Peter and His 'Steampunk' Sklar
Aug 03, 2026
Peter is a regular customer and has had a fair few bikes built, modified or tinkered with by us.
The pinnacle of the relationship so far is his latest steed, a 'Sklar Super Something'
Here's some words from Peter after a few rides on his new bike.
This is my M/L Sklar Supersomething, running a 75cm saddle height.
My first gravel bike was an Open U.P. This was a comfortable transition after years of road riding. It's a beautiful piece of bike design and rode wonderfully. But it didn't have the clearance I wanted. And a carbon frame with an all Enve finishing kit felt a bit too special for the beatings it was taking on UK winter gravel rides. I moved most of the parts over to a steel framed, carbon forked Fairlight and swapped to an alloy finishing kit, which served me very well. Those really are brilliant bikes.
But after a long gravel tour across Scandinavia last year, I found the geometry a touch too racey for long multi-day trips.
I've never been an MTB guy, so I started looking for a drop bar, steel framed, steel forked, all-road bike that would handle full 29er tyres and give me a much more upright, bars-level-to-the-saddle riding position.
I landed on the Sklar Supersomething, which hit the brief perfectly. Adam Sklar describes it as sitting about 60% of the way along the spectrum from fat-tyred road bike to hardtail MTB.
I had the bike shipped straight from the great guys at Guten Biken to Woods.I started out with the Campy Ekar groupset from my Fairlight. Ekar is a beautiful groupset if you're only riding in fair weather and unloaded, but after a rainy, heavily loaded Badger Divide tour in May, I decided the bike needed a slightly more reliable set up.
Owen introduced me to Ratio, who are making some really interesting UK-made parts. Their 12-speed rear mech was a great fit, and being fully serviceable is what swung it for me. The silver option didn't hurt either. This is paired with a 10-45 Shimano cassette.
I also wanted to move to cable actuated brakes for worry-free air travel, more reliability when touring, and pads that can handle loaded UK winter riding. I went for Paul Klampers, and paired them with an Uno friction shifter to work with the TRP cable levers.
I finally put a pair of 60cm towel rack bars to use, having had them sitting in the shed for a while. They pair perfectly with the frame's geometry, and the 26mm clamp adds an extra layer of compliance alongside the steel fork. The Stayer all-road wheels suit the vibe of the bike perfectly. Whilst swapping the groupset I replaced the Ultradynamico Mars 2.2 rear tyre for their new Brut 2.1 which is a huge improvement to the rolling speed and feels great.
The Brooks Cambium C17 got swapped to a Berthoud Aravis Ti saddle in natural leather. I have their Galibier saddle on my road bike and am a big fan. I'm looking forward to seeing how the natural leather wears in. The vintage blue anodised X-lite MTB seat post is bit of fun and clashes perfectly with the orange Klamper dials.
The stem is a Nitto UI-2 with 17° drop paired with a 25mm raw Cr-Mo Magic Components spacer which should age well.
The Ingrid cranks came off the old bike too, but I needed a new chainring, so went for their new Aero 40t option. Purely for the vibes, not aero gains.
The build took a few twists and turns but has ended up with a beautiful steampunky look that feels somehow super racey and very chilled at the same time.
The bike feels amazing. Living in London, it's perfect for blasting through the local North London gravel, but just as happy on the tarmac sections you inevitably hit in between.
It's about to get loaded up for a 5-day Copenhagen to Oslo mixed surface credit card tour, and I can't wait to see how it handles the terrain.
Thanks as always to Woods for making all the ideas a reality.
Peter Hughs
