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11/1/2007 - Stof's GT Brian Lopes Review "Stoffersons review on his own bike! (Aka Mr Never Bias) MY BIKE IS THE BEST IN THE WORLD AND MAKES ALL YOUR GUYS BIKES SEEM LIKE CRAP! Stofs Lopes Specification: Frame: GT Brian Lopes Forks: Manitou Gold Label 2’s 100mm 20mm axel Bars: Easton EA50 low rise Stem: DMR something with a cool skull on Grips: ODI Ruffian MX lock-on Headset: FSA PIG DH PRO (from my good sponsor the Chris King rep Juz) Seat Clamp: 6mm nut and bolt with 2 washers Seat Post: Easton EA50 or 70 cut down to about 1cm or something stupid Seat: Shadow conspiracy Cranks: Shimano Saint 170mm Sprocket: Saint Chain: Connexxx wipperman Brakes: Shimano XT 4pots Shifter: Sram Attack Mech: Shimano Tiagra Gear Cable/Outer: Shimano XT Front Wheel: Mavic EX729, Hope Bulb 32hole Rear Wheel: Mavic EX729, Hope Bulb 32hole laced with DT Swiss revolution spokes. Cassette: Shimano one Tyres: Maxxis Minion Right I have no idea where to start so I will start with the frame. Basically its based on a GT ruckus but with Lopes geometry, so you cant really argue with what the best 4X rider in the world wants in his bike. The first thing the bike shop said to me when I went to pick it up was ‘bloody hell, feel how light it is’ and from what I can remember it was pretty light, but that was a year and a half ago, so I don’t know how that compares to the weight of a bike today. Anyway I have found the bike to be good for everything, such as dirt jumping, street, the odd little bit of downhill, skate parks, and of course 4X, and despite some of the stereotypical views you get of a GT, ‘oh it’s a GT it will just snap’. I would just like to point out that it’s a load of rubbish, and the bike has probably withstood more punishment than most others, with some good cases along the way. Over all I really like the frame, and after one and a half years it still seems to be going strong, yet to mention I got it dirt cheap as well! Right now for the forks, I got these because everyone told me they were nice and plush…… hahaha. Anyway at first I couldn’t stand these forks, I wasn’t aware that they needed time to bed in, and every time I was going over a jump I was being thrown to the side because of the rebound. Now there is only rebound adjustment on this fork and it really doesn’t do much, so to help slow it down a bit I put some thicker oil in the forks, I think they come standard with 5w oil, but I put 10w in and surprisingly it made a fairly big difference. The forks are the most simple thing in the world, it’s basically a spring in 1 leg, and oil… that is it, but it still uses a plastic internal, why?!?! The forks are really hard; I don’t think I have ever bottomed them out, but on the plus side they are very light. After these forks bedded in a started to like them more and more, and I find they suite the kind of riding I do, I think of them as a rigid but with some give! After all BMX race with ridged forks and many people ride dirt and skate parks which them so as long as your not doing anything with too many bumps in these forks are fine, but then again they are designed as a jump fork. Finally though I would just like to say that these forks are well over priced for what they are, id say its an alternative to the dirt jumper forks as they are about half the weight, but for the price you could get a top of the line 100mm travel fork from either rock shox or marzocchi, but I like them anyway. Il review the bars and stem together, the bars are Easton, so they are good. I decided to go for low rise because I tried a bike with what I thought were low rise and I liked it, only to find out that they were actually medium when I got mine. Apart from that I now prefer my bars, after cutting them down an inch each side they feel more responsive than the higher rise bar, and allow my front end to be slighted lower. The stem is a DMR one, it has a skull on the side and looks quite cool, and it has a strange way of clamping onto the steer tube, only advantage I can think of with that is you don’t have a squared of stem, or bolts to hit your knees on or anything if you fall off. The headset is an FSA, so its super cheap and lasts forever, got a fair bit of weight behind is as I think the cups are steel, but who cares. My original seat clamp was robbed by Justin and replaced with a giant one, now these giant seat clamps are cheese, and was eaten by PHAT DAN, so as its integrated I just used a bolt and was sorted, maybe even save a few grams for all the weight freaks. The seat is a shadow conspiracy one, its pretty small but most of all its strong, I managed to bend every other seat I had some how (DMR jump seat and 2 WTB ones) and when you wash your bike….. IT ABSORBS all the water, so takes about a week to dry, other than that its ace!! Cranks are Shimano Saints, so they are currently the beefiest cranks shimano do, and are fairly light so are fine for the likes of a 4X bike. Don’t really know what to say about these apart from they are easy to fit as long as you have to tool for the bb, they look good, and are very strong and reliable. Now the brakes, these are ace. They are Shimano XT 4pots so they are quite old, they use mineral oil so apparently doesn’t corrode seals or anything and most of all its environmentally friendly!! Pfft. These brakes have been going strong for ages, although power probably could be increased with better pads I have never had to touch these brakes, apart from the rear when I wanted to use a different hose fitting for the lever. Shimano brakes seem to be really low maintenance and offer good performance, and no I don’t work for shimano. The gears I use are I think the cheapest short cage mech shimano sell and the cheapest shimano compatible sram shifter, but together they work amazing. Since first put on the bike they worked perfect and continued to do so for about a year without being touched until some scals decided to jump up and down on my mech, but all that took was a straighten of the hanger and a play around and they were back to normal, like before, and since then they have been fine. Considering the price of the setup the shifting is fine, maybe not as smooth as some sram mechs I have tried but I saved a hell of a lot of money and im still happy. Right now I can’t be arsed writing about each individual part so on the whole, I am really happy with my bike, it did (about 3 weeks ago) get used every weekend and several days in the week from everything from street to small bits of downhill. It has been such low maintenance bike, and only up until now I have decided to do a bit of work on it. As for the way it rides, I find it pedals so easy and well, so much better than all the other rubbish bikes I have rode (JOKING GUYS), and with the bike being so low down its very responsive and will change direction with no effort at all, the bike is totally chuck able. The only thing it lacks I find is for dirt jumping, it still jumps well, but because of the set up with the low bars, it just feels like you cant pull the bike up like you would with others, but if you want to keep the jump low and fast its fine. So this bike has 800 Stofs out of 10!" View the full Gallery of Stof's bike here Discuss this Article Here GoBack

