New GT Sanction enduro bike spotted at Chile EWS
Well, we think it's a Sanction at any rate...
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As the Enduro World Series kicks off in Lo Barnechea, Chile, there's plenty of new bikes and tech making their debut on the race circuit there. GT Bicycles has teased a shot of team riders Wyn Masters, Norem Koga and Martin Maes and an all-new enduro bike, which we guess is either the new Sanction - or its replacement.
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Eagle-eyed tech fans will quickly spot what's really interesting about this bike - namely that GT has ditched their longstanding Independent Drivetrain suspension design in favour of a much more simple four-bar Horst link system. That's going to be for a few reasons, namely that it's much less complicated and lighter than the old GT system, works really well and the US patent which Specialized had on the Horst link system expired a few years back.
From our CSI-level skills (measuring stuff in Photoshop, plus guessing), we can be pretty damn certain that the bikes in the picture are running a 650b wheel and around 170mm or more travel up front - it'd make sense for the rear to match that. It also looks like the Fox 36 forks are running a very short offset on the crown, in keeping with the latest developments in bike geometry. We're guessing 37mm.
There's a trunnion mounted Fox X2 shock and there doesn't appear to be any travel adjusting gubbins going on, though there's a small chip in the lower shock mount that may or may not be to adjust geometry. The frame looks like it's using a carbon front end and rocket link paired with an aluminium rear. It'll be interesting to see whether an-all carbon bike makes it into production, but we're sure there will be a full aluminium option for those on a tighter budget.
Anyway, get yourselves over to the GT Facebook page to have a look for yourself - GT is staying tight-lipped on the matter.
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