What We Do
Gunnar Cycles operates under the craftsmanship legacy of Abracadabra Fabrication (A-fab), itself part of the Turtle Lake Fabrication family. What began as a commitment to handmade excellence has evolved into a collective of premium bicycle brands, each dedicated to the artistry of custom frame building.
Under the Abracadabra Fabrication umbrella, we craft frames for three brands: Waterford, Sanitas, and Gunnar.
Gunnar Cycles is guided by three partners who bring decades of combined experience in frame building and bicycle industry expertise:
David
John
Brad
The Gunnar Story
Waterford Precision was founded in 1993 by Richard Schwinn. They took over Schwinns Paramount Design Group to continue and improve the Paramount production domestically. After a few years, Richard launched Gunnar Cycles. Gunnar focused on price-point forward, stock geometry bicycles.
Gunnar was one of the shop dogs, aptly named “the greeter”. Richard felt the Gunnar brand could provide a similar experience to their whole product line. Stock geometry, high-quality TIG-welded steel bikes could provide an excellent entry into their high-end custom bikes.
In 2023, Richard decided it was time to retire. Changing tech in the industry, COVID rebounds, and tens of thousands of bikes, both custom and stock, it was as good of time as any to close the doors to the Waterford bicycle fabrication plant.
After a year or two, we (Abracadabra Fabrication) reached out to Richard to entertain the idea of a handful of private-label frames to fulfill a few orders for select Waterford and Gunnar customers. After many months of back and forth, Richard and I decided it would be more efficient to try and carry on the legacy of Waterford and Gunnar.
Let’s Chat
Got questions? Fill out the form on the right to contact our team.