Some shameless self-promotion on my part.
This is a fork that I’ve worked on for a while now. We’ve had production-ready prototypes for quite a while, but it finally worked out so we could bring it to market with the release of our latest hardtail.
I have to say I’m pretty happy with how it came together.
The brake mount is a great idea. Sometimes the brake mount standards limit the creativity of what you can do. I don’t know why more companies don’t make their own adapters, its only $3 piece of aluminum that can open up new opportunities.
I just went through this today with my rear mount on the Jester. I started modelling my own but in the end decided it would take a 140 flat to 160 post adapter set for a 180 disc purely so that a replacement can be ordered anywhere in the world locally rather than having to order from me.
Here is a fun video @adamsklar and I made last week:
Please subscribe to both our channels; it would be much appreciated!
There is a discussion at the end where Adam touches on an important topic: scale
Great video, loved the interview part, Adam is obviously a wealth of knowledge. I do think that ordering ~500 frames a year from Taiwan is still well out of reach for most folks though. Adam is very lucky to be in a position where that is finacially viable. I can’t imagine many other people in the custom/boutique bike space—even some of the most experienced folks—could afford that kind of investment.
I say this as someone who has also ordered a couple containers of bikes/frames from Taiwan. I was only in the position to do this due to a sizeable inheritance and some savings from work in other industries. And even then it’s a massive risk.
Well you don’t just go and buy 500 frames off the bat. I would argue that anyone with a moderately successful brand could do what I am doing. I was able to get things rolling with a $30k business loan from the bank and the rest has been cash flow. I couldn’t afford not to do it because it is not possible to make a living as a framebuilder.
As Gary Helfrich asked me 30 years ago at the UBI framebuilding school - “Do you want to be a framebuilder or a businessman?” It was an open ended, rhetorical question, but one worth pondering…
I just jumped on the YouTube bandwagon. It’s been on the to-do list for years. @Daniel_Y and @adamsklar inspired me to make the leap. 
So much to learn to make it infotaining.
You are the type of guy I would buy a bike from: not flashy, focused on details, rational arguments for design choices (instead of a focus on looks) etc 
That my kind of gravel bike. Nice job
Yo! Appreciate the reply. I would say that ya being modest there and Sklar as a brand has clearly been more than a moderate success, and would be a difficult thing for others to replicate. But then again it’s always different from the outside looking in. Congrats on the container either way. Defo agree that it’s the way to go if you want to survive selling bikes these days.
So sick. Liked and subscribed!
Nice article Whit
Thanks for the link! Orange is much better than I thought. It’s very cool to see how filing cabinets are made.
Not from the web but I went to an art festival this weekend and saw this. One of the local makers who passed away recently was into wooden bikes. This particular bike is a work in progress by other members of that community recreating a bike in the style that he did.
I really like how the downtube and top tube blend into the stays and the curves match each other.
Always loved retrotech
https://www.pinkbike.com/news/review-zoceli-narum-czech-made-steel-trail-bike.html
Not the usual hate vitriol in the comments, which is nice to see.
Nice and light. I should steal the lower shock mount idea 
