Brass Knuckles Interview

The Brass Knuckles Standard Compression System is the latest product coming from Proto Scooters. While on the outside, the anodized quadruple clamp just looks like overkill on clamping your bars onto your fork. But on the inside lies the true genius. I asked Proto owner, Andrew "The Man With the Master Plan" Broussard a few questions about the SCS.


Interview done by Jordan Jasa.

When did you get the idea of the quadruple clamp as compression? What gave you the inspiration?

- I finally came up with the quadruple clamp "SCS" early 2007 but I spent years developing all kinds of different compression systems up until that point. My biggest inspiration and driving force was trying to steer the sport away from the clearly flawed threaded system toward a stronger more reliable threadless system and doing it efficiently and effectively. Most people are scared of change especially when it comes to changing such an established standard but that does not mean that there isn't a better alternative out there. I have always been a very creative and mechanically inclined person so from the day I broke my first threaded fork back in like 2001, I analyzed it and realized that I could do better. The rest is pretty much history… and a novel.


How long was it from the first drawings on paper to the first prototype?

- If you are referring to my "threadless compression" project as a whole it was about 5 years in the making (2004-2008). If you are specifically referring to the new Standard Compression System, it was about a year from the time I decided on the final designs to the time I had the prototypes made. I waited awhile before having them made because I wanted to make sure I was totally satisfied with the design plus prototyping is very expensive and being a one man operation, while working another job at the time to pay for all this, I was on a very tight budget. I think that is why I have become such a perfectionist when it comes to making parts because any mistakes made during the prototyping phase with a limited budget can easily set you back months, years or even put you out of business which is not something I was or will ever let happen. Early on my designs were all hand sketches then I found a wonderful program called Sketchup made by a company called @last who has since sold it to Google. I used that program from 2003-2005 and it was my first real introduction to CAD design. In 2006 I started taking a few classes for AutoCAD and similar CAD programs to help me really see my designs come to life and I have been using them ever since. I do not make any parts until I have a fully functioning model of it in front of my eyes and this was no exception.

What reasons made you want to create a new compression system?

- I don't really see it as a "new" compression system as much as I see it as a new version in a long running series aimed at conquering threadless compression. If my first prototype was V.1 then the Inverted Compression System would be V.2, which would make the new Standard Compression System something like V.10. They all worked but there was always room for improvement and there were really just too many benefits from this newest version to be ignored. I don't know if I'm going to be able to top this one though.

How have your riders liked the system?

- Really the only complaint I had were the sharp corners on the prototypes but as you can see those have been replaced with the smooth rounded knuckle design. As far as functionality goes, there were no complaints. If you want to know what they really think about it you should ask them :).

What gave you the idea of the whole notches/key feature?

- I guess it was just one of those pet peeves I had, a problem I wanted to solve. I used to hate when my bars twisted on my forks so I wanted to figure out a way to keep them aligned all the time even if your clamp got loose or you bailed hard. It really was never an option until I started developing threadless forks because it was just too impractical to do with threaded forks. Originally the compression system and the alignment system were two completely separate projects of mine then in 2007 when I discovered the whole quadruple clamp I realized that the alignment could easily be integrated into the new compression clamp. The two systems just kind of came together effortlessly.

I love how you make your products backwards compatible. Would you ever sacrifice function for compatibility though?

- Honestly, no. If you design your parts right you should never have to sacrifice anything which is what I try to do and I think I have been pretty successful at it.

Are you truly "27 steps ahead"?

- 28 actually.

Anything else you'd like to say about the new knucks?

- I would just like to thank Anthony Bustos, Brandon Kilbury, Brian Murphy and Madis Kukk for helping me test these things for the last year and I just want to let everyone know this thing is for real. No gimmicks.




PROTO Scooters - Standard Compression System from Proto Scooters on Vimeo.