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Here is an article on a road test carried out on the GT Carbon Sport from the Bicycling Australia magazine. It was written by Simon Hayes.

 GT Carbon Sport

My first ever serious bike was a GT. It was a mountainbike called a Talera and I thought it was the duck’s guts. No suspension, low end Shimano but sporting that famous GT ‘triple triangle’ I rode it everywhere until somebody stole it. I still remember how good that bike really was. Just a simple cromoly hardtail but I credit it for getting me started in proper cycling. So with this in mind, you can see why I would have been keen to have a GT road bike on test. GT began making bikes in the Garage of Gary Turner (Hence the GT) in 1979. Gary, a former drag racer and engineer made mainly BMX bikes before moving to mountain bikes in 1984. The bread and butter for GT has always been in these two disciplines but they entered the  rofessional peloton with team Lotto in 2000. They currently sponsor the Jelly Belly team in the United States.

When the Carbon Sport arrived and I took it out of the box I was a little  nsettled. This bike costs three and a half thousand dollars. How was I going to write a review on a  carbon fibre 105 spec’d bike that costs that much? I mean they’re very different  achines, but it's possible to buy a bike with the  very same groupset and wheels for $1995, just on half the price. Another bike with Ultegra and Shimano 550 wheels is only $2599. So where is the value?  Now I know what you’re  to say. You’re going to say that these bikes are very different animals to the GT and that if I compared it to say, the Giant TCR Advance 2, then I’d get a similar price range. Well yes that’s all true, but if you were Joe Bloggs looking at bikes on the net, then you might not be able to tell the difference. However, all the above became moot when I threw a leg over the GT and started riding.

This is one fast bike. And when I say fast, I mean super fast. The key is in the frame. This is a very well made monocoque carbon fibre frame. It is stiff, stiff, stiff. So where does all this stiffness come from? Firstly, the Carbon Sport utilises a sealed bearing 1 1/8 x 1 1/2 headset. These headsets are becoming more and more common and with the control they provide I predict we’ll be seeing more of them in 2010. The other thing here is the bottom bracket area which is incredibly beefy. It uses a ‘low Q factor press in the bottom bracket. This allows the frame to be wrapped around the bottom bracket shell for extra strength. Bonding of this sort is something you find on very high end frames such as the Avanti Quantum Team and it is very, very effective. Looking at the rest of the frame we can see triangular shaped, oversized down tube with matching top tube. The  seat stays are slightly curved while the chain stays are round and chunky. The carbon dropouts keep the weight down while the aero shaped seat tube and matching carbon seatpost give the bike something of an integrated seatpost look. Brake and gear cables pass through the head tube in a very neat and tidy fashion. All componentry is Shimano 105 so we know it  orks. This black version is, in my opinion very tasteful and being a traditional kind of guy I prefer its looks to that of the current Dura-Ace. The compact crank fans will be happy with the 50/34  hainrings. The Pro series bar and stem from Ritchey is at the middle of their range and does the job nicely. You see a fair bit of Ritchey in this way and it surprises me that more bike  ompanies don’t spec the Stream series of Ritchey bars. Next up is a Fizik Arione saddle in black and white to match the frame and a pair of Mavic Aksium wheels. These wheels provide a good example of the trickle down effect you find with large manufacturers. Sitting fairly low in the Mavic stable, the Aksiums have a lot of features that are found on their Ksyrium cousins.  Bladed straight pull spokes are said to be stronger than standard and QRM bearings keep them rolling nicely. These wheels did their job fine. That said, if you had a pair of really good wheels to put on this bike it would
become a weapon.

The Ride

By now you’ve probably got the idea that I enjoyed riding this bike. It was fast and it was responsive. Every single ounce of pressure on the pedals was transmitted straight to the drive train. When I was climbing on the GT, I was able to really get out of the saddle and put down the power and when I did so, it just leapt forward. There was no lag, no softness, no nothing except pure stiffness. As you’d expect, sprinting and pushing the bike hard along the flat produced the same result. I ride a pretty good bike. A few years ago my model of bike was used in the Tour de France so it isn’t a slouch. But when I was riding the Carbon Sport, I really thought seriously for a while about how much I would get for mine and whether it would cover the cost of getting the GT. When it came to going downhill, the steering was precise, as you’d expect with this headset. The wide bladed fork kept the front wheel tracking and the Vittoria tyres had plenty of grip but at 290g each are too heavy  for this bike in my opinion. There are plenty of tyre options out there and if you’re going to spec a cheap one on your brand of bikes you could at least make it a slick instead of a treaded tyre. So I think you’ve got the gist by now, this is one hell of a good bike. It may look overpriced at first glance, but once you hop on it,  you’ll see why

Specifications

Frame: GT Full Carbon Monocoque semi-compact
Fork: GT Carbon with carbon dropouts
Head Set: TH sealed Bearing
Stem: Ritchey Logic Pro
Handlebars: Ritchey Logic Pro
Saddle: Fizik Arione with magnesium rails
Seat Post: GT Carbon
Shift Levers: Shimano 105 Dual Pivot
Brakes: Shimano 105 Dual Pivot
Front Derailleur: Shimano 105
Rear Derailleur: Shimano 105 10 Speed
Cassette: Shimano CS-560012-25T 10Speed
Chain: Shimano CN-5600
Crank: Shimano 105 34/50
Bottom Bracket: Shimano sealed press in
Wheels: Mavic Aksium
Tyres: Vittoria Zaffiro 700x23c
Pedals: Not included

Weight: 8.2 kg without pedals
 

Summing Up

Quality:
A very well built frame in colours that won’t age too quickly. Plenty of nice touches including the oversize headset, bottom bracket area and sensible cable routing. Performance In a word,  superb. An upgrade of wheels and tyres would make this bike a weapon.

Value for Money:

There’s no doubt there are cheaper bikes out there. If you don’t do any racing and don’t spend too much time in the hills, then you may be better served to look elsewhere. If you do happen to do any of the above activities, then the GT will pay back the slightly extra dollars you spent on it.

Overall:
I was very pleased with this bike and would be happy to own it. It is fast, has a respectable weight that can still be improved and looks good. It costs a tad more than you might expect with  105 gearing but it is a good bike nonetheless.

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	GT Carbon Sport Road Bike Review Here is an article on a road test carried out on the GT Carbon Sport from the Bicycling Australia magazine. It was written by Simon Hayes. GT Carbon Sport.   My first ever serious bike was a GT. It was a m… In store only ring 03 9572 3000	$0.00	More