GT rescue mission...gotta love kids growing! Finally Finished!
back-cyclin-again!
Posts: 101
So my son said, now he was a bit bigger, he wanted to start riding with his Dad. Great, I thought - good reason for an N+1 search....
Then a lady down the road, who knew I was a keen biker, said her son had grown up and gone off to college and did I want to do something with his old bike?
£20 later and I was the proud owner of this...a GT Avalanche 3.0 from circa 2008.
Scratched to buggery, rear wheel non disc, no rear derailleur, cassette rusted on, chain buggered, both tyres hanging off, no inner tubes....but no major frame damage, the Tora forks with remote lockout worked well, and some decent Tektro cable discs and I could see a winter project for me and a bike for the boy!
Closer inspection.... (check out those inner chainrings 😳)
So I set about stripping it down and giving it what looked like the first clean in about 10 years!
Once I had everything off, cleaned up and inspected, there was a fair amount that I reckon could be saved
The bars and stem are decent quality FSA jobbies, the cranks Suntour, so they’ll do once they’ve been resprayed. As it was missing the rear D and the front shifters not working, I’m thinking about going 1x for him. Pedals ok, seatpost ok once resprayed, same for the brake levers
The frame is in ok nick apart from lots of chips and scratches, so I’m going to rub her down and respray her with bike.spray paint, probably in yellow, and add some new black GT decals, then give it a Matt lacquer. Some yellow decals on the forks will set it off quite nice I reckon.
I’ve got a pair of disc wheels in the shed which should clean up ok, and the other parts I’ll either salvage or I’ll buy decent second hand. Some new grips and cables and she should be good to go.
My aim is to be able to build him a fairly decent bike for not much money and have a bit of fun along the way...never done anything like this before, and certainly never gone from 3x9 to 1x..
I’ll keep this thread updated as I go....wish me luck!
Then a lady down the road, who knew I was a keen biker, said her son had grown up and gone off to college and did I want to do something with his old bike?
£20 later and I was the proud owner of this...a GT Avalanche 3.0 from circa 2008.
Scratched to buggery, rear wheel non disc, no rear derailleur, cassette rusted on, chain buggered, both tyres hanging off, no inner tubes....but no major frame damage, the Tora forks with remote lockout worked well, and some decent Tektro cable discs and I could see a winter project for me and a bike for the boy!
Closer inspection.... (check out those inner chainrings 😳)
So I set about stripping it down and giving it what looked like the first clean in about 10 years!
Once I had everything off, cleaned up and inspected, there was a fair amount that I reckon could be saved
The bars and stem are decent quality FSA jobbies, the cranks Suntour, so they’ll do once they’ve been resprayed. As it was missing the rear D and the front shifters not working, I’m thinking about going 1x for him. Pedals ok, seatpost ok once resprayed, same for the brake levers
The frame is in ok nick apart from lots of chips and scratches, so I’m going to rub her down and respray her with bike.spray paint, probably in yellow, and add some new black GT decals, then give it a Matt lacquer. Some yellow decals on the forks will set it off quite nice I reckon.
I’ve got a pair of disc wheels in the shed which should clean up ok, and the other parts I’ll either salvage or I’ll buy decent second hand. Some new grips and cables and she should be good to go.
My aim is to be able to build him a fairly decent bike for not much money and have a bit of fun along the way...never done anything like this before, and certainly never gone from 3x9 to 1x..
I’ll keep this thread updated as I go....wish me luck!
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Comments
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My current singlespeed cr@p weather bike is based on an avalanche frame that I got second hand for a tenner. It's a great, fun little bike and love it despite it being a collection of junk bolted together.
GT frames seem to be a good balance between dirt cheap and half decent.
Good luck With the project.0 -
In addition to whatever fine work you do on the bike, there will be birthdays and Xmas's to come when you and his other relatives can buy stuff for his bike. Grips, dropper, new tyres, new wheels, new pedals, wider bars, bigger discs, ..........
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Keep us posted. I'd like to see how that develops.
My new HT frame is still 3x9 as I transferred the parts from my old 2006 Stumpjumper. That had new brakes/drivetrain 4 years ago so most bits are actually quite new but it's nice to still be using it on a newer/longer/slacker frame.
Nice to see an older bike getting a chance to rise again!
"Ride, crash, replace"0 -
I would have kept the gearing and bought a new rear derailleur. They are cheap as chips and will give him better range and scope when out riding with you. At least it has trigger shifters and not hideous, impossible Gripshifters that kids bikes usually have and that require the wrist strength of a Kazakhstani arm-wrestler to operate.
Nice project BTW. I've done up many kids' bikes in my time. It's very satisfying when done even when they feel impossibly heavy for that size of bike.Sometimes. Maybe. Possibly.
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Thanks for all the comments - been on holiday for a couple of weeks, but recently things have been appearing in the shed...😉
A nice pair of barely used Mavic X317 disc wheels, complete with rotors, Panaracer tyres and tubes, QRs and a 9 speed wide range Shimano cassette....all for £50! Check out how clean those hubs are!
Also picked up some lovely retro GT grips (£3.99) and some decals (£4.99) off eBay for the frame once it’s sprayed
Then all this lot arrived.....
