FORAGER CYCLES was hatched from a list of ideas scribbled into notebooks by Dan Stranahan. Product ideas that surfaced while working as a bike mechanic in rural Alaska, and on tours in the off season. Things that would make cycling a little easier, more accessible, more enjoyable.
When travel ground to a halt in 2020, Dan pulled out the notebook. Simple and Small, it started with a Cable Cherry. He made the first one with a workbench and zero machine tools in a dirt floored barn stall - hardly precise- but it worked, and excitement grew. The Challenges of machining spheres, tiny threads, and tiny holes became apparent, and equally fascinating with a good reason to overcome them. After a lot of dead end calls, Dan found a manufacturer that was similarly young & eager and the first 1,000 pairs of Cable Cherries were made in Chicago, and shipped out of the 12x12’ barn stall.
That first run quickly sold out, Forager moved into a (slightly) larger commercial space, and everyone seemed to want our fruit! It was an exciting time until the shop in Chicago fell off the map - website closed, not returning emails or calls. Working with them had gone great until then, and it was a shock to our tiny operation. Spring had arrived and we had to find a more reliable shop, fast.
Despite how deflating that was for everyone, we carried on and brought manufacturing much closer to home. From 2021 - 2024, we worked with a few high quality machine shops in Washington and California to produce our parts. Today, we manufacture our own products here in our Port Townsend Washington Machine Shop. We do as much as we can in-house, from laser engraving our re-usable metal packaging to machining, inspecting, and packaging parts that begin as solid metal bar stock. To date, over 10,000 pairs of Cable Cherries have been sold around the world. All thanks to a colorful crew of customers who inspire us to keep making the best products we possibly can.