Tomo Bikes

Tag: recycle

  • Bespoked Apocalypse Bike

    This was an amazing opportunity to get off the leash a bit. The bike was no more than a faint idea until 2 weeks before the event. We had to finish and prep the other bikes, do some other work and build this thing so didn’t get through every idea but I was pretty happy with the result and especially the lack of issues given that it had literally run for about 10 yards in a straight line before stuffing it in the car for the show.

    A few folks braved a test ride and this was the default expression of most:-) To categorise it, I think this is a Tall, Fat, Cargo, 2 Wheel Drive, Rear Suspension Apocalypse, Bikepacking bike.

    It was based around my son’s old fat bike, with some added bits of Apollo and Marin and a whole bunch 4130 tubes to glue it all together.

    The Apocalypse Bike built off had some ‘spec’ to built to but it allowed for some free thinking. As part of the event there was some racing, round a small car park and through a building! We did the practice lap with the 2WD in place but went all ‘short tail’ for the racing!

    Thanks to John Watson from TheRadavist for the photos. You can see his write up here: https://theradavist.com/2025-bespoked-uk-apocalypse-build-off/

  • Custom rack and frame mods

    For my entry into the recycle project, where we took old city bikes and gave them a refresh for a future useful life, I (obviously) did a bit of fabrication.

    I chose to do some frame changes, to make it look a little more unisex, add some branding, a custom rack and some paint in a hardwearing coating in BMW Mini Orange.

    Custom with ears
    Primered frame
    Brazed rack base
    Frame mods complete
    Rack base
    Brazing Frame mods
    It’s a win

  • Recycle project

    As well as new frame builds and repairs, it’s also great to be able to save things from going to scrap. I had the chance to rework a number of city bikes that had come to the end of use under a contract.

    It was especially nice to do this a number of other likeminded folks so I donated a few for others to make their mark and see what we all came up with. Big thanks to Dave from @Dave.bike, Marlon from @babyldn and Felix from @thebikefelix for being up for it.

    The party piece of these bikes is they are almost maintenance free with shaft drive, hub gears and drums brakes. I wanted to give mine a slightly more unisex look, tidy up a few ugly features and add some carrying capacity (and add some branding:-). This should become our family go to the shops bike.