Video: The Creation of the GT RTS - 'Full Travel' Ep.1

38 Comments

dan23dan23 FL (Apr 30, 2020 at 8:58)

GT, back in the day was the bike brand everyone wanted! Everyone wanted an RTS or an LTS! By the time I saved enough money, I ended up buying an i-Drive.

nouseforaname FL (Apr 30, 2020 at 11:07)

Yeah, sad that everyone who mattered back then obviously dropped out of the brand in 1999. RIP Richard Long.

fartymarty (May 1, 2020 at 0:42)

The LTS was my first bouncy bike and it was great when it wasn't broken (about half the time I had it). And don't mention the bushings.... (great idea in Socal but not in the NZ mud)

biglev (Apr 30, 2020 at 8:24)

I loved the RTS . It was the first full Susser that actually was better than a hard tail.

Eatsdirt (Apr 30, 2020 at 8:40)

Yep. Fond memories of that bike. Original quiver killer.

softsteel (Apr 30, 2020 at 12:01) (Below Threshold)

Being better than a hardtail at this period was probably not that difficult.

funkzander (Apr 30, 2020 at 12:21)

first lts was wet dream material

wyorider (Apr 30, 2020 at 14:30)

Uhhhh....pedaling and braking locked it out. Don't know how this was better.

fartymarty (May 1, 2020 at 0:40)

If only they had put an idler on it.... The design is pretty damn similar to the high pivot bikes we have now.

smartfartbart FL (May 1, 2020 at 4:50)

@softsteel: You wer emaybe not riding at this period, there was a bunch of bad bikes. Having a correct hardtail was fine, having a fully which actually provides a benefit was easy to count.

softsteel (May 1, 2020 at 5:23)

@smartfartbart: in 1992 I was 18yo!!! so I was riding for quite a while... but I didn`t have a MTB, I had a rubbish BMX to do absolutely everything... till I broke it in two. Then I stuck to BMX with a PK Ripper...
Anyway, when I look at the MTB`s they did at this period, I just think that I probably didn`t miss that much, and I`m really glad to enjoy the modern MTB`s we have now.
In 92 I was mainly looking at moto-cross, even if I couldn`t afford any, and when I see the recent MTB`s, I just think that they`re actually so close to moto-cross design and geometry; so it took about 30 years to understand that a good MTB is a lighter copy-paste of a MX without engine, more or less

First MTB`s were just normal bicycles with bigger knobbed tyres ridden by reckless hippies smoking weed / Klunkerz related

Geochemistry (Apr 30, 2020 at 11:49)

I remember when these came out, the shop guys said RTS stood for really terrible suspension. The thing was, it was way better than the URT designs like the Ibis Szabo, which bucked you off when you pointed downhill. The MTB bikes were more into XC smoothing and not gnar riding, which is where the RTS shined. I few weeks ago a saved a perfect RTS example from a neighbor's dumpster, and promptly gave it to a local GT collector. His smile looked like Deadhead on a double dose.

baulz FL (Apr 30, 2020 at 12:39)

When the RTS was released there were not many other options for full suspension. It's competition was the Trek 9500 pogo stick, Cannondale EST, Boulder Defiant, etc. All high pivots, and the GT was the better of the bunch. The URT bikes did not come out until a few years later.

wyorider (Apr 30, 2020 at 14:32)

AMP already had the Horst link. You want to see a bike that showed the future of bike design it was the AMP B5, not this POS.

baulz FL (May 1, 2020 at 4:33)

@peleton7: The Amp B5 was several years later, it came out after GT moved on to the LTS. The Amp B2 would have been available around the same time as the RTS, a good riding bike but flexy and fragile.

nematon785 (Apr 30, 2020 at 10:23)

