The major differences are:

• Handling: The roadie has fast steering race handling while the sport has a more general purpose road handling. While serviceable for citizen's racing, the sport excels at long-distance riding.
• Comfort: The Sport's longer wheelbase soaks up road shock somewhat more than the Roadie's short wheelbase.
• Tire Choices: Thanks to its 57mm dual pivot brake compatibility, the Sport can fit up to 32C tires and fenders with tires up to 28C. These larger tires help increase comfort and reliability.

The Sport and Roadie share most of the critical features of a Gunnar:

• Fully heat treated air-hardening tubeset.
• Same great fit and riding position.
• The same craftsmanship and attention to detail.

You'll have a great bike either way!

If you're talking about supported or credit card touring, both are excellent choices. The CrossHairs has a bit more tire clearance, but the 28C tires typical of this kind of touring will fit both bikes.

The CrossHairs does have a more agressive fit - meaning that it's designed for riders who prefer to stretch out. If you like a shorter top tube, the Sport's the better choice.

Neither bike is designed for full scale unsupported touring. You'll want to keep your loads limited to about 20 pounds (10kg). Much more than that and you increase the chance for high-speed wobble, the bane of loaded tourists.

If loaded touring is your goal, consider taking advantage our Gunnar's made to measure services. With this service, we build the bike to fit you while customizing handling, tube selection and other factors.

The Rock Tour's designed for 26" wheels. If you mount a disc brake and use the recommended suspension compatible rigid fork, you'll have enough room to fit 29er wheels, but your bottom bracket will be over an inch high then what we would recommend. The result is a unstable handling and excessively high standover height.

If you want a real 29er, just order a made-to-measure Rock Hound or Ruffian and request it.

We put flexibility ahead to weight savings. In this case, the flexibility is very limited.

Braze-on front derailleurs are some 11-14 grams lighter than the clamp-on style. On the other hand, front derailleur bosses when brazed on weigh about 11 grams. For three grams you get the ability to raise and lower your derailleur to meet changing needs. Current braze-on derailleur mounts allow about a 2 tooth range (for example 52 to 54 teeth). That's a lot of inflexibility for three lousy grams.

The reason many companies use braze-on front derailleurs is that their structure doesn't allow them to fit a clamp-on. They all wish they could.

It makes it easier for people to get the rear wheel in and out. In the old days, horizontal dropouts with adjusting screws allowed you to keep the wheel centered when the frame was not aligned and the wheel not dished. Well, today we build our frames straight and we urge you to keep your wheel dished - for everybody's sake!

More blasphemy! "Traditional" cyclocrossers had higher bottom brackets than we've become used to on road bikes. That became the standard for the newer generation of cyclocross bikes. After all, most of the buyers were retro-geeks anyway.

But wait a minute! Traditional road bikes also had higher bottom brackets than they used to. We've learned that dropping the bottom bracket lowers your center of gravity and makes the bike more stable without compromising steering responsiveness. I'd think that would be pretty important when racing on mud, ice and snow. The only people who don't like the low bottom bracket are forced to race cyclocross on warmed over mountain bike cross-country tracks.

Bottom brackets come in two typical widths, 68mm and 73mm. The 73mm width is a relatively new phenomenon the result of all the fat-tubed aluminum bikes which have come out. We've stuck with 68mm since it lets you keep your feet closer together, which means just a little bit greater pedaling efficiency. Since you're the motor we thought you'd appreciate that.

Because this gives fixed gear affectionados the greatest range of fixed gear hubsets from which to choose.

We used to be able to tell you that you should use a 27.0 mm but we changed it to 27.2 mm last spring. So: If you have an older issue (Serial number C00001 or before plus a few later spring models) you might still need a 27.0mm post. Otherwise check that the seatpost is built to the right tolerance.

In medium and large sizes, the slope gets the top of the head tube back up to where it would be if we didn't have an external seat collar. Otherwise you'd need an extra 20mm of spacers on your headset.

They provide a tight clamp and are easy to replace.

Some riders - particularly larger off-road riders - will benefit from the clamping power of the Salsa Lip Lock clamp - order in the 29.4mm diameter.

No problem. Get flip-flop hubs, which fit a fixed gear on one side and a freewheel on the other.

When riding with a free wheel, it's especially important to mount both the front and rear brakes.

