Sklar Opens Pre-Order for Tall Tale Hardtail

Mar 29, 2024
by Adam Sklar  
Sklar tall tale hardtail mountain bike

PRESS RELEASE: Sklar Bikes

Sklar Bikes is launching a pre-order for their highly anticipated mountain bike frame, The “Tall Tale”. The steel hardtail designed around 29 x 2.6” tires and a modern-yet-familiar geometry is up for everyday trail rides, long bikepacking trips and everything in between. Because of Sklar’s small production runs these frames are able to use the finest materials available for superior ride quality and durability. “Over the past decade of designing and building custom mountain bikes I got to hear firsthand what riders are actually looking for in a hardtail,” said founder and designer Adam Sklar. “It is really satisfying to see those ideas and design philosophy brought to a more approachable scale with the Tall Tale frame.”

The Tall Tale’s geometry was derived in part from customer feedback from hundreds of custom mountain bike builds. A progressive yet familiar bike that is stable and confidence inspiring while staying lofty and nimble.


2024 Sklar Tall Tale Geo chart

Frame Spec:
Frame Material: Double butted, heat treated Chromoly Steel.
148x12mm BOOST Spacing, UDH Dropout
ISO rear brake mount
Designed for 29” x 2.6” tires
31.6mm Seat post (stealth routing)
2 bottle cages in front triangle
triple cage mount under down tube
Rear rack mounts
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


Full product specs and info available at Sklarbikes.com

Sklar tall tale hardtail mountain bike

Sklar tall tale hardtail mountain bike

Sklar tall tale hardtail mountain bike

Sklar tall tale hardtail mountain bike

Sklar tall tale hardtail mountain bike


Posted In:
Reviews and Tech Press Releases Sklar


Author Info:
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Member since Nov 13, 2014
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77 Comments
  • 48 2
 Came here to roast, but all I can say is DAAANNNGG SWEET BIKE
  • 39 6
 It would be a beautiful bike if it weren't for the scoliosis.
  • 7 0
 hahahaa
  • 3 0
 Bwhahaha this is hilarious. I do like the bike though...
  • 16 0
 Sklarliosis
  • 1 0
 It’s kyphosis doode