Phops, instant results in geometry were hampered by trails being much more tame, brake tech way behind, and heavy influence from road and xc biking. In addition talented riders were winning because they overcame those issues. It was the dark ages. When guys started ripping serious downhills and giving feed back in the pits and setting their own stuff up with heavy rearward bias, engineers took notice. A stiff monster t that was several centimeters taller created slack where there was none before and it worked. Until motocross guys started getting involved things just were not apparent. They just did not know long wheelbase, slack head angle wide bars and short stems worked. They were doing their best. Lts linkage was badass in its day. Fsr based on amp was a vast improvement over truly poor designs. Motocross guys took one ride and just said wtf are you trying to ride?!!! Then geo came in. Arguably adjustable seatpost made most of what you see possible now. Mho.

wyorider (Apr 30, 2020 at 14:34)

This bike was garbage. Pedaling and braking forces stiffened the suspension, so you'd stand up and get hammered. The AMP B5 is the bike that showed the way to the future. Low standover, disc brakes and.......ooooh yeah; Horst Leitner had already designed the Horst link.

wearitwell (Apr 30, 2020 at 12:31)

still find it crazy what bikes are at now, from what they were. I always wonder if you take a average biker with the bikes today, and race a pro back then, what the out come would be.

fartymarty (May 1, 2020 at 0:46)

put an idler on an RTS and it isn't that different from the high pivot bikes that are around today. The biggie for me is geo and bigger wheels. I would still rather ride my rigid 29 with decent geo over an RTS.

switchbiker (May 1, 2020 at 16:50)

Furtado and Lopes would still kick our asses ! lol.

PtDiddy (Apr 30, 2020 at 9:32)

Like the classic car races, it would be cool to see classic mountain bike races.

RoadStain (Apr 30, 2020 at 9:47)

Heh, no one would insure it.....soon enough MIPS will be mandatory for getting out of bed if you so much as own a bike.

Ed284 (May 1, 2020 at 8:48)

I had a 97 LTS3 which was my first real mtb. The suspension worked on fire roads. I remember the first time I took it to a ski resort. That was an eye opener. Lol

kittenjuice (Apr 30, 2020 at 11:12)

Man that thing musta had pedal kickback like WHOA.

stubb (Apr 30, 2020 at 17:26)

There goes any chance of grabbing one to restore prices be thru the roof by the weekend

Tmackstab FL (Apr 30, 2020 at 8:23)

Dick Long

bdcain (Apr 30, 2020 at 8:37)

had one worked great for the time!

kazwei FL (Apr 30, 2020 at 12:08)

High Pivot, before it was cool...

poppagee FL (May 1, 2020 at 1:12)

Fond memories of watching Jason McRoy race Mammoth on an RTS....

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phops (Apr 30, 2020 at 9:42)

Im sorry, but if your solution to making a bike more huckable is some fancy linkage, BEFORE you start with things like slacker head angles, shorter stems, wider bars, and longer wheelbases, then I don't think you should be glorified as some engineer. Weight distribution isn't rocket science, even with limitations of 26 wheels and available suspension back then, there was no reason for that bike to have that long of a stem, and that short of a wheelbase, especially when you are trying to make it better for downhills. Not to mention that 4 bar linkages already existed in race car designs, with the sole purpose of having the wheel move up in a vertical way without any lateral motion, which is very applicable to bicycles if you turn the thing 90 degrees.

softsteel (Apr 30, 2020 at 12:04)

Forgot to put coke in your Cheerios this morning?

SintraFreeride (Apr 30, 2020 at 12:43)

They thought that road bike geo was a good base to start from at the time...heck road bikes still think they have good geo for riding fast on the road...

dan23dan23 FL (Apr 30, 2020 at 14:21)

@phops to quote Billy Madison, "At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."

iamamodel (Apr 30, 2020 at 19:57)

@dan23dan23: "Okaaay. A simple 'wrong' woulda done just fine."

fartymarty (May 1, 2020 at 0:50)

The irony is that the original Klunkers did have quite good geometry which then evolved back to road geometry once they started mass manufacturing.

fartymarty (May 1, 2020 at 0:51)

@SintraFreeride: blame the UCI and their stupid rules for that one.

SintraFreeride (May 1, 2020 at 3:24)

@fartymarty: I do constantly before I go to bed each night!

dan23dan23 FL (May 1, 2020 at 6:43)

@iamamodel: I’ve been waiting to quote that movie. And yesterday was that day...