Gunnar Roadie - Project Bike - First Test Ride on a Beautiful Day

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The Gunnar Roadie Project Bike is built up and ready to ride. It turned out great looking! This bike is meant to be a fast and reliable road bike. It is built with a full Shimano 6700 Ultegra groupo. The handlebar, stem and seatpost are all Pro Vibe 7 items. The saddle is a Pro Turnix. Pro is Shimano's handlebar, stem, etc. line of bike parts. The wheels are handbuilt using Velocity hubs and rims. Click here to learn more about the wheels on the Gunnar Roadie.

The complete bike ready to ride weighed in at 18 pounds and 13 ounces. That's a great weight for a steel frame, made with over sized tubing and a steel fork. Also the parts used to build this bike lean more towards durable than light weight. Click here to see the bare frame and fork weight.

Pro Vibe 7 stem and handlebar.

Pro Vibe 7 seatpost and a Pro Turnix Saddle.

Shimano 6700 Ultegra Crankset with 53 and 39 tooth chainrings.

Shimano 6700 Ultegra rear derailleur, chain and cassette (11-23).

For a first test ride I took the Gunnar Roadie for a 40 mile loop I have been doing on a regular basis for a number of years. The only thing this bike doesn't have right now is a computer. It took me approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes today to complete the loop. I stopped at least 3 times to make quick adjustments to the fit on the bike. I took a multi-tool with me to make adjustments during the ride. This is the hard way to get a bike dialed in. A bike fitting session is a real value compared to trying to do it this way.

It was an unbelievably beautiful day to go for a bike ride. The skies were clear  and the temperature was right around 70 degrees. The Gunnar Roadie is a smooth riding bike. The thing I enjoyed most about riding this bike was the way it handled. The alignment of this frameset and the tube selection the folks at Gunnar do is to be given credit for the fantastic handling. Going into a turn fast was a lot of fun on this bike. Accelerations and sprints are a strong point on the Roadie. The Gunnar Roadie is a high performance bicycle that can be ridden for many years. Click here to learn more about Gunner Cycles.

Poor ole' Joe kept me company while I wiped down the Gunnar Roadie after I got back in.