Bike Check: Wyn Masters' GT Zaskar LT Enduro Race Hardtail
Since moving to the UK Wyn has become a regular at Southern Enduro events. When I found out that he would be at the Queen Elizabeth Country Park round of the Southern Enduro Mash-Up series I knew I had to try and get hold of him to have a look at his bike.
Little did I know that Wyn was throwing together (his words) this absolute gem of a hardtail just for this event. Wyn's Zaskar was built with the intention of the Kiwi getting in as many laps as he could of the event's three stages. It sounds like it was a mission to accomplish, with Wyn racking up seven laps of stage 2 alone, and clocking 1000m of climbing in the process all without the aid of a dropper seat post on his GT Zaskar.
It was a decent race for Wyn as he ended up second in a strong UK Elite men's field, not bad for a quickly thrown together hardtail although I suspect the result has got a lot more to do with the rider than the bike.
Little did I know that Wyn was throwing together (his words) this absolute gem of a hardtail just for this event. Wyn's Zaskar was built with the intention of the Kiwi getting in as many laps as he could of the event's three stages. It sounds like it was a mission to accomplish, with Wyn racking up seven laps of stage 2 alone, and clocking 1000m of climbing in the process all without the aid of a dropper seat post on his GT Zaskar.
It was a decent race for Wyn as he ended up second in a strong UK Elite men's field, not bad for a quickly thrown together hardtail although I suspect the result has got a lot more to do with the rider than the bike.
Wyn Masters // GT Factory Racing
Age: 34
Hometown: New Plymouth, NZ
Height: 183cm
Weight: 88kg
Instagram: @wynmasters
Age: 34
Hometown: New Plymouth, NZ
Height: 183cm
Weight: 88kg
Instagram: @wynmasters
 | It was a fun day out. Stage 3 was the most scary one on the hardtail. |
GT Zaskar LT
Frame: GT Zaskar LT
Fork: Fox 38 150mm travel
Wheels: Stans Notubes ZTR flow MK3 29"
Tires: Front: Michelin Wild Enduro Racing Line Front Rear: Michelin Wild Enduro Racing Line Front
Rear Derailleur: Shimano Deore 12 speed M8100 rear derailleur.
Cassette: Shimano Deore M8100 12 speed cassette 10-51 tooth.
Crankset: Shimano Deore M8100 Crankset with 32 tooth Shimano direct mount chainring.
Pedals: Shimano Saint Spd pedals
Brakes: Shimano Deore M6120 4 pistion
Handlebars: Oneup Carbon Handlebar with 20mm rise
Stem: Raceface Atlas 50mm long stem
Seatpost: Aluminum fixed seat post borrowed from Wyn's local bike shop.
saddle: Fabric Scoop saddle
Frame: GT Zaskar LT
Fork: Fox 38 150mm travel
Wheels: Stans Notubes ZTR flow MK3 29"
Tires: Front: Michelin Wild Enduro Racing Line Front Rear: Michelin Wild Enduro Racing Line Front
Rear Derailleur: Shimano Deore 12 speed M8100 rear derailleur.
Cassette: Shimano Deore M8100 12 speed cassette 10-51 tooth.
Crankset: Shimano Deore M8100 Crankset with 32 tooth Shimano direct mount chainring.
Pedals: Shimano Saint Spd pedals
Brakes: Shimano Deore M6120 4 pistion
Handlebars: Oneup Carbon Handlebar with 20mm rise
Stem: Raceface Atlas 50mm long stem
Seatpost: Aluminum fixed seat post borrowed from Wyn's local bike shop.
saddle: Fabric Scoop saddle
Wyn's Zaskar LT is an alloy frame, featuring GT's triple triangle construction with floating seat-stays, BSA 73mm and a boost 12x148 thru-axle, the headtube angle of the Zaskar is 66 degrees with a seat tube angle of 77 degrees.
