A Deep Dive On Martin Maes' EWS Ready GT Force | Pro Bike Check

[@Bigmountain73]

This is the best bike check yet! Love how Martin broke down not only what he is running but why. Felt very honest, not just plugging his sponsors (which of course he did, but in a classy way) Good luck Martin!

[@MarkMore]

Let’s go GT! awesome stuff Martin! I thought pros always go for stiffer suspension set up. definitely picked up pointers from this one 👌🏼

[@abtcup]

Maes going against all the bike trends. Less fork, less travel, 50mm stem, steep lever angle.

[@jokermtb]

Great to see GT pushing ahead with great bikes.........still lovin' it's little brother, the Sensor 29

[@euhm]

It really is a shame that nobody in Belgium knows this guy. We are a nation of cyclists, everything revolves around cycling, but downhill, enduro, freeride, xc,... Every mtb discipline is not shown on tv, is not talked about,... It's a shame! Cyclocross is on every week, but mtb is not even shown in the small shortcut pieces in the news. If you want to know if Belgium has mtb riders, than you need te search them yourself. We have Thomas genon world champion fmb and Matrin Maes, world champion enduro, but the idiot footballers who cry when you touch them get more attention. Go Martin, make us proud!

[@sebastienhakimejdaa9363]

I know him ;-) But it's true. Not a lot of coverage in Belgium when we talk about mtb.

[@emmakeuken7436]

I KNEW HE WAS FROM BELGIUM WHEN I SAW HIS NAME. it is really a shame "real" mtb isnt as popular or covered here

[@wouter4739]

@@emmakeuken7436 Where i live i cant even find a climb. let alone a dowhill section so ofcourse there isnt a lot of enduro coverage here. Would love to race enduro but will stick to XC/ Road cycling.

[@pootube45]

love these in depth pro bike checks, thank you pinkbike!

[@mark77woody]

Good to see riders using what works for them rather than what's just new at the moment. 38s nope, I'll use 36, 51t cassette naaah I'll take the 45. Latest and supposedly greatest isn't always the best solution.

[@hannes6114]

That tread pattern on his front tire looks exactly like the Magic Marry from Schwalbe.

[@philippesoudon5092]

No... 2223 patterns for the magic and 223 for michelin, side knobs is at a diverge side for michelin and in line with the magic. the force of the michelin is really the compound. way better than the old VERTSTAR and purple from schwalbe... the only way between is the squared block.

[@lossantoscity3249]

Wait till you found out that all those patterns was inspired from the Legendary DHF! Still manufactured and best selling tire after 2 decades. I lived in 3 continents and Scwalbe and Michellin is mostly here in the west, The rest of the world rides Maxxis, You can even see DHF on a remote Village in Vietnam and even over at Zimbabwe. LOL

[@hannes6114]

Two tire nerd answers

[@jaysealenduro5618]

@@lossantoscity3249 ok ik you're a big fan of maxxis with a big pride but some of what you said are nonsense cause the fact is Maxxis tires are just more popular with more stocks but better tire brands that are way better than maxxis mtb tires like michelin, wtb and Hutchinson are harder to find but their tires are way better. Another correction, yes the legendary minion dhf is 20 years old and most tire brands are inspired with its thread pattern but the fact is Michelin are once a top dog on Dh world cup more than 20 years ago their comp dh tires 16, 22 and 32 are the best at that time in fact maxxis minions and high roller is a copy of michelin's original legendary dh tires 20-21 years ago. That means they're more legendary than your maxxis the dh22 and dh34 of today just got better but those tires actually existed 20 years ago. End of discussion

[@tonikpun9955]

Great guy, great bike, and great video.

[@vrwgq3q]

Winning Martin, Get it! - Happy that he rides GT... GT Bikes are underrated, people assume its a commodity bike like what happened to Mongoose... glad Doral didn't screw GT and Cannondale up too much

[@gg4760-k5n]

Been riding the current Fury, and current gen Force in both 27.5 and now 29 and really liked all of them. Rigid but not too much, suspension is working well and until now they had external cable routing which was definitely a selling point for me. I still placed an order on the Force Carbon but I would have prefered external routing so it is less faf if I break a brake at a race. Nonetheless Luis is doing a killing job at making new GT bikes.

