Pacific Cycles announced today that they are pulling GT Bicycles out of the mass merchant and discount retail markets to focus that brand on the Independent Bike Dealer (IBD) market.
GT Bicycles, which started out as a boutique builder of great bikes in Longmont, Colorado, went bankrupt and was purchased by Pacific Cycle in 2001 after the death of GT's founder, Richard Young. Pacific Cycle, known for importing cheap Bike Shaped Objects and selling them through the discount stores such as Wal-Mart, Target, and K-Mart, transformed GT from a respectable bike builder into Yet Another Cheap Brand sold primarily through sporting goods stores.
Lately, however, the GT Design Center in Longmont (just up the road from where I work) has been creating sweet bikes yet again. My mountain bike is an older GT and I'm very glad to see them return to their roots creating high quality bikes and dedicating this line to the IBD channel.
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