www.pennmedicine.org/updates/blogs/musculoskeletal-and-rheumatology/2019/april/scoliosis-and-kyphosis-whats-the-difference
  • 14 0
 I only choose bike which are lofty and nimble with superior ride quality, so this fits the bill. Although, I worry it will be outside of my price range with all of the new steel welding techniques and new space age steel tubing technology.
  • 1 0
 Strictly on topic Smile .
  • 9 0
 Just after Christina's video on shorter riders being left out comes the release of a bike with a 444mm reach in size small.
  • 2 1
 I'm 6'1" and would consider the "small" in this frame LOL.
  • 2 0
 @JonDud: I’m 6’1”, too, and I think I’d prefer the XL over the L. And I like that there are still brands making short chainstays to go with those long reach numbers. I guess, preferences just differ. This clearly is not a bike for everyone. But it should ride pretty similar to my Canfield Nimble 9, and if that’s the case it will be great for what it is trying to be.
  • 10 1
 People still use 51 offset fork?
  • 2 0
 I have a bike with one. I'm still not sure if I notice a difference. The real question is why a large gets a 140mm fork while the xl gets a 150mm.
  • 1 0
 @jesse-effing-edwards: swapped between 51 and 44 once.. only difference I found was stacking it.. one tucked in the other slide out..
regarding fork size I can only imagine big man needs big fork..
  • 1 0
 Seriously tho probably just aesthetics..
  • 1 0
 @dagzin: I never remember seeing a bike where smaller people got smaller squish, except kids bikes.
  • 1 0
 @jesse-effing-edwards: yeah that why I said it’s probably aesthetics Smile
  • 1 0
 @dagzin: I heard you man! They are beautiful bikes.
  • 1 0
 @jesse-effing-edwards: not my cup of tea, but appreciate what’s gone into it
  • 1 0
 @jesse-effing-edwards: Seems like it's something to do with keeping the geometry semi-consistent. Looks like the head angle changes by size so having the 140 on the XL probably makes it pretty steep, although a 150 on the large would probably be about ideal.
  • 27 22
 Adam is the most fragile of frame builders. When he released his line of made-somehwere-not-domestic bikes a few months back, I simply asked "Where are these frames made?" and he blocked me on Instagram.
  • 9 1
 It’s clearly stated on his website that the frames are made in Taiwan.
  • 8 2
 This is BS. He is very open about them being made overseas. The whole reason he changed his business model was so people could get a Sklar faster and cheaper than when he made them all by hand by himself.
  • 4 0
 I blocked a lot of people on instagram the problem is some people think they made it big
  • 6 1
 Beautiful Bikes, wonderful human, Its lovely to see a change in the type of bikes posted here on pinkbike. I am glad Sklar is a part of that.
  • 2 0
 I really like their (his?) philosophy of bike sizing, at least for XC/trail bikes of this type where you're going to be doing a lot of seated pedaling. Dialing in the choice of frame size on preferred BB-saddle and saddle-stem measurements makes a ton of sense to me. It involves a little more measuring and math (and assumes you already have a bike to set a baseline) but takes into account seat angle that the current trend of reach-centric sizing may miss. The one thing I'm not quite following is how stem length fits into the equation. They list a measurement of saddle-stem center, and I'm assuming this is to the bar rather than steerer?
  • 5 0
 I guess so, no matter how you slice it that medium is pretty damn big.
  • 5 0
 Now that's a sweet looking mountain bike.. I'm getting one.. finally some nice long ett .
  • 5 0
 Very tempted. But I really don't need another bike. It's fine. I'm fine. I don't need it
  • 8 3
 So your customers feedback was “give it a big hump”?
  • 2 0
 Looks nice the way it blends in with the seat stays.
  • 2 0
 His frames are distinguishable because of it. You know when you are looking at a Sklar.
  • 5 1
 Lovely looking frame but not being funny who was it 'highly anticipated' by? Sometimes less is more on product releases.
  • 18 0
 If you're ever inclined to venture off of Pinkbike or Vital's feeds and on to some other great sites like the Radavist, or Bikepacking.com. Sklar has a good following. They make some really beautiful bicycles... they're just not mainstream.
  • 5 0
 At The Radavist they love Sklar.
  • 6 1
 I for one have been highly anticipating it! Sklar was a custom frame builder with a super long wait list and is now shifting to these production frames. His production gravel/adventure bike, the Super Something, was really highly received.
  • 1 1
 @bohdibruh: *made.
  • 4 0
 Between this and that plastic 2lb. frame posted today, this is the only choice.
  • 3 0
 why is the HTA and STA not uniform across all sizes? Not a knock, just honestly curious. Beautiful bike
  • 1 0
 What's really weird is the medium is slacker than both the small and the large. So it gets slacker as you increase from S to M, then steeper as you increase from M to L, and steeper again as you increase from L to XL. Or it's a typo, which seems to happen pretty often in geometry tables...
  • 1 0
 They seem to be speccing different sized forks on each frame size which would change the HTA
  • 1 0
 Because of different travel forks for different size riders and actual proper size specific geo. Instead of just a medium bike photocopied up or down 20%. Would seem the outcome from years of building custom geo frames for customers, is a more useful geo data set.
  • 2 0
 That's a very long reach on the medium for such a slack seat angle. Seems like an interesting choice to have the sizing deviate so far from the norm.
  • 3 0
 haven't they been watching the PB comments section?!
  • 9 7
 In the year of our lord 2024 WHY ARE BIKE COMPANIES STILL SPECIFYING ISO BRAKE MOUNTS ON MTB FRAMES???
  • 7 0
 Because the steel tubing alone doesn't make the bike heavy enough. You also need unnecessary adapters.
  • 21 0
 ISO is such a better standard for post weld/heat/paint finishing. So easy to face, allows a disposable adapter to be used and cut if needed and not eating into the frame. Post mount and flat mount are clean, but the industry ability to face and deliver a consistent brake mount in those standards is almost zero.
  • 6 0
 Iso is just better for steel.
  • 1 0
 @fartymarty @bonfire;

