[First Ride] GT Force 29 PRO

Following the footsteps of the GT Force 27.5 (look for our long term review soon), the new Force 29 is all in on the recent trend of long travel 29″ bikes, sporting 170mm up front, and 150mm in the rear. Throughout all three of its available models, the bike features a full alloy frame. Our test bike, the top spec’d ‘Pro’ model comes in at a reasonable price point of $4,700.

Details

• Travel: 170mm front and 150mm rear
• Aluminum Frame
• SRAM GX Eagle 12 Speed 1X drivetrain with 500% range
• Boost hub spacing front and rear
• Metric shock spacing
• LTS suspension with Horst link
• Adjustable geometry via flip chip in lower shock mount
• Hidden external cable/hose routing

Stan’s NoTubes MK3 wheels are wrapped with a Maxxis DHF/DHRII combo. Fox 36 Performance Elite fork, with 170mm of rock and bike park bump eating goodness. The Elite features 4-way adjustability for high and low speed compression and rebound.

The bike comes with a Fox Float X2 with a lockout lever and adjustable low speed rebound and compression. The bike’s kinematics are such that it can be equipped with a coil shock if desired.

A Flip Chip is incorporated for quickly toggling between high/steep and low/slack for the bottom bracket heights/head angles respectively, based on terrain and preference.

A solid rear axle keeps things clean. The Force 29 has a post mount 180 rear brake mount. Unsurprisingly, the Stan’s rims, are laced to Stan’s hubs.

We’re a fan of the 30mm rise Spank bars, though for a longer travel bike, we’ve gotten accustomed to seeing 800mm width spec’d rather than 780mm. SRAM’s excellent G2 RSC brakes round out the cockpit with reach and contact point adjustment. A 200mm front/180mm rear rotor combo provides plenty of stopping power.

Full specs

Geometry

On the trail