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Tall Tale - Steel Hardtail Mountain Bike
Coming Spring 2024!
The Story
Mountain bikes are where it all began for Sklar and through building hundreds of custom mountain bikes in the past decade we were became one of the small brands pushing progressive modern mountain bike geometry. We experimented with those long, low geometry numbers and learned a lot about how to make a bike handle well and also how to make it still feel like a bike you are used to. Something you know how to have fun on. There are lots of geometry tall tales out there - going full progressive for progressiveness' sake. This Tall Tale is informed by the most progressive geometry but planted in the fun and familiar.
This bike is a great tool for quick after work rides with friends or spending all day on big weekend adventures. A nice balance between fun new-school geometry and familiar capability for an all-day affair. It is not a 6” trailbike that flies down hills but drags going up, nor is it an XC race rig that climbs like a breeze but lacks stability in descent. Sklar has refined geometry and materials to create a mountain bike that truly does it all. A Sweet Spot if you will.
The Tall Tale is built with the finest materials available for a superior ride quality and features details like our in-house designed chainstay yoke for an ideal chainstay length, asymetrical chainstays for a dialed in ride quality and our signature ovalized top tube. No brand name lables on our tubing, we just choose the best materials for the job.
Design Philosophy
One mountain bike for all occasions. Bikes are an investment and this bike is designed to be fun for all the mountain biking that you want to do. Take it on a quick ride before work for some fast fun, load up your fanny pack with snacks and head out for an all day adventure on the weekends. Pack it up with bags and take it on a multi-week bikepacking trip, or just to spend a night in the woods. If you have one really fun bike, you will want to ride it all the time, and this is that bike. How sweet is that?
Geometry
Tech Specs
- Frame Material: Double butted, Air-Hardened Chromoly Steel.
- 148x12mm BOOST Spacing, UDH Dropout
- ISO rear brake mount
- Designed for 29” x 2.6” tires
- 31.6mm Seat post (stealth routing)
- 3 bottle cages, one under the Down tube
- 130mm travel size S, 140mm M, L, 150mm travel XL
- 73mm BSA Bottom bracket Shell
- EC34mm/44mm Headset
- Clearance for up to a 36T chainring (boost chainline)
- Full External Cable routing
Fit Guide
We often get questions about fit and strong reactions to the reach numbers on these frames. Reach, as an indicator of fit, does not take into account seat tube angle or head tube angle and due to the steep seat tube and slack headtube angle on these bikes reach makes them look longer than they are. the important numbers are your saddle height and distance from saddle to handlebar. Here are the saddle heights and saddle to bar reaches we had in mind designing the sweet spot, measured from the BB center to the top of the saddle center and from the tip of the saddle to center of the stem. Also please note these frames are designed to be ridden with a 30-50mm stem.
Small - 64-69 CM saddle height, 44.5-51 CM saddle to stem
Medium - 68-74 CM saddle height, 50-53.5 CM saddle to stem
Large - 73-79 CM saddle height, 53-57 CM saddle to stem
XL - 78-82 CM saddle height, 56-60 CM saddle to stem
These numbers are just rough suggestions. Please double check and ask us or your bike fitter if you have any questions or concerns.
Tall Tale FAQ's
What size wheels/tires can I run?
The Sweet Spot is designed around 29 x 2.6" tires and that is what we recommend. 2.4 and 2.5" tires are great as well. We do not recommend running 27.5" wheels on this frame.
What size headset/crownrace do I need to order?
The headset is EC34/28.6 upper, EC44/30 lower with a 1.5" crown race.
What is included with this frameset?
All frames ship with a seat post clamp and thru axle included.
Where are the framesets manufactured?
These frames are built in Taiwan
Can I run a rigid fork?
This frame is designed around a 130mm-150mm suspension fork. Most rigid forks are correced for 100mm or suspension, meaning a rigid fork will be 30-50mm shorter than what the frame was designed for. For that reason we would not recommend running a rigid fork. If you are looking for a rigid hardtail that can handle a 100mm-120mm fork, check out our PBJ Frameset.
What suspension fork should I run?
Travel:
We get this question a lot. In order to maximize ride quality and standover, the "base setting" for size Small is 130mm of travel, 140mm of travel for medium and large and 150mm of travel for the XL. Can you run different amounts? absolutely. I run my size Large with a 150mm fork and love it. A longer fork will raise your bottom bracket, make the handlebars higher, head and seat tube angles a little slacker and the opposite for going shorter. In our experience 10mm either way isn't a huge deal. 20mm is where you start to notice things and going more travel is a little less noticeable than going less.
Offset:
Fork offset is the difference in the location of the dropouts compared to the imaginary centerline that is projected out of the head tube. Offset determines the "trail number" on the bike which is a key indicator of how a bike will handle. Most suspension forks these days are available in 44mm or 51mm of offset. The size small and medium frames are designed around a 51mm offset fork and the XL and large frames are designed around a 44mm offset fork. Theoretically this whopping 7mm of difference allows us to build a bike with a longer front center (nice and stable, confidence-inspiring on descents) while keeping the trail number in check (not too floppy because we have to make the head tube angle slacker on long front center bike in order to locate the handlebar in a comfortable riding position). That said, 7mm is probably also the amount of tire deflection you get just sitting on your mountain bike. So if you want to split hairs, get the 44mm offset for your S or M, 51mm for your L or XL. If you want slightly maybe just noticeable more stable handling get less offset and more offset for slightly more active handling.