Thanks, these are great replies didn't think of this.
  • 2 0
 Good looking Geo numbers on a killer bike from a talented MTB Builder. Well done Adam! @SklarBikes
  • 1 0
 In close proximity on the front page, this bike and "The Frame". Those "The Frame" folks better ask for their ad dollars back.
Adam, beautiful work!
  • 1 0
 It is a good looking bike, but the geo is odd. A slack STA, paired with a long reach, and long top tube seems like a very odd decision.
  • 3 0
 Bikes looks beautiful.
  • 2 0
 Sagged or unsagged geometry chart?
  • 1 0
 Geo table states, these numbers are unsagged. This explains the fairly slack SA - very similar to the slack on paper numbers for Staton. If I got it right, this also explains the kind of outlier HA for the size medium, because size small is calculates with less for travel and therefore less Sag in mind.
Let's assume roughly 20mm Sag for the 140mm forks would tilt the frame by approx. 1 and a bit degree, we would talk about effective SA of 74.5° and HA of 66°. Certainly not very steep/slack by modern trends, but fairly well rounded for allround handling. Combined with the rallye long frontend and really short stem length, it might be more capable than the numbers indicate at first while still shining on rolling terain (sth. imho supersteep SA aren't exactly great at).
  • 2 0
 He takes such good photos of his bikes.
  • 1 0
 Anyone know what seat clamp is on this bike?
  • 16 0
 That is one that I had made. The frames will ship with them. Should I grab some to sell on their own?
  • 3 0
 @SklarBikes: I'd be interested!
  • 1 0
 @SklarBikes: Interested.
  • 1 0
 @SklarBikes: Interested. They look slick!
  • 2 1
 I’d be sizing down for sure.
  • 2 0
 Love my Sklar bike.
  • 1 0
 Damn those ETT numbers are huge
  • 1 0
 I'm a bit surprised by that. I almost a hair under six feet and have ridden many larges, but this would put me in a medium for sure. Not sure what a smaller rider would do. They look cool, though!
  • 1 0
 @jesse-effing-edwards: It's because of the long reach + slack STA. The obvious answer would seem to be to size down as you say. But have a look at the ST lengths: could you get away with sub 16"? I get the idea: slack STA means you can pedal long distances over varying terrain, and long reach + slack HTA means stable and shreddy on the descents. But I don't know that combining the two works here: long, stretched out ETTs, and I would worry that the slack HTA will be annoying on steep climbs without the ability to weight the front wheel that a steep STA provides. I'll be curious to hear ride impressions to see if I'm overthinking, but I won't be paying to find out ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • 1 0
 and I cannot wait to ride one!
  • 1 0
 I thought this was gonna be a 32er
  • 2 5
 Upward bowed top tube....because looks matter SOOOOOOOO much more than standover clearance. Might as well run cable tourism, Super Boost, and a proprietary press-fit bottom bracket......oooooh, and seatstay mounted U-brakes....to keep those lines sleek.
  • 1 0
 Can't say it looks better than a straight top tube.
  • 3 1
 Fits a full size frame bag. Which for a bike that is somewhat directed at that category makes sense. Unlike my chameleon that was heavily marketed towards that market but has a sloping tt means it fits a small frame bag.
  • 1 0
 Almost the exact geo of my knolly tyaughton, those are on sale for 699$
  • 1 0
 Is there an option without the squishy fork?
  • 2 4
 Lost me at kale salad as a color option
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