB height is changing that much as you are riding so even though its 13" high it doesn't drop a whole lot like other long travel bikes would.

I do like low BB heights though. My DH bike has 8.3" travel and a 13.5" bb height :)
 

climbingbubba

Monkey
May 24, 2007
354
0
If you do get one I would highly recommend upgrading to the RP23 kashima. It is a pretty awesome upgrade and makes the travel feel bottomless (well as much as 4.5" can feel) and smooth.
 

StyledAirtime

Monkey
May 24, 2006
245
1
NewZealand
I don't have any scales so not sure what it weighs and haven't measured the bb.
I have it with the stock minions and it's pretty damn light. I can climb everything so far with the 1x10 setup .
Feels super nimble. Still playing with air pressures . Just gone from a fairly stiff setup to a soft one to see how it goes.
I am thinking of some 44 ti marzos for it.
And yes it's a medium and I'm 5 11
 

climbingbubba

Monkey
May 24, 2007
354
0
I need to take my distortion down to the shop and get a pic with all three of our distortions all together... Just to rub it in a little for dropmachine.com... ha ha. He can't seem to find one and we have 3 ha ha.

Sadly no videos of mine but i'll see if I can dig up some pics from my initial ride.
 

climbingbubba

Monkey
May 24, 2007
354
0
Ok, found them. Not the best quality or my best riding but they will do. This was my first day on the bike trying it out at the local dirt jumps

First, the warm up jump


Next, a blurry picture of a drop


And a step up shot. Its kind of hard to tell where I took off from. The lip is in the sun, not what looks like a smaller lip in the shadows (used to be an easier exit out of the gully but hasn't been maintained so its unrideable)
 

herbman

Monkey
Feb 16, 2011
104
8
North West Tasmania
Iwas messaging him about this bike on a different thread. It's is a
Gt Force frame with a modified rear shock. It lowers the rear to about 130 travel and lowers the BB a little bit and also slacks out the HA. Then he took the force dropouts off and replaced them with sanction dropouts. Looks to be a fun ride
give the man a banana ;)

took a Distortion out on demo and loved the ride but there were a few things i wan't happy with as i was after something a bit more xc as i also have a sanction. and then a force frame and shock came along at a great price. didn't like the stock head angle and short shocking it seemed to be a easy way to get the HA i wanted.