Tomo Bikes

Tag: Tall Bike

  • 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/

  • Bespoked 2025

    I made a very decision to go to Bespoked in Manchester in 2025 and was so glad I did. Lovely time meeting people, customers, builders, media and suppliers. The bikes seemed to go down well too. We got 2nd best gravel bikes, 2nd best Apocalypse bike and lots of nice comments about the Giraffe bike.

    Big thanks to everyone we met, took photos and especially the organisers for an amazing show. Bravo.

  • Favourite build?

    At a recent event someone asked me what my favourite build was. That’s a difficult one to answer and probably changes over time or for different reasons but the one bellow is up there.

    I wanted to make one of these after seeing Paul Brodie produce a version of the Giraffe Bike on his excellent YouTube channel. Paul kept his pretty close to the original but I preferred to change the shape (length) slightly for a better fit and to ease traveling with it, I decided to make it foldable. It’s more Moulton than Brompton but it does make it appreciably smaller. I made this to show at the Brazin handmade bike show in Glasgow in 2024 and ended up finishing it on the day I travelled to Scotland so was completely untested. Can’t wait to take it on a proper tour.

  • Frankenbiking @ Cyclist Film festival

    We were involved in the Award Winning Tall Bike film Frankenbiking last year since when it has won a number of awards. It is now included in the Cyclist Film Festival that is showing across the UK in Jan and Feb 2025 together with a great set of other independent and award winning films. The programme is over two hours long so if you want to see and support some independent bike films check their website for your nearest showing https://www.cyclistfilmfestival.co.uk