Sky Yaeger and the Detroit Arrow

I interviewed and wrote this piece which originally appeared on Shinola’s blog, The Journal, which I managed the team and contributed to from 2015 - present.

An Arrow Made of Steel

“A single speed reminds us was how simple it was when you were a child to jump on a bike and experience freedom and liberation. Getting away from your parents, or whatever.” - Sky Yaeger

In 1973, a young woman walked into a Schwinn bike shop in Wisconsin inquiring about a job. A century before, the bicycle had liberated women to move about the world with ease and freedom, yet the manufacturing of bikes was still a male-dominated industry. In this particular midwest establishment where Sky Yaeger wanted to work, there was a sign on the door to the mechanics area that read “No Girls Allowed.”

“I still give the credit to the man who hired me that day,” says Yaeger. “It’s been love and passion ever since.”

Yaeger is a passionate soul with bright blue eyes and an intoxicating enthusiasm for craftsmanship, style, and of course, transportation. In Madison, Wisconsin, where she attended college, she raced road, track and mountain bikes, and worked in The Yellow Jersey Cycle shop. She then launched a career of designing and marketing bikes, some of which were category-defining models. Throughout the early 1990s and early 2000s she launched production single-speed mountain bikes, internally-geared urban bikes, early cyclo-cross bikes and an urban single-speed.

“I had been racing on the track on a single-speed fixed gear, and then I moved to New York in 1981 and saw that bike messengers were riding these things in traffic,” says Yaeger. “I was astonished, because they were designed for the track only. Fast forward to the late 90s and bike messengers in San Francisco were also riding them. It started to capture the imagination of people outside the industry. I thought it made a ton of sense to bring one to market.”

Her design jumpstarted the resurgence of simple one-speed bikes, both fixed gear and freewheeling. This was freedom in transportation, and a vehicle that removed any fear of gears and tech. This was elegance, minimalism and attitude, all in one ride.

“People immediately want to jump on it and go. If you haven’t ridden a bike since you were a kid it reminds you how easy and fun it was to just jump on a bike. It’s very obvious that when you turn the pedals the bike just goes,” says Yaeger.

Yaeger has been leading the bike team since 2012, when Shinola introduced the Bixby and Runwell. Shinola’s newest model draws upon the single-speed design she originally brought to life and has been refining for years. We call it the Detroit Arrow.

The Arrow rounds out Shinola’s urban bike collection, providing something for everyone when it comes to cycling. “With the 3-speed Bixby, the 11-speed Runwell and the single-speed Arrow, we now offer a bike for hilly terrain, rolling terrain and flat terrain,” says Yaeger.

The Shinola design aesthetic is evident in the Arrow, with the custom fork crown and dropouts, model-specific cast head badge, leather saddle and men’s and women’s frames. Key parts are built in America, from its frame in Wisconsin, the wheels in California, and final assembly in Shinola’s Detroit store. “There isn’t one nut or bolt on that bike that I don’t have the part number for, and know who I bought it from, how much I paid for it, and how it fits onto the next part,” says Yaeger. “It’s kind of a meta-level all the way to 30,000 feet.”

The Arrow frame, like its siblings, is welded by the experienced hands at Waterford Precision Cycles. They’ve been building high-end lugged and TIG-welded steel frames for over 20 years, and their attention to detail shows in the final product.

“One of the things about making frames is that, in an ideal world you want to go to somebody who has made thousands. Those welders are going to be delivering frames that are absolutely perfect with the welds. That’s a visual thing, that even a non-cyclist can see; how attentive they were to the welds. You want a manufacturer who understands what it takes to deliver a high end product,” says Yaeger. “We absolutely demand a high end product at Shinola.”

Lightweight steel tubing, Yaeger says, is the secret to the Arrow’s ”playfulness and quality.” Waterford’s mastery of the metal was essential to achieving a well-crafted frame.

“The frame is double butted chromoly, that’s TIG-welded. What steel does for you in a bike frame is yield a very compliant and comfortable ride. If you don’t throw it in the ocean salt water, and you take care of it, steel will last more or less many lifetimes,” says Yaeger.

“The bicycle is an extension of your taste, interest, your passion, how you see yourself,” says Yaeger. “All the details of the craftsmanship, style, design, the purpose that it’s designed for; those are all things that are important to someone who’s looking at the bike. Some of it is unconscious. You just feel it when you look at it.”

Yaeger says the Detroit Arrow, and her original single-speed design 16 years ago, is just a slight improvement on a blueprint that didn’t need much changing. “In the last 130 years, we’ve just been refining the bike,” says Yaeger, “It was a perfect product back then. We’ve just been using different materials and moving the pivot points around. It’s withstood the test of time. It is the most efficient way of getting human beings from one place to the next. It’s just the most amazing industrial product and we’re all just keepers of the flame.”