FAQs

  • The Fastlane is designed as a commuter/tourer while the Hyper-X is a race-ready frame that can be used for light commuting and other distnace riding. More detail differences are: Handling: The Hyper-X has faster steering than the Fastlane. Comfort: The Fastlane's longer wheelbase and more upright riding position provides a more comfort oriented fit and soaks up road shock somewhat more than the Hyper-X. Components: The Fastlane is designed for quick realease hubs and post or ISO mount disc brakes. The Hyper-X comes in a variety of configurations - the XF version fits 12mm through-axle with flat mount brakes, while the XX and XC fit a variety of brake types. Tire Choices: Both provide 51mm of space between the stays allowing 700C tires up to 43mm wide. These larger tires help increase comfort and reliability. The Fastlane and Hyper-X share most of the critical features of a Gunnar: Fully heat treated air-hardening tubeset. The same craftsmanship and attention to detail. You'll have a great bike either way!

  • 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, all are excellent choices. The CrossHairs has more tire clearance, but the 28C tires typical of light road touring will fit both bikes.

    In recent years, the geometries for all three bikes have moved closer together. There is only a 5mm difference in the theoretical top tube lengths between the bikes - and only 10mm on the head tube heights. The CrossHairs, designed for cyclocross racing, has a higner bottom bracket and a less sloped top tube, in some cases necessitating you to choose the next smaller size than the comparable Sport if competition is part of your plan.

    Neither the CrossHairs nor the Sport are 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. The Fastlane's beefier top and downtube make it more feasible for loaded touring as well as an ultra-reliable commuter.

    If loaded touring is your goal, consider the Grand Tour (cantilever brakes) or the Grand Disc (disc brakes). These models have stable handling for long distances, high load carrying capacity, and other factors, such as longer chainstays for increased heel clearance plus a third set of water bottle bosses.

  • When Gunnar first started up, we provided what seemed at the time to be generous tire clearance for the available tires. Over time, tires of every size have gotten larger (often without changing the labeled size), and there is also general interest in bigger tires. Our records do not document stay spacing on older bikes, so it will require you to do some legwork to determine if a a tire will fit or not.

    You'll need three pieces of information to answer this question:

    • What kind of brakes are on the bike?

    • How big is the space between the stays where the tire sits?

    • How wide/tall is the tire.

    Type of brakes:

    Caliper brakes have limits in their design:

    • Short reach brakes (39-49mm) can only fit properly labeled 28's.

    • Medium reach brakes (47-57mm) can fit as much as properly labeled 35C tires without fenders.

    • Long reach brakes (57-73mm) can fit up to 38C tires with fenders.

    Disc and Cantilever brakes:

    Cantilever brakes can support up to 60mm wide tires. , but are constrained by other factors:

    • Bridge and fork height.

    • Chain stay and seat stay spacing -the distance between the stays at the widest point of the tire.

    Stay spacing: The space between the stays tells you how wide a tire you can fit. Ideally, there would be 6mm (1/4 inch) between the tire and the stays. if you find 50mm between the stays, you can safely fit 38mm wide tires. You can get away with fatter tires, but there's an increasing risk of messing up the paint as you go below 6mm per side.

    Where to measure the stay spacing?

    • 700C/29er Tires: 340-360mm from the axle.

    • 650B: 320-330mm from the axle.

    • 26 inch: 305-315mm from the axle.

    We don't have complete data on tire clearance for older Gunnars, so it's best to measure your bike rather than make assumptions on the tire that can fit.

    Measure the tire: Tire manufacturers label tires to meet a market need. They seem not to want to be seen as selling undersized tire. As a result the labeled tire size doesn't match the actual tire size. For example, Continental GP 4000 28C tires measure 31mm wide, meaning that it won't fit under 49mm brakes. So find out the actual width before you buy.

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