Gunnar Bikes :)

[Catrin]

You learn a lot when you start shopping and comparing bikes, don't you? Congrats on your new Gunnar, Catrin. I think shopping for a bike is almost as much fun as riding it. No wonder some of us hoard bikes

Yep - and I was quite shocked to see how different the measurements were for my Trek 7.6 FX WSD when compared with my LHT. No WONDER the LHT fit me so much better than the Trek - and the LHT is by no means a WSD! From what I can tell, Gunnar does not have a stock size for either Sport nor Crosshairs that come close to what they are recommending for me.

I just returned from my LBS where I got a few more of the recommended measurements to help me have an intelligent conversation tomorrow with Waterford when I call for the sales pitch and the difference in handling between the proposed custom design and my LHT.

I did specifically ask for the trail. They are recommending an upgraded Waterford road fork, and it has a rake of 50 with a trail of 54.7. I cannot find the trail on Surly's site for the LHT.

I found that the trail on my old Trek was 7 cm, while I am assuming that the trail measurement for the Gunnar is in mm, so it would be 5.47 cm on the Gunner. I wish I could find a comparable measurement for the LHT. Can't find the rake for the Trek, but the rake for the LHT is 45, compared with the rake of 50 for the Gunnar. I do understand what the rake is.

Edited: I did find a site that explains trail and rake (and relationship with head angle and wheelbase) - and it explains that as the rake increases, trail decreases. That makes sense to me, and the rake is certainly increased on the Gunnar over the LHT and, I strongly suspect, the Trek...I also remember that I needed 40 acres to turn the Trek around while the LHT requires much less space even though it has a longer wheelbase.