Kinesis has been busy this week, first launching the Tripster G2 and today announcing the new GTD (Go The Distance), a titanium “ultra-endurance” road frame. It replaces the GF_Ti Disc with an all-new frame designed to offer a smoother ride with bigger tyre clearance.
The new GTD has been several years in development and the launch coincides with the Transcontinental race starting this weekend, an event which the British company has supported for the past three years. The new GTD frame will be ridden in the event with two brand ambassadors competing, Berk Okyay Cap No. 55 and Nick Finch Cap No.174.
Compared to the GF_Ti, the GTD uses an all-new custom drawn 3AL/2.5B titanium tubeset, intended to be both tough and lightweight, though no frame weight is given. It has also sought to increase compliance by curving the seat stays while straightening the chainstays to increase lateral stiffness.
The frame is disc-only with 12mm thru-axles front and rear and flat mount brakes, with the company’s own Tracer Disc carbon fork up front. The GTD will come with Switch Lever thru-axles that feature a removable lever for cleaner aesthetics.
Tyre clearance has been increased to 34mm providing a few more tyre options, and with mudguards fitted it’ll take a 30mm tyre – although from our experience so will the GF_Ti. Cable ports are adaptable for electronic and mechanical groupset of 1x or 2x persuasion. Naturally, there are all the bottle cage, rack and mudguard mounts you could ask for, there’s even a chain pip as well.
The replaceable rear derailleur hanger has been integrated into the CNC-machined dropout and thru-axle which it says increases the rear hanger stiffness for precise shifting.
A 68mm threaded BSA bottom bracket is a good sign on a bike like this, for easy home servicing and avoiding creaking woes. Durability is a key appeal of buying titanium and Kinesis backs this up with a five-year warranty.
The new GTD is available now in seven sizes, 48 to 63cm, and the geometry is taken from the GF_Ti Disc. The frameset costs £2,200.
If you’ve got your eye on the Transcontinental race or a similarly long-distance challenge, a series of Audaxes or some bikepacking, this is definitely worth checking out.
More info at www.kinesisbikes.co.uk/Catalogue/Models/Racelight/GTD
16 thoughts on “New Kinesis GTD titanium “ultra-endurance” bike launched”
Oh bugger!
Oh bugger!
I thought the GFTI Disc was for life…
Stratman wrote:
Well I did, and then this happened (photo). I’d bought second hand, so not under warranty, but Kinesis did give me a decent discount on one of these. It should arrive once I’ve sent the old frame back
Stratman wrote:
As a complete aside, that crack is interesting to me in that I was looking at a Felt FR1 disc recently and loved that they did all external routing, which was also very odd for a modern plastic race frame. But they do it to keep the weight down and advise that the absolute worst place to put holes in a frame is the down tube, as it compromises the strenght of the tube so much. That crack backs that up. Maybe this is common knowledge but it was news to me.
Stratman wrote:
Double post
Third bottle cage
I know the main target for this bike isn’t bikepacking and such. But i still wonder why some manufacturers insist on not adding a third bottle cage under the downtube on these endurance, long distance rigs in these price ranges. There are surely no reasons for them not to? I was on the hunt for a frame like this a few months ago, and albeit a small detail, the lack of an extra bottle mount was enough for me to exclude it from the possible contenders. The frame looks great otherwise.
Kinda weird that they’ve gone
Kinda weird that they’ve gone backward a little bit when it comes to the internal cable routing…the rear brake and derailleur cables on the GF-Ti disc exited the frame on the chainstays, while these are only internal on the down tube. Wonder why they’ve done that?
Want. So. Bad.
Want. So. Bad.
5 year warranty
5 year warranty hahahahahahaha, I got that on my carbon frame ffs, no third bottle cage mount as mentioned above is another downer plus no rim brake version.
I’m in the market for a replacement Ti frame for my Raleigh as a GT bike but this isn’t going to be it. lack of developing the rim braked GT-Ti so that it can take 30mm tyres with mudguards which was perfectly possible loses me as a potential customer.
As a GF_Ti owner, I’m not
As a GF_Ti owner, I’m not convinced about the wholesale improvement over the previous version. Thru-axles and a weight saving is nice but personally I’ve had no problems at all with QRs and discs rubbing, and the fact that they aren’t mentioning the weight saving implies that it probably isn’t great.
On top of that, you lose the machined head tube and the sexy hourglass seatstays and you get the tacked on badge and those ugly dropouts. The cable routing goes external on the chainstays which is probably a better design for maintenance but less clean looking IMO. In terms of tyre clearance it looks to be very marginal as I’m pretty sure I could easily fit 34s in my frame currently.
All that plus a £150 price bump doesn’t make a very compelling case against the GF_Ti, unless the ride is somehow vastly improved.
Sorry if this is a dumb
Sorry if this is a dumb question but…
What on earth is a “Chain pip”?
JimD666 wrote:
If you have a look at the little thing on the seat stay just above the driveside dropout, it allows you to hang the chain off it when you remove the rear wheel and stops the loose chain flapping about. That’s what I’m guessing anyway.
ktache wrote:
If you have a look at the little thing on the seat stay just above the driveside dropout, it allows you to hang the chain off it when you remove the rear wheel and stops the loose chain flapping about. That’s what I’m guessing anyway.— JimD666
Good an explanation as any 🙂
Ta
Kinesis GF disc
I have had my Kinesis GF disc for a couple years now. Running Ultegra (non Di2) and some nice Mavic rims.
I absolutly love this bike. Its my winter and more relaxed bike. This weekend I did the Dunwich Dynamo through the night from East London to Dunwich Beach. I had so many people compliment my bike (even people on similarly nice bikes), in fact I have had this ever since I purchased it, peole just come over and ask about it.
It descends so well, it has a sort of mtb’like feel about it. I am sure the brakes help… I built it with exactly the same contact points as my other bikes, just more relaxed.
Its not light, and the rear end seem to be more heavy for some reason when compared to other of my bikes.
I cannot recommend these bikes more.
Urgh, I’d just about
Urgh, I’d just about forgotten that grotesque headtube badge and then you bring this back to the fore!
The Tripster V2 is a better
The Tripster V2 is a better looking bike in my opinion, just as comfortable, 3 bottle mounts, either thru axle or quick release and cheaper. https://road.cc/content/review/235318-kinesis-tripster-atr-v2-frame
I’ve gone through a few different crankset setups, but now I’m set on the triple Di2
Well, I picked it up last
Well, I picked it up last Tuesday and I’ve had a full commute (50 miles) and a short ride on it.
First impressions were that it was just like the GFTI Disc – which isn’t a bad thing. I immediately felt at home on it, and as comfortable. Not surprising considering it’s the same geometry.
A bit more time, and I think that it might be a little stiffer when out of the saddle; I do accept that this could be placebo effect though.
Overall I’m very happy with it, and looking forward to putting on some miles; but I do agree it’s probably not a major upgrade over the GFTI Disc.