[@ostankovalex1176]

they are overpriced AF also, they don't provide anything interesting or innovative now at all there is nothing underrated in GT Bikes, they are heavy and don't get too many results in different areas in MTB

[@gg4760-k5n]

@@ostankovalex1176 They manage to get real close to direct-to-customer brands in terms of price, while still working with a dealer network so I am not sure how you could consider one second that these are over priced. As for innovation, if you expect big bike brands to be innovative I imagine you must be very disappointed. When has Trek, Spé, Giant and so on been innovative in the last decade ? Innovative brands are small makers (Forbiden, Pole, Nicolai, Acto5, ...), it has always been the case and big makers follow-up once said innovation took on and they bring it to the masses. Heavy is only a problem for couch riders, weight weenies and PB commenters, otherwise it is irrelevant in a Gravity setup, proof being that GT bikes didn't stop Martin Maes to be very succesfull in the past and probably still in the future once he gets used to parental duties.

[@ostankovalex1176]

@@gg4760-k5n no, they don't get even close to direct price brands Check how much costs Canyon enduro bike and what you get for 3000$ with a full carbon frame. And then take a look what you get for GT Force lol for 3800 with an alloy rear Spe has like one of the best suspensions that they added to the new Enduro bike. ALso, they are light AF. GT is like insanely heavy and provides shit specs for the price they ask. Like... buying a Trek Remedy 8 is 10 times better. You get an alloy front triangle, but the rest of the bike is like top notch for the price. And it's like 1kg lighter lol And no... weight does matter on uphills lol it's not like it is a matter of weight whining. It's about what you get for the price you pay. And the new force is overpriced.

[@gg4760-k5n]

@@ostankovalex1176 compare GT to other brand in bike shops and the specs is unbeatable for a carbon frame. Compared to direct sale, remove 20% of the price (shop margin is usually higher than that actually) and you can't find any direct sale bike for that price with a carbon frame. Alloy vs carbon is for wankers same as looking at weight. Only geo and suspension matters and both are good on the new GT, better than tue equivalent Spé, Trek or equivalent if you ask me, yet they are cheaper. The frame is not 1kg more than the competition, maybe few hundreds, mostly sprung and none rotational mass so it is vastly irrelevant. Put decent wheels on it and it will go uphill as well as any other bike in the category with similar wheels. Looking at bike weight without taking in account retail price and specs is a fallacy really. Match either of these factors and these bikes outshine most of the competition.

[@saxifrage8124]

Vive la Belgique ⬛🟨🟥 !!

[@er3342]

@pinkbike Please can you do a Myriam Nicole bike check

[@mtbwithjure7809]

Sick bike🤘🤘🤘

[@1111-t5n]

GT some may judge of who owns what, but in the beginning the gt racing teams swept the land bringing medals and trophies in world wide racing yet to this gt became a victims of those corporate times of doing business. When heritage meets the means, gt goes farther back into the trails and tracks as far as the eyes can see. Corporate or independent doesn't matter the trophy and medal status of gt riders makes all the rest weep in defeat 😀 Its about time GT 👍

[@tomassanesson902]

Nice bike❤

[@fwafull]

cool that more bikechecks are coming, but that event was almost two months ago?! like srsly? i mean i get that you are not dropping every content instantly, but this is kinda weird

[@mariadineley4273]

4

[@beerenmusli8220]

35mm handlebars are for additional stiffness, nothing else.

[@PedroStringhini]

Maes was refering to the rose, not diameter...

[@beerenmusli8220]

@@PedroStringhini Oh, you mean thee Bars have 35mm rise? Whoops :D

[@PedroStringhini]

@@beerenmusli8220 Probably, my interpretation was that, he said something about bigger rise due to the bmx background