My advice to you is not to start a PhD – you just end up looking for projects to distract you from your thesis, and before you know it you’ve bought another complete shed of a bike with the intention of restoring it to it’s former glory.

This one’s another GT LTS, but the downhill version (the imaginatively-titled LTS DH). This is the bike I remember seeing Steve Peat riding “back in the day”, and which I’d always fancied owning. The LTS 2000 project was a step closer, but the more I rode that, the more it became apparent that I’d compromised on what I wanted to do with it. So, I sneakily grabbed an LTS DH frame off eBay and hid it in the shed from Becs. Unfortunately that meant selling the LTS 2000 to fund the DH project; I was rumbled when she logged into my eBay account to look at something and spotted the LTS 2000 sale, complete with the line “selling because I have two”.

Nevertheless, I carried on regardless. The build technically started many months ago, when I acquired some Shimano DX SPDs for a bargain price. I stripped them and replaced the seals, spraying them while I was at it.

Although the frame itself was fundamentally sound on arrival, the decals were custom ones that bore no relevance to anything in my life, and the paint was looking a bit tired.

I took the frame in it’s component pieces to John Whiteman Engineering in Long Eaton, who blasted and powder coated the lot for £20, and did a decent job too. So, the frame returned all powder coated and shiny, and shortly after I had new bearings installed and the headset fitted. All that remained was to put everything back together…

That proved not to be too much of an issue, but there were hundreds of minor niggles throughout the build, such as insufficient tyre clearance around the seatstays despite the ludicrous amount of room designed into the chainstays. I always knew this was going to be a DH build, and therefore my first proper DH bike, so I wanted some triple-clamp forks. The LTS was originally specced with Rockshox Boxxers, which seem to be relatively rare and always expensive. Instead I focussed on Marzocchi Junior Ts, initially getting hold of a set of fairly old school 130mm travel ones. However, I then spotted a lovely pair with black stanchions and red decals (and 170mm travel), which I instantly knew would really suit the frame. Once I got hold of them, it turned out the steerer tube was actually a little short. Gareth saved the day by suggesting I use an integrated stem, which solved the problem beautifully (but not before my headset spacers turned out to have too large an external diameter – no, seriously!). The final piece to fall into place was the decals. I stripped the random ones off almost immediately when the frame was delivered, and needed to get some copies of the originals. The generally acknowledged expert on these things, Gil at the Cycle Shed, didn’t have the ones I wanted, so I made up some myself. This entailed using a scan from a friendly STS owner and photos of my LTS 2000, many many many hours in Photoshop, and many hours in Illustrator. At the end of it, I had the decals I wanted, in the colours I wanted, and a much better understanding of Photoshop paths and vector graphics. Gil was able to get them made up, and I was ready.

Anyway, I finished the build with the rest of the parts I’d lovingly sourced over the previous few months, including an AC chain guide, Hope M4 twin-pot discs and the D521s off the LTS 2000. Here she is…

So there we go, and long and arduous journey, but worth it in the end  I think. I’ve proved to myself that I can do a reasonable job at this, but if I’m honest I don’t think I’ll be doing another one any time soon – I miss actually just going out and riding the damn thing!  :)

Full spec:
(format shamelessly stolen from Retrobike)

Frame: GT LTS-DH (2000)
Rear shock: Rockshox Super Deluxe

Fork: Marzocchi Junior T 170mm (2003?)

Headset: FSA Orbit
Stem: Marzocchi integrated
Handlebar: Azonic
Grips: GT
Barends: Hope bar plugs

Brakes: Hope M4
Brake Levers: Hope

Shifters: Deore 9sp
Rear Derailleur: XTR
Derailleur Cables: Gore Ride-on sealed
Cassette: SRAM 9sp
Chain: SRAM 9sp
Cranks: Race Face DH forged
Chainrings: FSA
Chainring bolts: Race Face
Chain guide: AC
Pedals: Shimano DX SPDs (since swapped for DMR V8s!)

Hub Skewers: Hope
Rims: D521
Hubs: XT front / FUNN rear
Tyres: Tioga Factory DH 2.1 F&R

Saddle: Titec Berserkr DH
Seatpost: System-ex
Seatpost Binder: Hope

Weight: Beastly

Last but not least, thanks go out to:

• G, for help and advice
• Dean, for the STS scans
• Retrobikers in general, including but not limited to Gadro for the chain guide and Sithlord for a jockey wheel (small but vitally important)