That’s what GT product manager Dave Meikle said to us as he shipped us out this 150 mm travel 2012 GT force 1.0. It’s the top spec’d alloy Force, and there will also be two carbon models available in New Zealand. The Force has pretty much replaced the Sanction both in its role in the GT lineup and in popularity of late; in fact there is only one Sanction model available in 2012. The Force just seems to be a whole lot more versatile with GT riders like Dave Watson and Hans Rey choosing it for their all-mountain bikes.
Anyhow the Force 1.0 is a pretty modest build with a real mixture of parts. Formula brakes and an XT drivetrain handle the main operations but the cockpit gets a little crowded when the RockShox Reverb is thrown in the mix. We’ve already turfed the gear indicators to get the remote closer to the thumb.
The 1.0 is the only bike in the alloy Force lineup to feature a 2×10 set up and it’s running Shimano’s 2×10 XT drive train in a 26/38 configuration with an XT front mech to boot.
Suspension duties are handled by a Fox RP2 out the back and a Float 32 RL up front. On paper it may seem like that’s cutting corners but for 99% of riders out there, these shocks are gonna be just fine. We loved the simplicity of the RL models when we tested the Lapierre Zesty a while back.
Formula’s RX brakes are strong and reliable stoppers. They’ve had a bad rap here, but that’s pretty much due to poor distribution. Everyone makes after market pads for them so you shouldn’t have to deal with the importer at all.
The chrome and black colour scheme is carried right through to the tapered headtube. Nice…
And of course the whole thing pivots on GT’s tried and true i-Drive system. If you’re still unfamiliar with i-Drive you do need to get yourself a test ride. One of the i-Drive system’s main selling points is the fact that you get ZERO chain growth. It’s also super super easy to maintain.
We should have our initial ride feedback up soon so keep checking back to see what we think of the actual ride.
yeah having owned a sanction for a number of years i reckon for the majority of the riding i did a force would have been more than capable
That is a very nice looking stock bike – very nice indeed. Only trouble is Tama Easton has one!