GT Palomar: Good Vibes, Triple Triangles & a New Life on the Trails

Some bikes earn their place through rarity. Others through exotic tubing, high-end groupsets or racing pedigree.

And then there are bikes like this GT Palomar.

It isn't the most exotic GT ever produced, but decades later it has arguably become something more interesting: a brilliantly simple platform for building the kind of bike that can be ridden almost anywhere.

This 20-inch Palomar, dating from around the late 1990s, came with the thing that makes almost any GT from this period instantly recognisable — that iconic Triple Triangle frame.

For this rebuild, the goal wasn't period-correct restoration.

It was to take that unmistakable old GT silhouette, completely rebuild the bike and turn it into a practical all-terrain machine: narrow enough to dart through town, comfortable enough for everyday riding, and still entirely capable of disappearing down a woodland trail.

Essentially, a 1990s urban assault vehicle with good manners.

The Triple Triangle

There's no escaping the frame.

GT's extended seatstays run past the seat tube and meet the top tube, creating the company's famous Triple Triangle design. It's one of those details that immediately dates a bike to a particularly good period of mountain-bike design.

On this Palomar, the bright red paint and oversized white GT graphics make the silhouette even harder to miss.

There are signs of its life in the paintwork, and I've deliberately left them there. This isn't supposed to look like a bike that's spent the last three decades in a box.

It's an old mountain bike that's been rebuilt to be ridden again.

And that's much more interesting.

Keeping the Triple

There's a temptation with almost every 1990s MTB restomod to immediately convert it to 1x.

I didn't.

The Palomar retains a Shimano Alivio 3x7 drivetrain, which feels completely appropriate here. More importantly, it's incredibly practical.

The triple gives the bike a huge usable range for something that might spend one minute cruising along tarmac and the next climbing a rough trail.

The drivetrain has been refreshed with a new Shimano 11–28 7-speed cassette and new chain, while the bike has been recabled throughout.

It's uncomplicated, inexpensive to maintain and it works.

Sometimes that's enough.

New V-Brakes, Because Stopping Matters

The braking system received more substantial attention.

I've fitted brand-new Shimano V-brakes front and rear, paired with integrated Shimano V-brake levers and shifters.

The result is considerably stronger braking performance and a setup that's easy to maintain and find replacement parts for.

Again, this isn't a museum restoration.

If an old mountain bike is going back into regular use, I want the things that matter — brakes, cables, drivetrain and contact points — to work properly.

Velo Orange Milan Bars

The biggest change to the personality of the bike comes from the cockpit.

I've fitted Velo Orange Milan handlebars, giving the Palomar a more relaxed riding position without going all the way to an enormous modern alt-bar.

That was deliberate.

I wanted this bike to remain relatively narrow and nimble. There's enough sweep to make it substantially more comfortable than an old straight MTB bar, but it can still squeeze through traffic, gates and narrow trails.

The bars are finished with simple foam grips, while the polished cockpit complements the silver components elsewhere on the bike.

There's also deliberately quite a lot of cable up front.

Rather than cutting everything down for the current setup, I've left enough length to accommodate a decent-sized bar bag or wider handlebars in the future.

It might not produce the tidiest catalogue photograph, but it makes the bike much more adaptable for whoever owns it next.

Mavic X517s and Billy Bonkers

The Palomar rolls on Mavic X517 rims, which are a particularly nice addition to the build.

They're paired with Schwalbe Billy Bonkers, whose tan walls work beautifully against the red frame and silver wheels.

More importantly, they suit what the bike is intended to do.

They're quick enough that the Palomar doesn't feel laboured around town, but there's enough tyre underneath you to head onto gravel, towpaths and woodland trails without thinking twice about it.

It's not really a commuter.

It's not really a gravel bike.

And I'm not sure I'd call it a mountain bike anymore either.

It's just a bike for going places.

Which is arguably what these old MTBs are better at now than they've ever been.

Mudguards, Leopard Print and Good Vibes

The functional parts of the build are balanced by some slightly less serious choices.

The SDG leopard-print saddle is difficult to ignore and works far better with the red frame than it has any right to.

A set of SIS Bluebells mudguards adds some actual British-weather practicality without making the bike look overly sensible.

There's also a Blue Lug rechargeable front light included with the bike, along with a high-visibility rear triangle.

And then there's the cockpit.

A small Good Vibes Only sticker sits underneath a Mobil Pegasus on the Velo Orange stem.

Elsewhere, the mudguards have accumulated their own collection of stickers and details.

None of these things make the bike faster.

They do make it feel like someone's bike rather than a collection of components assembled around an old frame.

That's important to me.

Completely Rebuilt

Underneath all of those details is the less glamorous part of the project.

The bike has been completely rebuilt from top to bottom.

New cables throughout.
New chain.
New Shimano cassette.
New Shimano V-brakes front and rear.
Drivetrain adjusted.
Brakes set up.
Everything checked and brought back into service.

The objective wasn't simply to make an old GT photograph well.

It was to create something someone could actually use.

One Bike, Lots of Jobs

The finished Palomar sits in a useful middle ground.

The 20-inch frame should directionally work for someone around 5'8"–6'0" (173–183 cm), although vintage MTB sizing is never an exact science. Rider proportions and preference matter, and the swept-back Milan bars make the cockpit considerably more forgiving than the frame measurement might suggest.

Around town, the relatively narrow cockpit makes it quick and manoeuvrable.

Add a bag and the mudguards, lights and triple drivetrain make it a genuinely useful commuter.

Point it towards a towpath or gravel track and the Billy Bonkers come into their own.

And when a trail appears?

It's still a GT mountain bike underneath everything we've changed.

Take it.

Making the Humble Bikes Interesting Again

There's a tendency within vintage mountain biking to concentrate on the halo bikes.

The Zaskars. The Xizangs. The high-end race bikes and catalogue exotica.

I understand why.

But there's something I increasingly enjoy about starting further down the hierarchy.

The Palomar doesn't need to pretend it was something it wasn't. Its appeal comes from the fact that the basic ingredients were already good: a steel frame, useful geometry, 26-inch wheels and that wonderful GT Triple Triangle.

A few decades later, we've simply changed the context around it.

The result is a bike that's arguably more useful now than when it was new.

A little bit commuter.

A little bit ATB.

A little bit 1990s mountain bike.

And just enough leopard print to prevent anyone taking it too seriously.

Good vibes only.