California-Based Hudski Enters the Bike Market with Innovative and Versatile Sport-Utility Shredder

September 21, 2020

Sausalito, CA – September 21, 2020– Hudski, a new bike brand based in Northern California, is thrilled to announce the official launch of its lightweight and rigid frame and fork design with three unique build options.  The Hudski Doggler is designed to maximize the versatility and stoke of a rigid bike for city, gravel, or mountain riding.

Inspired by their mutual love of biking and influenced by Hudson’s mother’s beautiful, but heavy cruiser that rarely made the arduous trek up the staircase of her New York City apartment, co-founders Will Hudson and Brian Syzkowny used their industrial design degrees and Syzkowny’s experience at Specialized to develop three unique builds based on one frame and fork design – city, gravel, and mountain – to meet the needs of various riders.

Syzkowny and Hudson custom designed the frame, fork, and handlebars to meet specific performance needs that were not showing up in leading bike brand builds. The lightweight, aluminum frame and carbon fork platform is built with durable mountain bike components, making maintenance easy. The generous tire clearance creates a true all-condition platform while the dropper post provides a new level of convenience and comfort to the city rider while giving a performance advantage to the gravel and mountain rider.

“The emergence of the gravel and adventure segments really made it possible to design around a single platform because the bike world now has large volume 700c gravel tires, a wide range of 27.5 tires, and dropper seat posts have been accepted as standard OE equipment,” said Brian Syzkowny, co-founder and Hudski designer. “These are all the right ingredients to design an extremely versatile bike that you couldn’t before.”

The Hudski Doggler is available direct-to-consumer in three build options (City, Gravel, Mountain), three colors (Almost Black, Atomic Haystack, Olive Rose), and four frame sizes (S-XL). MSRP $2,000. Pre-orders open at 6am PST on September 22, 2020 at hudskibikes.com.

 Build Options | Build Specs

City: Good for city paths paved and unpaved, rough roads. Great option for rural touring and everyday commuting. Includes PNW dropper seat post, SLX 1×12 group set, Hudski Longhorn 27 sweep bars, and Maxxis Grifter 29×2.0 tires. Weighs approximately 24.2lb.

Gravel: Good for fire road epics, dirt-road bike packing, gravel rides, and flowing trails. It still rolls fast for the occasional paved transit. Includes PNW dropper seat post, SLX 1×12 group set, Hudski Longhorn 16 sweep bars, Maxxis Rambler EXO 700x50c tires, and 25mm inner width rims. Weighs approximately 24.2lb. Tubeless ready.

Mountain: Good for rocky trails, steep climbs and technical descents. A capable bike packing rig in unknown conditions and its high volume tires are well matched for desert treks. Includes PNW dropper seat post, SLX 1×12 group set, Hudski Longhorn 16 sweep bars, Maxxis Rekon EXO 27.5×2.6 tires, and 30mm inner width rims. Weighs approximately 24.9lb. Tubeless ready.

 Overall Build Specs

All three builds include the Doggler Alloy frame with 142x12mm thru-axle, threaded 73mm bottom bracket, and internal down tube cable routing; Hudski Full Carbon fork with integrated crown race, 44mm offset, and 100x15mm thru-axle which can accommodate a 100x12mm axle; Hudski by FSA, 1.125/1.5 headset; Hudski Longhorn Stem (40mm/S, 50mm/M, 50mm/L, 50mm/XL); SLX rear derailleur, shifter, 10-51t cassette, chain, and flat mount brakes; Raceface Ride, Alloy 34t, HG+ crankset; XT bottom bracket; Shimano front and rear hubs; double butted (2.0-1.8-2.0) spokes; CST tubes; Oury V2 lock-on grips; PNW Ranier (125mm/S, 150mm/M, L, 170mm/XL) seat post; and WTB Deva saddle.

Geometry

The frame geometry, loosely based on modern trail bikes with cues from XC and Gravel frame design, makes the Doggler an extremely well rounded and capable bike for urban commutes, fire road epics, and flowy technical single track. The most notable geometry attributes include:

• Long reach to improve control and steering responsiveness by designing around 40-70mm stems
• Steep seat tube angle for better climbing and to optimize smooth seat dropper actuation
• Long front and rear center to increase stability, allow toe/heel clearance when running panniers, and to increase overall comfort
• Long trail numbers driven by the fork offset (rather than an overly slack head tube) which help mitigate wheel flop while maintaining a relatively high trail number for good high-speed stability

Complete technology overview, including design details available here.

Hudski will offer framesets in March 2021. Frame sets will include: Frame, Fork, Chris King headset, Chris King bottom bracket, Hudski top cap, Salsa seat post collar, frame hardware. More details on frame weight and options will be available soon.

About Hudski

Based in Sausalito, CA, Hudski was started by childhood friends, Will Hudson and Brian Szykowny, who wanted to create a bike design that could do it all. Hudski features custom designed frame, fork, and handlebars to meet specific performance needs not addressed by the industry’s leading bike brands. The brand officially launches September 2020 with the Hudski Doggler, designed to maximize the versatility and stoke of a rigid bike for city, gravel, or mountain riding.

Hudson and Szykowny began their design journey together founding Cannonball Studio, an interior and lighting design company, before transitioning to focus on Hudski, born from their shared love of bikes. Driven by the beauty of simple design and odd objects, Hudson and Szykowny aim to discover form that integrates the function of speed and the simplicity of oneness. Hudskibikes.com