Today’s Readers’ Rides is spurred by a request John made in our Super Something Ti seatpost and stem post earlier this week. Remi built up a Sklar Super Something as a commuter and it came out… well, you’re going to have to look for yourself!
I’m fortunate enough to live in Melbourne, Australia which is a great cycling city as some of you may know. After a brief foray into road riding in the mid-2000’s, I’ve been a dedicated ‘non-competitive cyclist’ for the last 15 years or so, and one way or another am on a bike most days. For the last 7+ years I’ve been commuting my kids to kinder and school on a Douze Messenger Cargo bike pushing 35kg (77lb) of bike, 57kg (125lb) of kids and 20kg (44lb) of bags around the inner north of Melbourne 5 days a week- luckily it’s pretty flat here, with mild weather most of the year.
With my 10yr old daughter now less keen on being seen at the school gate in a bike with her younger brother and dad, the daily commute is looking a bit different- with the kids often choosing to cycle themselves. Other than the cargo bike and my little used road bike, my only daily driver is a $100 steel-lugged early 80’s road bike (my pub bike), and although I love it dearly, it has very sketchy handling (courtesy of symmetrically bent front forks resulting from a late night return from the pub some years back), and an inability to stop when there is even a skerrick of moisture… so I was keen on sorting an all road drop bar bike which can follow the kids when they take off on dirt trails on their rigid MB-ish chunky tyred kids bikes, while also doing commuter duty and carrying a bag or two.
I had many browser tabs open with potential gravel/ all road bikes and when my best friend from school George and his wife Erika stayed with us in January talk turned to bikes. George has lived in Bozeman for many years, and suggested I check out Adam’s bikes- they know Adam well, and Erika had just ordered a Super Something from the first batch of production frames. So I sent a few emails, and got a great feel from my correspondence with Adam and Jordan, and then all the articles on The Radavist etc. In the end, it seemed much better to be able to support a mate of a mate! Being a smaller guy (171cm), I was lucky that they still had the smaller frames from the first run in stock, and some measurements confirmed that the 52cm would fit the bill.
George and Erika picked up the frame from Adam for me, and sent the box loaded with extras and gifts for my kids from Montana, which was really special. In the meantime, I decided that Commuter Cycles here in Melbourne would be the best shop to use for the build and advice- they are such an awesome bike shop, and specialise in commuting/ touring/ gravel and adventure bikes. The timing was good as they were having their annual garage sale, and so I snagged a partial Apex group set (no cranks/ brakes) for ridiculously cheap as well as some Cazadero tyres on special to get the ball rolling. Although I already had a few ideas based on Adam’s personal build (mechanical discs, White industry cranks etc), Sime from Commuter helped plan a great build with all of the parts and aesthetic decisions, as well as encouraging me to do things properly the first time around (custom wheels, dynamo lights etc).
Reuben and Liam at Commuter built the bike up when it arrived, and did a great job keeping things neat and tidy (routing the dynamo cable through the rack tubing for example). Final touch will be some pint-sized pannier bags from Melbourne’s Framework designs which are in progress.
The bike is an absolute dream- I’ve had it for just on 2 months, and get ridiculously excited every time I take it out. Had no idea a bike could feel this good- the way it eats up bumps, floats over cobbles and deals with varied terrain is addictive. It reminds me a bit of a classic Granturismo (GT) car from the 60’s- fast enough without being over the top sporty, looks beautiful, made with excellent components from around the world (US/Taiwan, UK, Germany, Japan, Australia) and brimming with plush accoutrements to facilitate every creature comfort (dynamo, fenders, luggage capacity).
Thanks to all of the team from Commuter, especially Sime, Liam and Reuben- and credit to Will for these photos, which capture the feels/ vibe perfectly (with some bluestone cobbles to boot). Looking forward to crushing Melbourne-Roubaix next year!
Build Spec:
- Frame/ Fork- Sklar Supersomething 52cm
- Tyres- Soma Cazadero 700c x 42
- Wheels- Custom built Curve Gravel Al laced onto Son 28 Dynamo front, Hope Pro 5 rear hubs
- Bars- Salsa Cowchipper 420mm
- Stem- Velo Orange Tall Stack 80mm
- Headset- White Industries
- Brakes- Growtac Equal Mechanical discs, SRAM Paceline rotors, SRAM Apex Brifters
- Cranks/ Bottom Bracket- White Industries G30/ MR30
- Drivetrain- White Industries 40T chainring, SRAM Apex 11 speed 10-42T cassette
- Seat Post- Velo Orange Grand Cru
- Seat/ Bartape- Brooks Cambium C17
- Fenders- Velo Orange 52mm Zeppelin
- Front Rack/ Panier- Pelago Commuter Medium
- Lights- Schmidt SON Edelux II and rear light
- Other- Spurcycle bell, King Cage Iris
We’d like to thank all of you who submitted Readers Rides builds to be shared here at The Radavist. The response has been incredible and we have so many to share over the next few months. Feel free to submit your bike, listing details, components, and other information. You can also include a portrait of yourself with your bike and your Instagram account! Please, shoot landscape-orientation photos, not portrait. Thanks!
