Gunnar Cycles USA Message Board

anyone have a weight on the steel fork? Also, anyone know where to find nice pictures of it? I can't really tell what it looks like from the small full bike photos on the site...

I had an 04 Gunnar Sport with a curved rake(not straight) and it came in at 670g with 280 steerer tube. I thought that was pretty light considering Cannondale's Six Carbon fork weighed 700g on a 52cm. Per Cyclingnews.

No pics.

thanks for the reply. that isn't too bad. Can you choose between a curved or straight blade? I thought it only came in straight.

I think straight is all you can get unless you would have Waterford build a curved fork.

According to the Gunnar FAQ, you can buy a curved Waterford fork for an extra $50:


What if I want a steel road fork?

You can order a stock Roadie fork for $275 or a custom Waterford 22-Series fork which matches the Roadie geometry for $325, threaded or threadless. Add an extra week or so to the lead time.


Here's Waterford's fork description from their site:


Waterford's Steel Fork

No builder creates a steel fork with the ride of a Waterford fork. The combination of stiff crown and soft blade tips combines to offer what many riders characterize as the best ride you can buy!

* The 22-series fork comes with a Henry James investment cast fork crown whose elegant design minimizes weight while offering exceptionally responsive steering. Our in-house fork-building capability lets us offer handling packages that fall outside the range of the available composite forks.
* Waterford 1" forks are available as both threaded and threadless configurations at no extra charge. A 1 1/8" steel fork is not available.
* Custom-engineered Reynolds 531 constant wall thickness fork blades as well as our special fork rake offer excellent shock damping.
* The 22-series fork receives Waterford stainless steel dropouts. Your dropout faces stay clean - no rust or peeling of the finish.


I like the stainless steel dropouts.

is the straight gunnar roadie fork heavier than the waterford curved fork you think?

The Waterford forks are pretty close to the same weight. There is less than a two ounce difference.

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Richard Schwinn

Right now forks are $350. Our FAQ was dated.

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Richard Schwinn

Why can't we get curved forks then?
p90x | lemonade diet

You can if you get the custom version for a mere $75 extra (as of today). We would use our 1 1/8" steerer "box top" crown - very sweet.

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Richard Schwinn

Hi Richard,
I ordered a Gunnar Sport with the Sport straight fork a couple of weeks back. I'm not sure if it's too late to change my order but would you say there's a significant difference in ride quality going from the straight fork to the Waterford curved fork? (Assuming this is an option for the Sport) If so, then it seems like it would be money well spent for the upgrade. I'll need to contact my LBS ASAP however to change the order if it's not too late. I have an ETA of 11/4. Please advise. Thanks!

- Bill

based on my recent Sport purchase, the straight blade steel fork you can order off the shelf for Gunnars has a 1.125 threadless steerer.

I see that there is a way to get a 1.125 curved blade fork from Waterford. Not sure what that crown looks like.

However, to install a custom Waterford curved blade 1 inch steel fork in your new Gunnar, you woulkd have to first install headtube shims to reduce the 1.125 headtube down to 1 inch, or spend a lot of money for a Chris King Devolution headset.

My Sport was ordered with custom 1 inch threaded steel curved blade Waterford fork. I used headtube shims with it and they worked perfectly. My goal was to be able to go retro with a quill stem. My built Sport is in the gallery, the black one with blue bar tape.

Even though there is much lore around whether or not curved blades really feel different than straight blades, I defy anyone to measure it. Even though sometimes the psychology and believing is just as valid as measuring.

I did not get a curved blade fork for dampening, I got mine purely for aesthetics.

Thank you very much for the detailed reply. If it's primarily around aesthetics and doesn't offer a considerable improvement in ride quality, then I think I'll be quite satisfied with the straight fork. I'm really leaning more towards a contemporary look versus vintage. Nice bike BTW.

- Bill