WHAT: GT Ruckus I-Drive Flowta WHERE: www.gtbicycles.com HOW MUCH: $2,999.99

Back in 1998, the Spice Girls were still wildly popular and the world of suspension was still dominated by the mighty four-bar linkage design (still a very viable design).

Back then, GT and a score of other bike companies (Jamis, Ellsworth, Turner, Intense, and so on and so forth…) were happily building four bar bikes that featured a pivot on the chainstay, slightly below and in front of the rear drop-out. That pivot placement, however, is roughly what Specialized came to own in May of 1998, when they bought the Horst Link patents.

While Specialized was willing to license the design to small builders like Intense and Turner, it was unlikely that they’d let a large, rival bike company like GT use that design free and clear (GT was using the Horst Link on its line of LTS bikes). This was at least part of what drew GT engineer, Jim Busby, back to the drafting table. His goal: to come up with an absolutely efficient, bomb-proof and entirely unique suspension design. Enter the I-Drive.

GT's I-Drive eccentric...still mind boggling five years after its introduction.

The I-Drive was, unequivocally, a novel design. At its core it featured a massive eccentric mechanism surrounding the bottom bracket. The eccentric, in essence, isolated the rider from the rear suspension by allowing the rear end to rotate freely around the bottom bracket. The eccentric itself looked like someone had exploded the innards of a Swiss grandfather clock and pasted them onto an oversized bottom bracket shell. GT touted I-Drive as the Holy Grail of suspension designs: efficient, bomb-proof, like buttah on the descents…

Flash forward five years and we find that GT is still strongly wedded to I-Drive. GT now uses a much more simplified version of I-Drive (IDXC) on its line of cross-country dualies, but the basic Swiss clock version of I-Drive is still alive and kicking on the company’s freeride line. Which brings us, in a rather roundabout fashion, to the Ruckus Flowta.

The Flowta is a bit of a strange bird: a legitimate freeride bike with super-model-skinny aspirations. In a nutshell, you’re looking at six inches of front and rear travel (courtesy of a Manitou Nixon Super Z1 fork and Fox AVA R rear shock).

The bike is spec’d in an eclectic, but well thought out manner. For starters, you’ll find a smattering of Shimano’s freeride Saint components where they count most (crankset, disc brake calipers, rear derailleur and hubs). Then there’s the light (for freeriding, at least) WTB Laser Disc rims, the adjustable Syntace riser bar and stem combo and the innovative SDG I-Beam seatpost and saddle.

The Flowta is spec'd with a healthy smattering of Shimano Saint components.

How does the bike add up on the trail? Well, the first thing you’d notice is that, for a freeride bike, the Flowta is surprisingly light and deft. When seated, the bike climbs more efficiently than some cross-country dualies out there. Notice, I didn’t say that this thing “rockets up climbs” or anything like that. You’re looking at about 34 pounds of bike and 34 pounds of anything will never “rocket” anywhere. But the Flowta is efficient.

Drop the chain into the granny ring, concentrate on spinning smooth circles and you’ll be stunned by the lack of bobbing (courtesy, to some degree, of the Fox AVA’s propedal damping) and by how well the rear end actually digs into the trail.

There’s a singletrack by my house that features a short, but particularly rocky and root-infested climb—it’s a challenge to clean on both my hardtail and my four-inch travel bike, yet I clean it every time I sit and spin on the Flowta. Impressive. The adjustable Syntace stem is a real boon here as well, as it enables you to lengthen the cockpit and get a little more weight over your front wheel.

“Sit and spin”, however, is the critical phrase when describing the Flowta, because climbing on this bike suffers tremendously if you get out of the saddle or pedal with anything other than Barry White-smoothness. Uneven pedal strokes quickly overwhelm the AVA’s low-speed compression damping and the Flowta bobs and sucks up your energy like a sponge.

The Flowta’s strong suit (as you’d rightly expect) is its ability to make the ugliest descents feel surprisingly tame. Up front, the through-axle Manitou is incredibly stiff and its compression stroke has a remarkably even and bottomless for an air-sprung fork. Same is true of the rear end. Increasing the air volume on the AVA shock gives it a more linear feel (though you won’t be confusing it for a coil any time soon). Drops and rock gardens seemingly disappear under the Flowta. Finally, the rear end is as stiff as a brick shit house—I can’t detect an ounce of torsional flex, even under the hardest cornering.

The Manitou Nixon Super Z1 and the 203-mm Saint rotor....descending bliss.

What I like best about the Flowta is that it is truly a versatile beast. With the head angle set at 66 degrees, it has the relaxed and confident descending feel of a true freeride bike. Flip the 2-way positioning chip around, however, increases the head angle and makes the bike more of an over-built enduro bike. In short, while this bike has the chops to take on stunts, or seriously steep and technical terrain, the Flowta has a life beyond the ski resorts and chairlifts.

Suspension technology is at an interesting crossroads. Right now, I’m riding three different test bikes. The Raleigh Phase II, the Giant Reign and this Flowta. All of the bikes have between five and six inches of travel. A couple years ago, that much rear suspension travel would have meant that all three of these models were “freeride” bikes. That’s not the case anymore.

Both the Raleigh and the Giant ride like cross-country bikes that just happen to have a few spare inches of emergency travel. Sorta like 9-to5 XC bikes with a passion for the occasional weekend of rocky descents. In short, they are truly all-mountain, trail bikes.

The Flowta, on the other hand, goes the other way. It’s a freeride bike with cross-country aspirations. That’s the best way to describe it. Whether the Flowta is right for you, then, largely depends on where you’re coming from as a rider. If you’re the type of rider who thinks that any bike with a front derailleur and an air-shock is an XC bike, you’ll love the bike’s light weight, flick-ability (yeah, I just made that word up) and climbing efficiency. If, conversely, you currently ride a bike with four or fewer inches of travel and you’re looking for a mild boost in travel, you’ll probably find the Flowta a bit overbuilt and inefficient.

Personally, I’ve come to view the Flowta this way: if my ride involves climbing more than five miles of very steep trail and the downhills don’t require body armor, I’ll always opt for an all-mountain bike like the Giant Reign (keep your eyes peeled for those reviews, by the way). If I only have to put in three or four miles of really steep climbs, and the trail has any stunts on it, or I’m seriously considering strapping on arm guards, I always reach for the Flowta.