11/1/2007 - Stof's GT Brian Lopes Review

"Stoffersons review on his own bike! (Aka Mr Never Bias)

MY BIKE IS THE BEST IN THE WORLD AND MAKES ALL YOUR GUYS BIKES SEEM LIKE CRAP!

Stofs Lopes Specification:

Frame: GT Brian Lopes
Forks: Manitou Gold Label 2’s 100mm 20mm axel
Bars: Easton EA50 low rise
Stem: DMR something with a cool skull on
Grips: ODI Ruffian MX lock-on
Headset: FSA PIG DH PRO (from my good sponsor the Chris King rep Juz)
Seat Clamp: 6mm nut and bolt with 2 washers
Seat Post: Easton EA50 or 70 cut down to about 1cm or something stupid
Seat: Shadow conspiracy
Cranks: Shimano Saint 170mm
Sprocket: Saint
Chain: Connexxx wipperman
Brakes: Shimano XT 4pots
Shifter: Sram Attack
Mech: Shimano Tiagra
Gear Cable/Outer: Shimano XT
Front Wheel: Mavic EX729, Hope Bulb 32hole
Rear Wheel: Mavic EX729, Hope Bulb 32hole laced with DT Swiss revolution spokes.
Cassette: Shimano one
Tyres: Maxxis Minion

Right I have no idea where to start so I will start with the frame. Basically its based on a GT ruckus but with Lopes geometry, so you cant really argue with what the best 4X rider in the world wants in his bike. The first thing the bike shop said to me when I went to pick it up was ‘bloody hell, feel how light it is’ and from what I can remember it was pretty light, but that was a year and a half ago, so I don’t know how that compares to the weight of a bike today. Anyway I have found the bike to be good for everything, such as dirt jumping, street, the odd little bit of downhill, skate parks, and of course 4X, and despite some of the stereotypical views you get of a GT, ‘oh it’s a GT it will just snap’. I would just like to point out that it’s a load of rubbish, and the bike has probably withstood more punishment than most others, with some good cases along the way. Over all I really like the frame, and after one and a half years it still seems to be going strong, yet to mention I got it dirt cheap as well!

