I finished building a new-to-me Gunnar Crosshairs this week. Originally, I was going to race it today, but some things came up. So I took it out for a mixed road and off-road ride. Left from my home in Baltimore and rode to Loch Raven reservoir, a place I often go for mtn bike rides.

1. Just entering the reservoir watershed lands
2. new bike shot
3. into the trails
4. handlebar shot

After the first section of smooth singletrack, I made way back to the road. They close this section of the road to car traffic on weekends. It's a pretty short section (maybe 2 miles) but it's nice not to worry about cars. Part of that section includes a bridge over a narrow part of the reservoir. I've taken lots of photos here, including one of the lake frozen last winter. Then it was back onto some trails, but not before shooting a few shots of my new steed.

1. on the bridge looking north-ish
2. on the bridge looking south-ish
3. start of a long climb. i do intervals on this climb during MTB season
4. funked out bike shot at the bottom of the climb
5. differently funked out bike shot at the top

After cresting the big climb and heading down the other side, I cut back through, went back over the bridge and headed to the largest and nicest (IMO) section of the trail system. It occurred to me while I was out that I should start collecting seasonal versions of the same pictures. I show a few comparisons below.

1 & 2: The forest at the top of a small hill today. This is a beautiful area and foliage was nice but none of my photos captured it well
3. The same area of forest in July. I'm told by my biologist colleagues that the grass pictured is an invasive species and it really took hold this year.
4. the hillside along some singletrack in July, with my trusty old hardtail
5. same spot in November with my trusty new Gunnar
6. home sweet home: the park about 2 blocks from my house

Thanks for looking.

looks like a fun ride, and that's a GREAT looking bike. Enjoy.

Sweet ride X 2!

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Beeeutiful Bike! I like the comparison shots of the woods too.

looks like a fun ride, and that's a GREAT looking bike. Enjoy.

thanks. gunnar makes nice bikes. it rides pretty well, so I think I will enjoy it.

For an invasive species it sure makes a nice looking scene.

Cool stuff.

Very nice. How does the gunnar hold up to the roots and rocks on those trails?

Very nice. How does the gunnar hold up to the roots and rocks on those trails?

It held up nicely. I really enjoyed riding it on some of the single track, but I did avoid the rootiest, rockiest sections, except for the long climb I mentioned. For obvious reasons, it's very different from riding an MTB, so I had to be careful. But on mostly smooth sections, it was great.

Really nice Llama! Great color. I love my Crosshairs. Mine has discs and is set up with a flatbar, Kelly steel disc fork, and a mtn gruppo. I consider it a 29er lite and have had no problems riding singletrack with it. It's held up well to it. The only bummer is that it won't fit a full coverage rear fender for winter commuting with the low seatstay bridge.

singlecross