Ropemantheicon

Press-Release
By Mark Hudson

GT Bicycle Company has announced it's intentions on selling their bikes at Wal-Mart. We understand the importance of getting our bikes out to everyone and that this was an offer from Wal-Mart we could not pass up. We will be selling the 2005 Zone and 2005 Bump that will be shipping July 12th, 2005. Please keep posted on this topic at GTbicycles.com

CMcMahon

So basically, GT is selling the same semi-decent completes that you could already pick up at a bikeshop for a reasonable price in your one-stop shop for cheap crap.

Oh well. It's not like GT's making any completes that are really worth buying, anyway.

Hunter

GT, Schwinn, and Mongoose are owned by the same company, they can do whatever they want. This is all old news anyway it was only a matter of time before the GT name showed up there.

Ropemantheicon

Bump isnt this news?

CMcMahon

Yeah, it's news, but it's not newsworthy.

BMXTRIX

I don't know man, it's a huge step up from the Next & Mongoose bikes that have been there recently. It would be cool to see something like the Performer there with 39/14 gearing. But, it would just be nice to see someone come out of Wal-Mart with something OTHER then a $100 POS bike. I wish Haro, GT, and some other companies would sell online so there would be more decent entry level choices and they would actually be forced to innovate some more.

CMcMahon

I can almost guarantee you that you're going to see a dumbed-down version of the completes in Walmart. No one goes to Walmart to spend $300 on a BMX bike when they can go to the bike shop and get the same bike, talk to people who actually know about bikes, and know that the bike was put together by someone that's qualified.

I've seen Walmart bikes with the forks on backwards before... or is it the stem and bars on backwards? Either way, I wouldn't trust a bike from a store that's best known for putting mom 'n' pop stores out of business and building two stores side-by-side to skirt business regulations.

Brian

I would usually applaud such a move, as the more bikes a company can sell, the lower their overall prices can get. Generally, improved buying power translates to lower prices across the board. But in this case, I'm guessing that the factories that will be producing these ultra low margin bikes are not the same ones that will be producing the rest of GT's lineup. And it's not like Toyota's plan to get buyers of the Scion to get a Camry, then a Lexus. No kid is going to think, "Hey that crappy GT mum and dad bought was pretty cool, I think I'll get another more expensive one when I get this cast off".

LaBella

pacific bikes right?

dont they own a lot of bicycle companies?

build your own was always my theory....

back in my day........


I sound like an old geezer!

RiPHRaPH

even your own bias can't discolor the fact that this is big news. both for wal-mart & for GT.

FireTeamCharlie

GT has been bad ever since Pacific bought it. I love old school GTs and Dynos, but ever sicne 2000 no GT for me. Pacific sucks and should go out of business, oh yeah Pacific how come my mountain bike never shifter?

CMcMahon

Do me a favor. Go out to any skatepark and/or BMX track, and tell everyone about the fact that GT is going to be seling bikes at Walmart, and count how many people you talked to, and how many people gave a damn. I can guarantee you that the vast majority of riders could care less about anything involving GT.

Brian

Not even your broker would care at this point, but here's some food for thought anyway:

In January 2004, Dorel added a significant new line of consumer products to its businesses with the acquisition of Pacific Cycle, making Dorel one of the largest marketers of recreational and leisure products in North America. Pacific Cycle is a leader in the design, marketing and distribution of high quality branded bicycles and other recreational products, best known for its Schwinn, Mongoose, GT and Roadmaster bicycle brands. Pacific Cycle sells more bicycles than anyone else in the U.S. bicycle industry and its portfolio of powerful brands is one of the strongest in the sporting goods industry.

Raiyn

They may sell more and have formally decent brands under it's corporate umbrella, but that doesn't mean that they know jack about quality bikes.
I remember when GT and Mongoose meant something. Now they're just more Wal-mart trash

Brian

Don't look at me to be defending them, I'm just posting some financial facts. Some companies are still run by guys that ride, that just want to build the best bikes they can. Pacific Cycles LLC is not one of those companies - their job is to return maximum profit to their stakeholders.

Raiyn

I wasn't. I was clarifying the facts.