Yet Another GT

I am not sure why but GTs seem to love me. Let me explain. This past weekend a bike came up on Craigslist. The listing said: "Timber Line" 26" wheels, $15. Was it a one of those Walmart junkers? I don't remember there being a Roadmaster Timber Line. Pacific Timber Line... hummm, sounds possible. For the fun of it I emailed the owner asking about it.

The email came back with a photo and it appeared to be a GT with a suspension fork. Knowing the brand of fork would tell me a lot. His next email said it was a Rock Shox fork and yes, it was $15 not $150. He said the rear brakes don't work. The gears don't work. The back tire is flat. But the "shocks are good." I figured for $15 I could sell the fork, throw away everything else, and not lose money.

Arriving at the owner's house the bike was in their tiny living room. The place reeked of cigarette smoke. The flip-flop wearing wife explained that they were going to use the cash to buy groceries. So I slipped her a $20 bill and left.

Once home I was able to breathe and assess. The bike is a '94 GT Timberline FS - a bike just above their botttom-of-the-range back then. Most issues appear to be minor. A healthy dose of chain lube in the brake cable housings and shifter housing did wonders to loosen things up. All bearings are pretty tight. The wheels are pretty straight. With a through cleaning this could be a nice bike.

The stats:
the steel frame is pretty big but not huge, a guess 18.5"
GT "bull" handlebars, period-correct but strange
Rock Shox Quadra 10
WTB tires
trigger shifters
21 speed
Shimano Alivio crankset
Shimano STX rear derailleur (amazingly straight!)

Check out this funky double kickstand:

Cool but not on a real mountain bike.

I now have the problem of having a bike that I hate to part out. This gets me to back to my original comment... GTs love me. Now I have two Timberlines that I really like.