The holes insure that our frames drain properly - both before and after construction. We wash our frames at several points during fabrication. Allowing them to dry out quickly is critical for subsequent operations, particularly painting.

Water has a way of entering your frame in the darnedest ways. Water enters from condensation occurring when moving the bike from cold temperatures to hot ones. There's no way to prevent this form of infiltration. Our drain holes provide plenty of ventilation and thus evaporation of the moisture. Without them, the moisture has plenty of time to help create rust.

Of course, water can enter from riding through water, riding during hard rain or from washing. Just stand the bike on end and the water easily drains out the bottom. The remaining moisture evaporates in short order.

Anti-corrosion expert Peter Weigle corroborates our view that better ventilation minimizes corrosion better than so-called "sealed" systems. Of course, treating your frame with Weigle's Framesaver provides even better protection - particularly in humid or corrosive environments like Florida.

Since our factory repaints steel frames as much as sixty years old, we know that the material has fundamental durability with even modest care.

Track bikes are already pretty rare and yet we have a good supply of parts at several price points. 120mm is the standard spacing on track bikes.

Track wheels need fit only one or two cogs where our regular road wheel has 9 or 10, so there's less wheel dish and therefore a stronger wheel in spite of the narrower hub width. Track riders also like the lower Q-factor (the horizontal distance between the pedals).

There are enough good reasons to retain these standards that they won't go away any time soon.

1 1/8", of course, just like the Ruffian and the CrossHairs. All the other bikes are 1". You can special order the Roadie as a 1 1/8" head tube for $75.

For 26er's, it depends on the year built. For model years up to 2000, the axle to crown race is 410mm. For 2001 to the present, the axle to crown is 445.

If you have a 29er, the axle to crown is roughly 466mm. Any taller and your front wheel will get you into trouble your rear wheel can't get you out.

OS2 represents a significant leap in tubing design, taking advantage of the new generation of heat treated air-hardening tubes.

Traditional OS frames had a one inch top tube and 1 1/8 inch downtube. In the late 1980's, Gunnar's predecessor company, Paramount Design Group, revolutionized the pro bike world by introducing the OS design, expanding the downtube to 1 1/4" and the top tube to 1 1/8".

OS2 takes this a step farther with a 1 3/8" downtube and 1 1/4" top tube. This would not be possible without the development of air-hardening alloys.

The result is a lighter design with all the strength and durability you'd want in a high-performance steel frame.

Air hardening steels are a class of steel alloys designed for high-performance applications like air-craft construction, automobile crash panels and bicycle frames. Of all these applications, the bicyle frame is the most demanding.

When they come from the factory, air hardening steels are about 10% stronger than chromoly steel and Reynolds' equivalent 531. Like chromoly and 531, air hardening steels can be heat treated. Heat treating can as much as double the strength of the tubing.

The big benefit for Gunnar of heat treated air-hardening steels is that when we TIG-weld them, the joints are much stronger than they would be if they were the older generation of alloy. The effect is a much more durable frame. It also allows up to lighten up the tubes while maintaining adequate strength.

Gunnar uses two types of heat treated air hardening alloys - True Temper OX Platinum and Reynolds 853. Gunnar has designed custom tubes to supplement these companies' standard offerings to achieve the highest overall performance.

So what is right! Some people measure the size of a bike from the middle of the bottom bracket to the center of where the seat tube meets the top tube ("Center to Center"). Others, including ourselves, measure from the center of the bottom bracket to the top of the seat tube - including the clamp. Either way is fine. Seat tube length provides only a mild indication of frame size. The real indicators are top tube length and standover height.

We measure the top tube length as the theoretical distance from the center of the head tube horizontally to where it would meet the seat tube if the seat tube was long enough. This is the best way to compensate for the different slopes from bike to bike and size to size. While this sounds a bit hairy, it does insure that you can reasonably predict the reach between the seat and the handlebars.

We measure it based on a typical tire in the middle of the top tube. You'll have a bit extra top tube clearance on the rear half of the bike and you'll find it a bit tight up front.

While a growing number of riders are moving to threadless headset designs, others like the easy adjustability of a quill stem. Gunnar offers an optional threaded stem for the Crosshairs. It adds $50 to the fork's retail price and three weeks to the lead time.

Up until the 2004, most Gunnar decals were placed over the paint. These decals can be replaced with the right technique. It starts with properly removing the existing decals. Gunnar used two different technologies of decals.

