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1990 GT Vertigo

1990/1991 GT Vertigo restored from abused survivor by Timo "2Fresh" in Helsinki, Finland. Original paint and original seat tube/fork decals.


This bike got me into collecting and restoring old freestyle bikes. I bought this bike (or the remains of it) from a kid and it was in real bad shape but fortunately nothing was cracked or bent and it seemed to have 90% of the original stock parts.

Trying to figure out the exact release year was a bit confusing, because GT was changing their decal styles about once every three months in early 90's. It turned out that the 1990 style Vertigo also came with the yellow-black "hazard" decals theme instead of the plain yellow letters with pink/gray outlines like mine has. Anyway, i finally found an ad from BMX Plus march 1990 with corresponding parts which, along with the serial number, confirmed that this bike is actually from 1990. If you'd ask me, those are one of the ugliest decals GT ever created. The decals were almost completely missing except for the seattube. However, i later came up with some matching fork decals i had saved from our bike shop riding days and "close-enough" matches with the seatpost and headtube decals.
As soon as i got the bike home i noticed the frame was completely covered with white paint dripples and fingerprints, now how on earht had that happened?
Well i have no idea, but I know it took me long time to carefully remove them without damaging the original paint job. The stock chainwheel, levers and the stem were painted in neon orange by the previous owner and the bike had a removable GT bashguard on it and a chrome "Aggressor" decal onthe top tube. Quite obviously the previous owner (or one of them, who knows) would've preferred an Aggressor but got "just" a Vertigo instead.
The horrendous stock chainwheel made of steel had to go, even though it was original i had no feeling for it, same with the generic Dia-Compe imitation levers which felt bulky, were painted afterwards and just looked plain horrible. The bashguard also had to go cause it was completely ruining the looks of the bike and, it just didn't belong there. The frame has the old style GT logo stamped on the rear drop outs, however the fork which appears to be stock original (i can't see why it wouldn't be) and came with this frame has the newer style GT stamp on its drop outs. If you think back about this, GT was in sort of an transition in '89-90 changing their beautiful winged logo in this frickin dull "modern" GT logo, as well as changing their design in their bikes (the drop outs, the framestand etc.) so i wouldn't be surprised if they simply used all of their old stock drop outs in their newer models. I mean, it wouldn't be anything new.
Seat tube decal says: "4130 Cro-Mo Maintubes, Designed and engineered in U.S.A., Made in Taiwan". Ok.. so? The bike is still made in taiwan no matter if it was designed and engineered in frickin' Jupiter! Sounds always as if they try to compliment the bike that is still nothing more yet nothing less than a taiwanese tri-moly freestyler. It always bugs me with these bikes saying "4130 Cro-Mo MAINTUBES" cause it doesn't make the bike any different than what it is!
The bike came originally stock equipped with GT six-spoke mags but i got it with low end silver 48-spoke aluminum wheels with low flange unsealed hubs. They were replaced with '87 GT/OGK Performer mags for better style and looks. I wasn't looking to build this to the spec anyway. A set of 1989 GT 6-spoke mags would have been be era-correct but the seller only had one left with the other one missing so i didn't bother. I also had some spare used GT "hazard" downtube decals lying around so I used them for the bike although they're not exactly year-specific ones for this model.
There's bunch of more less sought after goodies in this bike like the late 80's GT seat with the wings logo, GT wings seatpost clamp, GT round logo stamped layback post and the late 80's newer style GT "inverted" freestyle stem. Speaking of which, the stem was also covered with orange and yellow paint driples and it was a real pain to restore back to white. Eventually i got it clean so it's not repainted, it's all original only after careful clean up.
In all, the '90 Vertigo is a great all-around freestyler for those laid back sunday sessions and real fun to pedal around despite the cheap-ish entry level feel to it and the heavy Tri-Moly frame. The bike is fairly heavy and feels big even for tall guy like me, probably because of the huge wide 29-inch bars and the unnecessary layback post. The steering angle as also pretty laid back but it's cool and works. I like this bike very much despite it's limitations and for not being full Cro-Mo. Riding this bike is like sitting and pedaling on your favorite sofa and watching the scenery!




Parts & specs:
* Frame:[i] 1990 GT Vertigo (restored from survivor)
* Serial#: GH90025050
* Tubing: Chromoly "Main Tubes" - or, just a fancier way to say it's tri-moly, that's chromoly top, head and down tubes while the rest is mild steel

* Fork: GT 1" threaded
* Handlebar: GT 2pc freestyle, steel

* Bar ends: -none-
* Stem: GT freestyle "inverted" from late 80's, 21.1mm quill
* Grips: Ame/GT flangeless
* Seatpost: GT layback 22.2mm OD
* Seatpost clamp: GT single bolt w/wings logo
* Seat: GT made by Viscount
* Brake levers: Dia-Compe Tech-3
* Front & Rear brake/pads: Dia-Compe Bulldog w/custom dyed purple Dia-Compe Freestyle pads
* Gyro: Odyssey mk1
* Gyro cable, upper: Odyssey, modified (shortened w/knarps)
* Gyro cable, lower: Monster cable special braided wire
* Headset: Tioga Beartrap-2
* Cranks: GT Power series 1pc. 175mm, custom painted
* Pedals: GT freestyle platform, plastic body, Chro-Moly axle ½" w/rubber shields on the insides to keep the dirt out
* Sprocket:[i] anodized blue RE-Racing power disc with 44T Tuf Neck chain ring [/i]and generic chainring bolts. 
* Bottom Bracket: 24T generic USA BB, polished

* Chain: Izumi ½ x 1/8"
* Freewheel: Dicta 16T
* Wheels: O.G.K./GT Performer 6-spoke mags with Suzue hubs, bleached.
* Pegs: GT aluminum 26T
* Tires: Panaracer Freestyle 20x1.75
* Tubes: Kenda
* Original retail price: $225 (source: BMX Plus! february 1990)
* Approximate value: bought the frame, fork, seat/post/clamp, stem/headset, bars, grips, sprocket brakes, cables & generic levers for about $80 in 2004. Have since added the OGK Performer mags, NOS Panaracer FS tires, Izumi chain, NOS GT grips, NOS Dia-Compe levers and ACS Z-brake pads.
[/i]Fresh updates:
* September 2008: Changed the generic 43T CD-type sprocket to RE-Racing power disc/44T Tuf Neck chainring combo for better gearing, better color balance and better looks.
Previous updates:
* Replaced the trashed GT "anatomical" grips and put on some fresh ones. Looks as if the previous owner had used a lot of oil, gasoline whatever to get the grips in and out several times, i mean they were about to transform into a bubblegum.
* Drilled holes thru those beat up old GT alloy pegs to fix the problem i had tightening these with a spanner. The previous owner had destroyed the corners almost completely, but now with the hole modification i can apply enough torque using a rod or screwdriver etc. similiar to Tioga Roll-On's and so many other pegs.
* Added old custom purple dyed Dia-Compe FS brake pads for better braking. It's like magic, here we have purple brake pads yet there's no purple marks on the wheels! Wow! OMG! Can you believe that?!? Tip for anyone wanting to use colored pads to match the colors of the bike but don't want to stain your precious white mags with wrong colour brake pads. woohoo. See, the insides of the pads is still white, yes! Ain't that something!

Last edited by 2Fresh (2007-12-11 7:30am)