Right now for the forks, I got these because everyone told me they were nice and plush…… hahaha. Anyway at first I couldn’t stand these forks, I wasn’t aware that they needed time to bed in, and every time I was going over a jump I was being thrown to the side because of the rebound. Now there is only rebound adjustment on this fork and it really doesn’t do much, so to help slow it down a bit I put some thicker oil in the forks, I think they come standard with 5w oil, but I put 10w in and surprisingly it made a fairly big difference. The forks are the most simple thing in the world, it’s basically a spring in 1 leg, and oil… that is it, but it still uses a plastic internal, why?!?! The forks are really hard; I don’t think I have ever bottomed them out, but on the plus side they are very light. After these forks bedded in a started to like them more and more, and I find they suite the kind of riding I do, I think of them as a rigid but with some give! After all BMX race with ridged forks and many people ride dirt and skate parks which them so as long as your not doing anything with too many bumps in these forks are fine, but then again they are designed as a jump fork. Finally though I would just like to say that these forks are well over priced for what they are, id say its an alternative to the dirt jumper forks as they are about half the weight, but for the price you could get a top of the line 100mm travel fork from either rock shox or marzocchi, but I like them anyway.

Il review the bars and stem together, the bars are Easton, so they are good. I decided to go for low rise because I tried a bike with what I thought were low rise and I liked it, only to find out that they were actually medium when I got mine. Apart from that I now prefer my bars, after cutting them down an inch each side they feel more responsive than the higher rise bar, and allow my front end to be slighted lower. The stem is a DMR one, it has a skull on the side and looks quite cool, and it has a strange way of clamping onto the steer tube, only advantage I can think of with that is you don’t have a squared of stem, or bolts to hit your knees on or anything if you fall off.

The headset is an FSA, so its super cheap and lasts forever, got a fair bit of weight behind is as I think the cups are steel, but who cares. My original seat clamp was robbed by Justin and replaced with a giant one, now these giant seat clamps are cheese, and was eaten by PHAT DAN, so as its integrated I just used a bolt and was sorted, maybe even save a few grams for all the weight freaks. The seat is a shadow conspiracy one, its pretty small but most of all its strong, I managed to bend every other seat I had some how (DMR jump seat and 2 WTB ones) and when you wash your bike….. IT ABSORBS all the water, so takes about a week to dry, other than that its ace!!

Cranks are Shimano Saints, so they are currently the beefiest cranks shimano do, and are fairly light so are fine for the likes of a 4X bike. Don’t really know what to say about these apart from they are easy to fit as long as you have to tool for the bb, they look good, and are very strong and reliable.

Now the brakes, these are ace. They are Shimano XT 4pots so they are quite old, they use mineral oil so apparently doesn’t corrode seals or anything and most of all its environmentally friendly!! Pfft. These brakes have been going strong for ages, although power probably could be increased with better pads I have never had to touch these brakes, apart from the rear when I wanted to use a different hose fitting for the lever. Shimano brakes seem to be really low maintenance and offer good performance, and no I don’t work for shimano.

The gears I use are I think the cheapest short cage mech shimano sell and the cheapest shimano compatible sram shifter, but together they work amazing. Since first put on the bike they worked perfect and continued to do so for about a year without being touched until some scals decided to jump up and down on my mech, but all that took was a straighten of the hanger and a play around and they were back to normal, like before, and since then they have been fine. Considering the price of the setup the shifting is fine, maybe not as smooth as some sram mechs I have tried but I saved a hell of a lot of money and im still happy.

Right now I can’t be arsed writing about each individual part so on the whole, I am really happy with my bike, it did (about 3 weeks ago) get used every weekend and several days in the week from everything from street to small bits of downhill. It has been such low maintenance bike, and only up until now I have decided to do a bit of work on it. As for the way it rides, I find it pedals so easy and well, so much better than all the other rubbish bikes I have rode (JOKING GUYS), and with the bike being so low down its very responsive and will change direction with no effort at all, the bike is totally chuck able. The only thing it lacks I find is for dirt jumping, it still jumps well, but because of the set up with the low bars, it just feels like you cant pull the bike up like you would with others, but if you want to keep the jump low and fast its fine.

So this bike has 800 Stofs out of 10!"

View the full Gallery of Stof's bike here

Discuss this Article Here

GoBack