Search the Community

I've been morbidly fascinated with the dearth of GT bikes around here for the past few years. Now that Kevin is ghost, and sold off a lot of his GT repertoire it seems like we don't really have anyone that goes hard on GT anymore. Even for freestyle. Well, someone asked for GT serial number info this past summer and there were no replies. Patrick threw him a bone yesterday, which was cool, but months had passed and the old thread he linked to may not be as informative as what follows. I had a GT as a kid. I don't have one now. Someday I will. But to be honest... I haven't been paying a lot of attention because I don't have skin in the game, so to speak, but it's a brand that few would argue is one of the most important in BMX history. Hence it deserves more attention. So, I looked around and I found that there was an old post on Vintage, that is identical to what they have on the museum - word for word. I think it must have come from the Museum, unless the "museum" he refers to is in fact the museum section on Vintage. Whatever. Here it is: If the bike frame was manufactured at the Santa Ana CA facility, the first three or four digits of the serial number should be letters abbreviating the model or size of the frame such as "XL", "XXL", CR24, or something like that. The next part of the serial number is eight numeric digits. The first four numbers should be a two digit month followed by a two digit year. The last four digits are the serialization digits 0000 to 9999 depending on what number the frame was of the years production. If the frame was made overseas in Taiwan, it gets more complicated. If the number starts with a K, the frame was made by Kinesis. That's the only one I remember off the top of my head. There were at least four companies in Taiwan that made the GT lines : Robinson, Dyno, Powerlite and Auburn included) The first digit would be a letter designating the factory that made the frame. There might also be a second letter digit specifying the factory that assembled the bike, if applicable. The model and year of production was also coded by a letter, so you won't be able to spot a two digit month and two digit year. Before I left, I was writing a specification to standardize all of the serial numbers because GT was starting to send most of its US production to other US fabrication shops. The information might also come in handy for deciphering other makes because the factories in Taiwan make bikes for a lot of different companies. I am tinkering around with the idea of starting to make my own frames, kind of on a "one-off" basis. I am also teaching welding at a local community college. By the way, did I tell you that the guy ran GT's in house fabrication for the last ten years (he recently retired) was none other than Gilbert Axt. Who? Do you remember Race, Inc.? That was Gilbert. He also did the original PK Ripper for SE Racing. and here is the updates, thanks to love thegoose! (Michael S) well we get a good bit of gt serials that could be identified by the owner, if they only had the tips that some of us have learned, so i will post what i know, and anyone with more knowledge can add to it..so here we go. here is an example to go by. on the dropout you have "M1" followed by "08922198"..this one is simple. M1 stands for "mach one" that is your model gt. it can also be a "I" for interceptor and so on. next on the serial is "0892" this is easy to decode too, 08 means 8th month, which would be august. then you have "92" next in the lineup, this would be 1992 the last 4 digits, are your build number, this one would be the 2,198th one built. Here is another example. if your serial is KGCG2297 this one gets a little complicated. but still easy once you learn the code to it. the first letter is who made the frame itself, in this case it would be "Kenisis", an overseas company.this could be replaced by another letter but at least we know what that one is there for. next is the letter "G"..this isnt always there, but if so, this is where it was assembled, (ever notice the built in usa sticker on your gt or dyno?) this is what that letter is there for. it wasnt made here, but was built here. next is the letter "C"..C is the 3rd letter in the alphabet, and march is the 3rd month, so march is the build month. next is the letter "G" this is the year. G is the 7th letter in the alphabet, so this would be a 1987. here is one more..your serial resembles this:f6030578. to start, if you have a "baseball" looking stamp behind your serial, this frame was made overseas...no its not a pacific, so dont cry, or get mad...and lets continue. on this serial, the first number is the last digit of the year, so 6 stands for 1986 next is "03"....this is the third month..which is march. so you have a gt built in march of 1986. this doesnt apply to new gt's, but hopefully some people with info on those will chime in. this isnt always going to match your serial, you may have a "fake"..its not likely but it happens. also on earlier models this can differ. this is for the 2 most popular style serial's i see on here. also, common sense tells you that if you have a suspected "gt" frame, look it up and compare it in the musuem, knowing which style frame you have will help with the process of id'ing your bike with the serial, especially if the serial has some damage that prevents you from getting the full number. on the Vintage thread, MrCoasterbrake added: If you can improve on this or have a more concise explanation or a chart... by all means, lay it on us.

does anybody know if gt put their Mohawk cassettes hubs in to productions? If have pictures from a Snap magazine . But was these one off?

just picked up a gt vertigo today . it has two bends in the down tube. not sure what year it is . ss#KG3C00081 it is black and crome has purple stickers bulldog brakes front and rear try to get a pic up soon . thanks brian

I see this quite often. People list GT hubs up for sale, claiming they are first gen, when they aren't. For example, there is a set up on ebay at the moment, with a Buy It Now of $120, which are claimed to be first gen, when they are more like mid to late 80's. The shape of the hub bodies gives it away. But what I am interested in, is when did they stop using the aluminium collars? I bought some hubs a while back that were claimed to be first gen, and I thought they were, because they had the collars. But they were late eighties ones. Would someone have fitted the collars? Or was there some kind of crossover?

Started out as a rusted shell of a GT cruiser.......