2002 Gunnar Roadie frame
 

Hi Everyone. My apologies if this has been discussed before, but I couldn't find anything from doing a search. I recently purchased a 2002 Gunnar Roadie. It's the nicest frame I've ever owned and the geometry is super comfy. I've been thinking about turning this into a touring bike but have some reservations. It uses normal caliper brakes but I should be able to accomodate fatter tires and fenders. Also, I've considered getting the rear spread to accomodate a tougher mountain style hub....but I've also considered just getting a phil touring hub spaced to 130mm. My main concern came after looking at the Gunnar website. This is specifically what the Gunnar website says about the Roadie's max recommended load.

Max Recommended Load (rack and pannier loading). 22 lbs. (10 kg)

To be honest, I don't know how much weight is normal, but 22lbs definitely seems to be on the light side. Does anyone know if this weight includes racks and panniers? Also, it wouldn't cause anything catastrophic if I went over this weight would it? Any suggestions/help is appreciated.

My bf has a 2003 Roadie that he is very happy with. He also got a 2006 Roadie frame (a more compact style) but has not built it yet.

I asked him his opinion about putting a lot of weight on a rear rack of one of these bikes and he thought it would be fine to put up to 20 lbs or so, maybe for a credit card tour with a couple changes of clothes and some sandals, etc. But not camping gear. He thought that the handling might be compromised with so much weight, plus there is not a lot of heel clearance for panniers.

My bf went and got a Surly Crosscheck ($400 retail for frame and fork) and built it for his tourer. Takes V-brakes and tires up to 45mm with fenders. Do a search around bikeforums, they are great bikes.

he he...i've been lusting after the surly long haul trucker. i've been looking at it online and just happened to see one outside a bar last night. beautiful bike, but i don't think it'll be as comfy as my gunnar. if it comes down to it, i can get a new bike....i just really would like to ride that gunnar for long distances.

i know this thread is a little old but i'm thinking of buying a gunnar roadie at a really, really good price...it would mainly be for fun/club/fitness rides, but maybe with a little bit of touring mixed in (around 2-3 weeks). OP, did you ever end up setting up the roadie for touring? how did it go?

I just toured for 9 days from portland to san fran on a gunnar roadie. I'm not sure what year it is, but I would guess mine is about 2002-2004. I carried a really really light load. I used a Tubus Fly rear rack and made my own ultralight panniers, slept under a tarp and bivy with a quilt to cover me. I'm fairly accustomed to ultralight travel from backpacking, so I knew what I was comfortable with. I didn't weight everything total, but I'm guessing that before food and water, my pack weight wasn't more than 10 lbs. including bag and rack.

I rode on very skinny gatorskin tires to the tune of 700x23 (zero flats). The bike was more than comfortable enough. I spent a good portion of the trip breaking in a titanium brooks saddle, which I wouldn't recommend (break in well before you leave:). The route was mostly pavement, but we encountered some gravel and ripped up pavement. The latter was pretty jittery, but far from unbearable.

I would say that the gunnar roadie is a great choice for someone dedicated to touring very lightly who wants to ride fast. Put your heavy small items in a handlebar bag if you're getting close to gunnar's weight limit. The bike is super solid, made from great steel, but there's not a lot of room for fenders.

I ended up taking my one front fender off and strapping it to the rack because it kept sliding around on the carbon fork. I would have put it back on if we encountered a downpour, but no such misfortune befell us. I would have preferred a steel fork, but I got the bike used. anyway, that's my review from my first tour on my roadie. hopefully there will be many more to come.

oh yeah. check out my set up in the 'pics of your loaded tourer' thread if you want to see the way I set everything up.