Plan A: Take your bike down to the local car wash. Using the pressure washer at an angle to the edge of the decal, attempt to "spray off" the decals. If they are right variety (most of the bikes up until the 2003 model year), they will come right off. The most recent version (the ones used in the 2003 model year) do not come off, so you'll have to go to plan B.

Plan B: Get a hair dryer and a credit card. Heat up the decal with the blow dryer until it feels hot but not burning. This heats up the adhesive. Then use the credit card edge to scrape off the decal.

With either technique, use mineral spirits to clean off any residual adhesive after removing the decals. Wipe carefully. Then give it a couple of minutes for the residual mineral spirits to evaporate.

To install the new decals: Make sure the bike is held steadily. Carefully remove the backing from the decal. This exposes the side of the decal that goes on the frame surface. Line up the decal along the side of the tube.

Note that the decals should be installed just above the centerline of the decal in an area called the "visual center". Since even from a modest distnace, we stand above the bike, you want to see the decal centered on the tube from that vantage point.

Once you locate the decal, start laying the decal at one end and work your way to the other end. Stick the decal on from the centerline of the tube, then push the decal from the centerline to the outside of the tube. This helps minimize any air bubbles under the decal.

Use the credit card to gently "squeegie" out any residual air bubbles. Once the decal has had a chance to set up, then very slowly pull back the other backing, making sure the decal sticks to the frame and not the backing.

Once the backing is removed, give the decals a day or so to set up before waxing the frame. The newest generation of "top mount" decals are very tough - so tough that they can't be removed even with a pressure washer.

Fresh decals can really freshen up the look of your Gunnar!

Note: Custom paint jobs and many bikes starting in the 2004 model year have clearcoat over decal. These decals require a finishing professional and probably a frame repaint to replace.

You can order a stock Roadie fork for $275 or a custom Waterford 22-Series fork which matches the Roadie geometry for $325, threaded or threadless. Add an extra week or so to the lead time.

To order, just call 262-534-4190 during regular business hours. It costs $10 plus S&H.

Though Gunnars are designed to last a lifetime, they, like any good bike frame, do require basic care to protect against corrosion-related problems.
Annual Overhaul: Like any good bike made of any material, an annual overhaul prevents mechanical problems from occuring such as frozen bottom brackets and stuck seatposts. Your shop is well equipped to perform this work.
Internal protection: If you plan on riding your Gunnar in bad weather, applying Framesaver (tm) or linseed oil to the internal surfaces - especially in the chainstays and bottom bracket area - is very important. This is particularly important in areas where salt is used to melt snow and ice during the winter. Re-apply every 2-3 years.
Fair weather riders don't need this kind of attention. However, after riding in wet conditions, all riders should hold the bike up with front wheel over the rear to allow water to drain out. Evaporation will rid the insides of residual moisture.
External Protection: Polyurethane enamels are, at a microscopic level, porous and, for long-term protection, require waxing. It takes 2-3 months for paint on the frame to fully cure. During this period, if you want to wax your frame, use something very light, like Pledge. After 90 days and after cleaning dirt off the frame, apply a non-breathable wax such as Meguiar's Tech Wax or Turtle Wax.
For most riders, a once a year waxing with your annual overhaul is all the external treatment needed to keep your frame in top shape. If you ride in tough winter conditions or you ride in particularly corrossive environments such as near the ocean, you may consider a semi-annual re-waxing.
If you apply a wax-stripping cleaner/polisher, be sure to re-wax the frame.
Once waxed, periodic cleaning with gentle soap and shining it up with Pledge will keep your bike looking great.
Pledge alone will not provide an appropriate level of surface corrosion protection. It lacks the durability and UV protection of wax. You need a real wax job.

We can't comment on every crank and BB combination but today's CrossHairs should fit all standard road and even off-road configurations.

We built a run of bent chainstay CrossHairs last year on which road double chainring setups couldn't properly fit (though they offered fantastic tire clearance). It fit triples fine, though, giving riders a 52/42 big chain ring option. After hearing barks from the field we went to the configuration we offer today.

You can find the serial number on the bottom bracket. Paint makes it hard to read. The serial number takes the form of z yyxxx where z is a letter for the month code, yy is the last two digits of the year and xxx is the sequence within the month.

The month code starts with A for January, B for February and so on, skipping I and ending with