GT Bicycles Partners with Gary and Craig Turner on Limited Edition ’79

BMX Cruiser 

Wilton, Conn. – October XX, 2019 – GT Bicycles, a premium brand of Dorel Industries, Inc. (TSX: DII.B, DII.A) today released a modern version of the iconic 1979 26” BMX Cruiser frameset to celebrate the brand’s new partnership with original GT Bicycles founder Gary Turner and his son Craig.

After reconnecting with GT in 2017, plans around a reunion project began brewing. “GT has been a part of our family since I was five years-old,” said Craig Turner. “Partnering with the company again is really exciting.” 

Only 100 limited edition frame, fork, seat post and handlebar sets of the original 1979 26” BMX Cruiser design will be produced. The new framesets will be the first GT Bicycles made in the United States in almost 20 years. They will be built in the Turner’s workshop in Orange, California, not far from where it all began. The framesets will be designed with the same 1 1/4” toptube and downtube outer diameter as well as an American bottom bracket, and 5/8” thick chainstays. The dropouts will be beefed up from the original 1/8” to 3/16” for added strength. The headtube will be updated from 1” to 1 1/8” to accommodate modern headsets and forks. 

In the early 1970s, while BMX was still in its infancy, kids would race their bikes on the big dirt tracks of Southern California between motocross races. The bikes produced by leading companies of the day were heavy, slow, and fragile. Gary Turner took notice and decided to change this. A professional drag racer, Gary had experience welding and building cro-mo chassis for dragsters. In 1972, using the same high-grade aircraft cro-moly used for dragsters, Turner designed his first purpose-built BMX bike for his son Craig to race at the motocross track. People began to take notice, including shop owner Richard Long, and together, the two teamed up to start GT Bicycles producing some of the best BMX and mountain bikes on the market, including the 26” BMX Cruiser of which less the 100 were made due to the on-set of 24” wheels in 1980 setting the trend for the future.

“BMX and GT became passions (and remain passions) once I started taking my son to the track more than 45 years ago,” added Gary Turner. “It’s exciting to see my son Craig developing and building frames and forks like I did back in the day, and we’re looking forward to doing this with GT.”

“This is a special partnership celebrating the accomplishments of my father and Richard Long and the lasting impression they’ve left on GT Bicycles,” noted Craig. 

When asked what made, and continues to make, the BMX cruiser so popular among riders Craig believes “It's the camaraderie of BMX. It’s for the people that used to race back in the day, you don’t have to gear up and go to the BMX racetrack and race, you just get out and pedal. Now, everyone meets up, goes out and has fun. This bike is perfect for that.”

Thanks for your patience. Craig Turner is welding each frame set personally. Our production schedule is a few days ahead of schedule. Due to the large number of frames, we must take the frame sets to powder coat in batches by their designated color. We use a high-quality powder coat company and are working around their schedule. Below is an estimated timeline. Remember, if there is an issue with the powder coat, it will have to go back to be corrected. We will let you know if there are any issues. We just can’t send you another frame because of the assigned serial numbers.

Yellow Frame kits: Picked up from powder coat 1/23/2020-ship 1/27/2020

Black Frame kits: At powder coat on 1/20/2020- plan to ship 1/30/2020

Red frame kits: Will be at powder coat 1/27/2020 – plan to ship 2/4/2020

Blue frame kits: Will be at powder coat 1/30/2020- plan to ship 2/10/2020

The blue and red frame kits are a two-stage coat and will take a few extra days.

Our next swap meet is Saturday December 7 at the factory. 205 E. Emerson Ave, Orange CA 92865. Contact Albert for details: Albert@GT1972.com

The 2019 Bash was epic! We are in the works of planning the 2020 Bash. We are planning to do it in October.

WHAT IS CTK? CRAIG TURNER KUSTOMS. CRAIG IS THE SON OF GARY. GARY HAS TAUGHT ALL OF HIS MASTER FRAME BUILDING SKILLS TO CRAIG WHO HAND BUILDS ALL OF OUR FRAMES AND FORKS. IF DOESNT RESMBLE A GARY TURNER FRAME, THEN ITS A CTK.

OUR FRAMES AND FORKS ARE HAND MADE IN THE USA AT OUR FACILITY . IT MAY TAKE A FEW WEEKS TO GET YOUR ORDER BUT IT WILL BE WORTH THE WAIT. WE GUARANTY ALL OF OUR WORK AND STRIVE TO MAKE SURE YOU GET WANT YOU WANT.