I'm looking for a commuter, road riding, dirt road riding, touring bike. I found one I really like but I noticed that in the pictures the head angle looked really slack and when I researched on their website, sure enough the angle listed as 71.5 degrees. The bike I really want, but can't afford, is the Gunnar Crosshairs because it's slated more toward the road end of the spectrum. It's head angle sits at 73 degrees. Does anyone have any thoughts as to whether or not this difference should be a deal breaker? Thanks in advance, J.W. Murrah

Head-tube angle varies with frame size, what size range are we talking about? Also, what is the fork rake?

The Gunnar, if I recall has a 45mm raked fork. That's not much at all. A friend of mine has one and has toe-overlap out the wazoo. It's not a problem for pure 'cross, but when we do singletrack, he's always rubbing. He loves the bike otherwise.

Head-tube angle varies with frame size, what size range are we talking about? Also, what is the fork rake?

The Gunnar, if I recall has a 45mm raked fork. That's not much at all. A friend of mine has one and has toe-overlap out the wazoo. It's not a problem for pure 'cross, but when we do singletrack, he's always rubbing. He loves the bike otherwise.

It's a 53 st and 55 tt. From the pic there doesn't seem to be much rake. I'm less worried about toe overlap than I am about sharp handling characteristics. As I say, I plan to mostly ride this on roads and an occasional fire road. I'm just wondering if the one degree of head angle between this frame(71.5) and, say, a Lemond Poprad(72.5) is worth worrying about. The road bike I have right now has a 79 degree head angle and it's fun to weave in and out of traffic with.

Head-tube angle varies with frame size, what size range are we talking about? Also, what is the fork rake?

The Gunnar, if I recall has a 45mm raked fork. That's not much at all. A friend of mine has one and has toe-overlap out the wazoo. It's not a problem for pure 'cross, but when we do singletrack, he's always rubbing. He loves the bike otherwise.

It's a 53 st and 55 tt. From the pic there doesn't seem to be much rake. I'm less worried about toe overlap than I am about sharp handling characteristics. As I say, I plan to mostly ride this on roads and an occasional fire road. I'm just wondering if the one degree of head angle between this frame(71.5) and, say, a Lemond Poprad(72.5) is worth worrying about. The road bike I have right now has a 79 degree head angle and it's fun to weave in and out of traffic with, but I understand the need for slacker angles on anything that's not a race bike. Thanks, J.W. Murrah

Are you sure your road bike has a 79? Standard on road bikes is 73 to 74. 71.5 is used by Salsa and Soulcraft, among others. Should be fairly slow and predictable. Of course you need to factor fork rake into your equation.

Head-tube angle varies with frame size, what size range are we talking about? Also, what is the fork rake?

The Gunnar, if I recall has a 45mm raked fork. That's not much at all. A friend of mine has one and has toe-overlap out the wazoo. It's not a problem for pure 'cross, but when we do singletrack, he's always rubbing. He loves the bike otherwise.



I looked up the specs at Spicercycles.com and the fork that comes on it has a rake of 38mm. I'm assuming this basically evens things out as far as toe overlap, but I'm not sure how it would effect handling characteristics. Thanks for your input, J.W. Murrah