Everything is pretty much rubbed down and prepped - Can’t wait to get on with it now, just need it to stop raining and blowing a hooley!
Will keep you posted...0 -
Ok, the weather has scuppered most of the day, but I managed to get a few bits set up before the worst hit.
Let me start by saying, I have never sprayed anything before, I’m not “arty” at all, and if my wife could say one thing about me and DIY for example, she would probably say that I don’t prepare enough!
Anyway, I’ve spent some time over the past few weeks, rubbing down and preparing the various bits for spraying..
And then I set up a very basic Spray Booth (I know, that’s a posh term for what is essentially a tarp nailed to the corner of my garden fence and my bike stand with a tea towel and masking tape on it!)
Then I thought I would start with some simple things, like the Stem face plate and cranks....this gave me the opportunity to use both colours and see how they came out.
The cranks came out pretty well...with the previously white Suntour logo now looking kinda “stealthy” 🤣
So then I thought I’d go for the forks....masked them up, and stuck them in my bike stand.
...at that point, it started to pi$$ down again, so I had to pack away and retreat. No idea how the forks came out yet, but as soon as it stops raining, I’ll post some pictures.
In terms of usability, the paint is really simple to use. It has a built in primer, so you can just spray straight on. It comes out a little like powder coat, but that’s not a bad thing as far as I’m concerned. Once all the decals are on etc, I will be lacquering with a Matt lacquer.
Further updates when the rain stops....1 -
Like the update. Keep us posted.
Those Mavic wheels are very similar to what came on my Stumpy. They're in the shed somewhere waiting for an excuse to do a retro build.
Spray paint looks really good!"Ride, crash, replace"0 -
Just managed to nip to the shed in between rain storms to see how the forks etc had dried...pretty pleased overall...
And one of the painted seatpost
Hopefully spraying the frame tomorrow....🙏🏻0 -
Managed to spray the frame today...for a first coat think it looks ok. Need to rub down a couple of spots and spray again, then apply the decals and then Matt lacquer..it’s not going to be Pro Shop finish, but it looks better than it did! Think it’ll need a few coats too as it looks kinda green rather than flou yellow, but that may just be the light in the photos?..
Few new parts arrived today as well....chain (£6.99), Jagwire cable set (£7.19) and a 32t front ring (£7.69)...
It’s his birthday Thursday, don’t think I’m going to get it finished by then, but it won’t be long now...0 -
Have rubbed down and touched up the frame, given it another spray over, it’s looking more yellow now too. Waiting on some new decals before I can finish the frame and lacquer it.
New brake levers ordered and arrived (£7.99 eBay) as realised one of the old ones was knackered
I also realised I need some chainring bolts for the single chainring, so they’re on order too...then I think I have all the parts, so hope to get properly building next week.1 -
First c0ck up of the build....got the forks all sprayed, put the decals on, looking nice, decided to lacquer them....but picked up the black spray paint by mistake! Then tried to recover quickly with some white spirit and a cloth....suffice to say, new decals on order 🙄
Still waiting on the frame decals (coming slowly from Germany) as I can’t built it up until I’ve applied those and lacquered the frame....all good things come to those that wait I suppose...0 -
Thanks for the update. I did chuckle at the spray paint faux par!
That frame is bright!
"Ride, crash, replace"0 -
Looks like a cracking job so far.0
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Decals finally arrived from Germany....lonnngggg postage! 🙄
So, all decals applied and ready to lacquer...
Update once the lacquers on and dry, then I can start rebuilding...0 -
Taking shape....need a new headset though as the bearings in the original one are buggered..
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So after a long struggle with finding a new headset and then a new shifter, I’ve finally finished her...here’s a few pictures.
There are a couple of chips in the paint after the rebuild manhandling and as a review of the spray paint, I’d have to say that the black went on and finished much better than the yellow, which seems to have ended up with a slightly mottled effect.
The lacquer used also left a bit to be desired. It had two negatives - firstly, it didn’t seem to adequately protect the paint (hence the easily chipped frame) and it also annoyingly seemed to “lift” a couple of the decals..not hugely noticeable but annoying once you know they are there.
All in all though pretty pleased with how she’s come out and most importantly, my boy loves it!
Costs were:
Original bike - £20.00
Sandpaper - £4.00
Spray.bike paint and lacquer - £40.00
GT decals - £7.99
GT grips - £3.99
Cables - £4.73
Chain - £7.25
XT Read Derailleur - £9.50
Shimano Shifter - £28.00
Wheels with tyres and rotors - £50.00
Chainring - £7.17
Brake levers - £7.67
Rear disc brake adaptor - £10.00
Chainring bolts - £3.84
New brake pads - £5.98
Total - £210.12
So, has cost me just over £200 all in - original purchase plus all parts and paint etc. Slightly more than expected but not bad for a first go. It definitely gave me the bug to ave another go, and just before lockdown I bought a very knackered old Marin HT for me, so watch this space for Number 2!0 -
Thanks oxoman,
Better sized pictures
From this...
To this...
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It's a work of love!
Your boy will enjoy it all the more riding his unique bike.0
