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

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

Hey, try a Surly CrossCheck (http://www.surlybikes.com/crosscheck.html). It builds into a great commuter, and is equally at home off road, and will take up to 700x44c tires geared singlespeed or fixed. I commute on mine as a fixed gear, and ride it offroad fixed/free. It now has nitto moustache bars on it

http://earth.usc.edu/~austink/pics/cc_sart_small.jpg

http://earth.usc.edu/~austink/pics/moustache.jpg

Head angle alone doesn't tell you much. A better figure to look at is trail which is a function of head angle, fork offset, and tire diameter. Trail will tell you a lot about how a bike will handle. Head angle alone does not.

For the type of riding you are talking about, I'm not sure that a 'cross frame would be ideal. While they allow a larger tire than a road racing bike, they typically have a higher BB, shorter chainstays, and quicker handling that what you'd like for a touring bike.

Since you are going to do more than just touring, you don't necessarily need a true loaded tourer, but there are versatile sport tourers out there that would fit the bill.