First Look: 2023 GT Fury Carbon DH Bike

Jun 10, 2023
by Dario DiGiulio  
photo

The GT Factory Racing team has been riding the current Fury in its distinctly blue colorway since 2018, making it high time for a refresh of the model. The prior Fury was no slouch, proving quite popular with racers and bike park fiends alike, but the updates they've made should better suit the needs and wants of modern racers and riders. The 2023 Fury has undergone a solid reworking of the geometry, updates to the kinematics and linkage, but still retains the low-high pivot of the prior generation.
GT has integrated more adjustment into the Fury frame, allowing the geometry and suspension performance to be tweaked by the end user to best suit their needs and ride style.
GT Fury Details

• Carbon front triangle, Alloy rear
• Travel: 200mm 29", 210mm 27.5"
• 29" or 'MX' wheel size
• 63.5° head tube angle
• 450 to 510mm reach
• +/- 10mm chainstay adjustment
• Sizes: M, L, XL
• Weight: 4300g (size L w/o shock)
• Price: $2,600 USD / $3,500 CAD / £3,000
gtbicycles.com
We've been seeing glimpses of this new bike for a while now, but it's finally time to dig into the details and see all that has changed.



photo
A through-frame rocker link.
photo
Progression adjustment flip chip.
photo
And 10mm of chainstay adjustment.

Frame Details

Adjustments are few, but significant, all depending on 3 flip chips baked into the Fury's frame. You can choose between full 29" wheels or the 'MX' setup via a chip at the junction between the seatstays and the rocker link. At the lower shock mount, there's another flip chip, allowing you to run the bike with a more progressive or linear kinematic, to suit rider preference and track characteristics. The final chip adjusts the effective chainstay length, swapping from 440 to 450mm in the 29" setting and 435 to 445mm in the 27.5" setting. Between all these options, there's more than enough to play with, and I'm sure we'll see riders and racers tweaking their Fury geometry and setup to eke out the fastest times on track.

Reworking the layup of the carbon front triangle shaved about 300g off the total weight, resulting in a 4300g frame without the shock. GT made sure to locate as much of the frame weight as low as possible on the chassis, in order to lower the center of gravity and hopefully improve stability. Should you want to counteract that lowered weight bias a bit, GT now includes a bottle cage style mount on the underside of the top tube, allowing you to strap a small toolkit or cute accessory to the frame.

Both the rear brake and shifter housing are routed internally through the frame, snaking from the front to the rear triangle around the rocker link tunnel to keep the lines as straight as possible. They enter the frame on top of the headtube, giving the routing a very unique look.

GT has stuck to some sensible standards with the Fury frame, implementing a threaded 83mm bottom bracket, a 1.5" headtube, and using a somewhat atypical Boost 12x148 rear end - a nice detail if you're keen to share a wheelset between your pedal bike and the DH machine. The frame has ISCG05 mounts for bashguards, and is set up to run a trunnion shock.



photo

Suspension Design

GT stuck with their High-Pivot LTS suspension system that was used in the prior Fury, but with plenty of tweaks and improvements to make the bike faster and more predictable. They've also integrated a flip chip into the lower shock mount, giving one the ability to change the progression of the suspension.

photo

The Fury frame comes with a 225x75mm RockShox SuperDeluxe Coil Ultimate DH RC2 shock, which will provide either 200 or 210mm of travel, depending on whether you have the rear end in the 29" or 27.5" setting.

The engineers at GT have increased the anti-rise on the new bike, which should make the braking feel more consistent and stable throughout the travel. Anti-squat has also gone up a bit to improve sprinting performance, with the idler mitigating any increased pedal kick that might occur.



Geometry

The hard points of the Fury got a whole host of updates for the 2023 bike, a few of which can be changed by use of the flip chips on the chainstays and seatstays. You'll notice right off the bat that sizing has changed somewhat, with GT adding the XL frame size and deleting the Small. Within the Medium and Large sizes that have carried through, reach numbers have grown by about 5-10mm, depending on the settings. Stack heights have also grown quite a bit, which should give a more confident riding position as well as the ability to tweak the fit for steeper and trickier terrain.

Chainstays have been stretched out a bit on the new Fury, with the ability to adjust that length by 10mm. In 29" mode, you can opt between 440 and 450mm, the latter of which should give a very stable and lengthy wheelbase. With a small rear wheel, your choices are 435 or 445mm, to either accentuate the nimble handling of the MX setup, or to keep things racy while gaining some butt clearance.

The last detail worth noting - and quite an unusual one considering the trends of the past few years - is the head tube angle. It's actually gotten steeper on the new Fury, moving from 62° to 63.5°. The thought here is that this complements the growth in reach, and provides more confidence in turns and tighter sections of track. I tend to agree, but we'll see how it shakes out on trail. Luckily, if that's too steep for you, the 1.5" head tube plays nicely with a whole host of angle adjust headsets.

photo
The overall geometry is relatively unaffected by all the adjustments you can make to the Fury.



Specs and Pricing

29 U Fury AM Frm GXY
Frame-only for now.

The options here are pretty slim, with one color and one frame offering for the time being. Coming in at $2,600 USD, you get the Fury frameset, a RockShox SuperDeluxe Coil Ultimate shock, an FSA headset, and an open ticket to build the bike up however you might wish. Sparkly but subdued, the colorway for the current frame is called Gloss Galaxy and Black with Sea Green.

Later this summer, GT will be launching two all-new complete models, so stay tuned if that's more your speed.

