A Snowy Thursday Commute

It's been the better part of 8 months since I revamped my GT Outpost. After its face-lift, I promptly hung it from the ceiling of the shop, all shiny and newly beautified, and haven't touched it since. Pretty sad, but I just haven't had much of an opportunity to ride it. My Peugeot Course is my daily commuter and my Panasonic Touring Deluxe has now become by weekend ride. And so my old mountain bike sat neglected in the garage. That is, until yesterday.

A couple inches of snow fell yesterday morning and, with the streets covered, I decided that a mountain bike would be my best option for a powdery morning commute. I pulled my GT Outpost down out of storage, bolted pedals onto the cranks, and set off for work. A block or so down the road, I shifted onto the big chainring and nearly immediately noticed the chain jumping - especially when I mashed down on the pedals to pick up speed. When I arrived at work, I quickly discovered the problem: the bottom bracket spindle was loose inside the housing and wobbling pretty badly.

When I got home that evening, I pulled the bottom bracket out and replaced it with a used one I had stowed away in the shop. The cranks are spinning nicely now. Turns out the rebuilt Truvativ bottom bracket that I installed on the bike in April was a piece of shit. So I replaced it with a cheap Shimano that I've had for years and simply refuses to die.

Despite the mechanical problems, it wasn't a bad commute. Since the snow was still fresh and not too deep, I got plenty of grip with the 2.0 inch Bontrager knobbies that are on my mountain bike. I meandered over to the Jordan Valley Greenway and took the trail for about half my trip, which gave me a nice respite from riding in traffic in poor road conditions. It didn't take me much longer than usual to make the trip from home to work, even with a short stop on the Greenway to snap some pictures. Not too bad for a frigid snowy Thursday morning.

The GT Outpost Gets (Another) New Life

It took some work to get the old GT Outpost into decent condition after being neglected for so long. Once the bike was undressed down to the frame, the components and frame were cleaned thoroughly with soap and water. After that, I attacked any spots of rust with the polishing wheel. The front derailleur and the original crankset were too far gone, so they ended up in the trash. And I figured this was the time to go ahead and replace the old, beat up rear derailleur as well. KC was kind enough to give me a spare Shimano STX RC rear derailleur and a Shimano XTR crankset, and I picked up a Shimano STX front derailleur from Queen City Cycles. Once everything was cleaned up, I bolted the components back onto the bike. Then I slapped a new chain on the drivetrain, ran new cables and housing, and dialed everything in.

I've developed a new-found respect for this bike as I worked on it over the past couple weeks. The triple triangle frame made with 4130 chromoly is pretty much bulletproof. It also has double eyelets both front and rear, so it's ready to handle loaded all-terrain touring. Many miles on the Katy Trail have shown that it rides beautifully on longer trips. And my best attempts at attacking single track have shown that it's highly versatile. While I don't ride it as often as I should, I hope to keep this machine around for many more years.

Overhauling the Outpost

I'm ashamed to admit that I've badly neglected my old GT Outpost. You know that nasty, gray, salty slush that hangs around on the roads after it snows? Last winter, I rode through that stuff and then hung the Outpost back on the wall in the garage without rinsing it off first. Months of continuous exposure to salts, moisture, and other scary chemicals from the snowy road grime left the bike in pretty poor condition. Most of the components are now covered in a thick layer of surface rust and there are occasional spots of heavy rust on the frame. Of particular concern are the chainrings and cassette, which will likely need to be replaced. The front derailleur is in pretty bad shape as well, but I'm going to try to salvage it with a thorough polishing and, if needed, some wood bleach.

Thankfully, most of the rest of the bike is in serviceable condition. The frame will need to be touched up, the wheelset should be fine after the hubs have been repacked, and the rest of the components should be in good shape after a thorough cleaning. It'll need a new cassette and a full tuneup, but Kenneth gave me some replacement chainrings a while back, so I should be able to get the bike back to ride-ready condition without too much hassle. It's been disassembled and the frame is now hanging in the repair stand, so it shouldn't be long now.

Stringer Fleet: 1995 GT Outpost

It may seem odd to have a 90s-era mountain bike among my small collection of vintage road bikes, but this machine is near and dear to my heart.  I received this GT Outpost as a gift on my twelfth birthday.  After proving to my old man that I could safely handle and maintain an inexpensive department store mountain bike, he took me down to our local bike shop where I picked out this sweet little workhorse.  I rode the shit out of it for years; around the streets of my hometown, up and down the dirt roads outside city limits, and on the trails in the national forest.

The bike ended up being somewhat neglected during my college years.  During graduate school, though, I started riding the trails to work and the Outpost started getting regular use again.  A couple years ago I realized that I had been pretty lax in properly maintaining the bicycle, and I decided that it either needed a major overhaul or I needed to start shopping for a new bike.  In the end, I put more money into it than the bike was worth getting it fixed back up.  Nonetheless, I've been pretty pleased with my decision to keep this machine around.

My first order of business was to replace the warped wheels whose hubs had never once been repacked with a set of Weinman rims laced onto Shimano hubs.  I covered the wheels with some 2" Bontrager knobbies.  Next, I replaced the cantilever brakes, as the plastic bushings on the original cantis were brittle and beginning to crack.  I was able to find some NOS Shimano Altus brakes to replace the old ones.  And the last major update was a new WTB Speed V Comp saddle.  Once I had the new parts I needed, the bike was cleaned up and tuned up, with a new bottom bracket cartridge and new pedals and clips.

After a few technical-ish mountain bike rides, the GT spent most of its time on the Katy Trail.  So I added a front and rear rack so that I could haul repair supplies and beer.  The last upgrade was a Bontrager computer that my dude KP gave to me as a birthday gift.  The old front fork has lost a lot of the original paint and is looking a little rough, so it will probably have to be replaced eventually.  But as for now, I'm pretty damn pleased with how this bike came back to life.  After all, I've been pedaling this rig for over 17 years now and it would be a shame to see it go the way of Old Yeller.