Before I get too far into Wyn's bike check, I think it's best to talk about the elephant in the room or in this case the 30-40 mm death spike sat on top of Wyn's stem. So this massive pile of headset spacers is not there to adjust the height of the stem and bars on Wyn's Zaskar, nor are they there for any sadistic reason. There is a simple pragmatic reason for their existence and that is because the Fox 38 fork on Wyn's Zaskar is borrowed from his GT Force Enduro bike. Therefore, as these forks need to return to the bike they came from, cutting the steerer down to match the shorter head tube size of the Zaskar was not possible. Sometimes you just have to adapt, overcome, get out and ride your bike and that's exactly what Wyn has done here.
Sat on top of the death spike is Wyn's Oneup components EDC trail tool fitted to the steerer tube of the Fox 38 fork.
While we are talking about Wyn's cockpit, for handlebars Wyn is running GT Factory Racing's new sponsor OneUp's carbon handle bar with 20mm rise. Interestingly, these handlebars are the only carbon part on Wyn's bike. Wyn's cockpit set up is finished off with the classic ODI Elite lock on grips in black.
Up front on the Zaskar is a Fox Float Factory 38, running 150mm of travel with a Grip2 damper. The offset on these Fox 38s is 44mm. Wyn is running his forks with 112psi in them and 2 Fox Float volume spacers. Normally I would say that this is a lot of of fork for this kind of bike but, given that this bike was just built using the parts that Wyn had to hand, and the fact that a World Cup downhill elite rider is going to be piloting it, I feel like they're right at home here on Wyn's Zaskar. Fitted to the lowers of the fork is a classic Mudhugger fender, a must-have for riding in the UK with the constantly changing weather.
Interestingly Wyn is not riding a dropper on this bike, now again not by choice this bike was a little bit thrown together for this race and Wyn just didn't have one available so he borrowed an aluminium fixed post from his local bike shop and put his custom New Zealand Fabric scoop saddle on top.
For the drivetrain, Wyn has fitted the full Shimano Deore 12 speed groupset with a 10-51 Shimano Deore CS-M6100 12 speed cassette. This is not a cassette Wyn would run normally and he says he would usually prefer something with a little less wide range. The Deore crankset is running a Shimano spiderless 32 tooth chainring.
Wyn is running Shimano's Deore 4 piston BR-M6120 brakes. These are accompanied by 203mm Shimano Ice Tech Rotors again showing that this bike is built to be ridden hard.
For wheels, Wyn is running Stans Notubes ZTR flow MK3 29" wheelset without any inserts inside the Michelin Wild Enduro Racing Line Tyres which are 2.4" wide. Wyn is using 2 "front" tyres on his bike and he says he does this as they have the best rolling speed of all the tyres and that's what he was looking for with this build. Wyn's wheels also have a little personal touch with his Stan's NoTubes Neo hubs bearing his name and the New Zealand flag.
Thanks to Wyn for his time and keeping the bike clean for me so we could shoot it before a nice muddy UK race.
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It is a nice bike though
On an unrelated note I just accidentally found out that DCA only lives a few hours away from me. Scary.
It's scary because he's kind of a nutcase (his account is actually suspended right now).
Also, who would wyn in a race? Wyn on this bike or me on his Force? Hey PB that could make a cool series! Normals on a pro's gucci bike vs the pro on a hardtail.
spoiler alert! It'd still be fun to see.
You'd have to give them a unicycle to make it more fair (although your riding is possibly a lot better than mine).
As someone who doesn't use mud guards....wouldn't that thing clog up pretty regularly in the UK's wet conditions?
Haha, no. I have two Enduro Front Magi-X on my bike at the moment (same as those but lighter casing) and it's the draggiest rear I've ever run. Nice on the downs though; I'll try a Front Gum-X on the rear while lifts are running for sure. Enduro Rear rolls faster but grip is too compromised and the side knobs don't last long on our trails. Rock'R2 is my pick for the rear, R.I.P.
I am super impressed at how the Gum-X is wearing overall but only had a set on for 450 km so I'll see how they last over the next 2-300 km.
I still have my original 96’ zaskar le (limited edition) in anodized (dark) blue. Z1 Bomber fork, Xtr v-brakes, Gt branded Hadley hubs.
Or does he mean fast as in fast cornering?
Simmer down junior.