New Zaskar Ride report

After 17 years and at least 25 bikes I am back on a Zaskar. The first thing about this bike as with the one I had in 94 is it looks stunning. My wife is sick of me looking at it and saying yes sweetie to whatever she is saying. This bike has been a long time coming to OZ but so far its been worth the wait.

Like the early Zaskar’s its long, making it very well suited to XC and faster trail riding. The effective top tube is almost 62cm long and the head tube angle 71 so its pretty stable at speed. I’ve had it up to about 65 kmph and it didn’t miss a beat. While i have ridden bikes that are quicker to turn, the geometry that GT have gone with is a bit more all-round than a pure xc bike. As a result this bike feels very stable and combined with Sids (15mm) and a tapered head tube (1.5″- 1.25″) takes corners with confidence.

This model the Pro retails at about $4500 but with X9 cranks not the XO pictured. I’ve also put Fizik Gobi on it and changed the tyres other than that these first 15 hours have been done on a pretty stock bike. Ive never used Formula brakes before but really like them, they certainly work as well as others Ive used recently.

The XO 2 x 10 gearing was my biggest worry living where I live. There are a couple hills that on bad days 22/32 is needed and Im still not convinced that I will cope, have to wait and see on that one. However the top speed gearing is fine and I didn’t spin out until over 50 kmph.

The weight of my large is 10kg flat with cages. You could put this model on a diet fairly cheaply and easily drop half a kg.