29 U Fury AM Frm GXY
Comes with a RockShox shock.
29 U Fury AM Frm GXY
And a 1.5" FSA headset.



It's also worth noting that the new Fury will be the official bike of one of the coolest programs in downhill racing this year: GT's Privateer Project, brought about by Wyn Masters. At each round of the World Cup, a the fastest privateer from the previous race will be treated to full support at that round, as well as a complete bike built up just like Wyn's. As DH gets more professional and pro teams bring more support to the races, programs like this make all the difference for people trying to break into the top of the sport.



photo
More photos can be found in the high-res gallery here.


Author Info:
dariodigiulio avatar

Member since Dec 25, 2016
167 articles

59 Comments
  • 66 2
 Frame and Shock for less than half the price of the frame shock and fork combo on the new Giant Glory, good on you GT
  • 18 3
 And probably still made by Giant anyway...
  • 2 7
flag Aled-DHI (Jun 12, 2023 at 9:36) (Below Threshold)
 @stiingya: clearly don't know what your talking about lol.
  • 7 1
 @Aled-DHI: It's either Giant or Merida making that frame, almost guaranteed.
  • 1 0
 @Aled-DHI: Clearly don't know what you’re* talking about lol.
  • 42 1
 fox rear shox, rockshox fork, hayes brake, trp rotor, sram crank, trp rear derailleur whaaaaat a mix!!!!
  • 10 2
 you forgot Mixed wheel
  • 21 1
 that's what happens when you grab the engineers bike for the photo shoot Wink
  • 5 17
flag nickfranko (Jun 10, 2023 at 14:40) (Below Threshold)
 And kicking Noga off the team mid-season
  • 4 0
 @nickfranko: I still haven’t heard GT’s side of that story. Has anyone? There has to be more to it. At least I hope so.
  • 2 0
 and a shimano cassette with a i9 hub
  • 20 1
 this is a beautiful bike. And I’m
Not usually a big DH bike guy.
  • 71 0
 Maybe you’re just a little DH guy.
  • 22 0
 @islandforlife: But then he's out of luck as there's no size small frame.
  • 3 0
 Guy who just considers going uphill a means to and beautiful end checking in. This is a wonderful looking bike. Want.
  • 12 1
 They could have come up with a better logo. Remember the one with the wings? Yeah...that woulda been cool. But great looking frame and relatively great price!
  • 10 0
 looks like a great frame and it's $2,600 with boost rear, seems like the best option to try and scrap together a DH bike without spending $5k+
  • 4 3
 It makes a lot of sense to unify standards from that perspective - I recently did that, got a dh frame and coming from trail bikes had basically nothing usable in my parts bin apart from headset spacers and some pedals - but 157 was there all along. Both 148 and 150 are adaptable to 157 and people have existing wheels in all those three standards, so 148 is a bit of a dick move towards people who are looking for a new dh frame
  • 1 0
 Yep. This, the TR11 and the Demo are the only DH bikes I’m looking at because of the 148 ear end.
  • 12 1
 The irony of owning a trail bike with 157mm rear hub spacing…
  • 11 1
 Nice looking bike I must say
  • 10 0
 Looks like the new Trek Madone
  • 1 0
 Hah! Not that far off ;-)
  • 1 2
 reminds me of a stompjumper
  • 8 0
 Very good looking rig , i gotta say
  • 7 0
 The Furry is nice, but I'm holding out for the limited edition Extra Hairy.
  • 4 0
 Beautiful bike, looking forward to seeing these guys swarming whistler next season (hopefully).
  • 3 0
 Great looking bike. It's good to see that GT offers cool bikes at reasonable prices
  • 3 0
 The new Trek Fuel looks more like a GT fury than a GT Fury looks like a GT Fury
  • 5 1
 That finish is gorgeous...but the logo screams 'Xacto Knife!'
  • 2 0
 I got excited (148x12mm, one wheelset to rule all my bikes) and then realized there's no EU pricing so probably not available here...
  • 3 1
 Is it a Sin putting two bolds for a water botle option in DH/Rat Park bike?... Ara so iluminated that do water fast downhillers?
  • 9 6
 The newer, more subtle branding is nice.
  • 3 0
 4.300g is not light but anyway a nice bike and price...well done GT
  • 2 0
 Still a reasonable price, but got me damn exited when i saw 26 hundred… shame that’s just a frameset
  • 2 0
 $2600 or £3000 ($3770). Even when British prices include vat, that's taking the piss
  • 3 1
 But where’s the I-drive?!
  • 2 1
 Should have had the longer length stays for 27.5 and shorter for 29 not other way around
  • 2 0
 Total class move on the supporting the Privateer class winner.
  • 2 0
 Wow that's a proper big XL.
  • 2 0
 Maybe this is the year I get a new DH bike?
  • 1 0
 Reminds me of GT IT-1 a bit
  • 1 0
 What about that Vivid Air? Curious to hear more about that.
  • 2 1
 Times are tough... they had to let go of their graphic designer.
  • 1 0
 Only hot girls, as well as me write to me ➤ u.to/mWPGHw
  • 1 0
 My 2015 alloy Fury frame was lighter than this.
  • 4 4
 Progression asjustment. My 2002 banshee scream has that.
  • 2 2
 careful of the shock bolts on these ones folks
  • 2 0
 Looks like they’ve changed up the lower shock mount with a common 8mm steel bolt. Much improved over previous Fury
  • 4 5
 Looks Like a Session
  • 3 6
 Any news with Noga?
Below threshold threads are hidden







Copyright © 2000 - 2024. Pinkbike.com. All rights reserved.
dv65 0.083977
Mobile Version of Website