Gunnar × Wheels Manufacturing | One Gear, Built in Blue

We teamed up with Gunnar Cycles for the 2026 MADE Bike Show to give its Rockhound hardtail 29er the full Wheels Manufacturing treatment. Gunnar brought the custom titanium frame. We brought the singlespeed drivetrain, the hardware, and enough blue ano to make you walk around the bike twice.

SOLO-XD Sets the Chainline

Our blue SOLO-XD Single Speed Conversion Kit is where the drivetrain comes together. It replaces the cassette on a SRAM XD or XDR freehub with a single cog. Rearrange the kit’s spacers and you can move that cog side to side until it lines up with the front ring. That adjustability is what makes the kit such a good starting point for a singlespeed build. Explore SOLO-XD

Up front, we paired it with our blue 3-bolt direct-mount chainring for SRAM cranks. We machine these rings in Colorado with a narrow-wide tooth profile that helps keep the chain seated. It’s the biggest hit of blue on the bike, and it puts the whole drivetrain on display. Shop 3-bolt direct-mount chainrings

The Small Part That Makes the Rear End

Our blue DROPOUT-666 Single Speed UDH is easy to miss until you know where to look. It fits the frame’s UDH interface and does away with the unused derailleur mounting tab. Take a look from the drive side and you’ll see why we like it so much. The dropout, rear thru axle, and single cog all sit right there in view. See the DROPOUT-666 Single Speed UDH

Blue Beyond the Drivetrain

• Blue outboard T47 bottom bracket — The blue cups peek out at the crank, picking up the color of the chainring right at the center of the bike. Browse T47 bottom brackets
• Blue seatpost collar — A small band of blue at the top of the seat tube that’s especially easy to spot against the titanium. Shop seatpost collars
• Blue Essential Aluminum Headset Spacer Kit — Our StackRight spacers interlock to stay aligned, and the matching top cap brings the color up to the cockpit. See the blue headset spacer kit
• Wheels Manufacturing thru axles — They secure the wheels and finish off the build, right down to the hardware at the dropouts. Browse thru axles

From Waterford Steel to a Titanium Rockhound

Gunnar grew out of Richard Schwinn’s Waterford Precision Cycles in Wisconsin, bringing the shop’s framebuilding experience to a lineup of TIG-welded steel bikes with stock geometry. The brand even took its name from the shop dog who greeted visitors. Today, Abracadabra Fabrication carries on Gunnar from Durango, Colorado. More about Gunnar’s history

The standard Rockhound is a Reynolds 853 steel all-mountain hardtail. For this collaboration, Gunnar built it in titanium, kept the 29-inch wheels and front suspension, and set it up as a dedicated singlespeed. It gave us a chance to show what our parts can do together on a bike built around a single gear. Thanks to the Gunnar crew for giving us a Rockhound worth getting this particular about. Explore the Gunnar Rockhound