Jonathan Thompson of Tomo Bikes talks tall bikes and award-winning gravel builds
Words Paddy Maddison
Photography Andrew Grant
Be honest. If you had the opportunity to go on a ride with your eight-year-old self, wouldthey be impressed by your slightly
above average FTP or disappointed by the lack of skids, wheelies and den building detours? Bikes are supposed to be fun, but some people seem to have forgotten that.
Jonathan Thompson, thankfully, is not one of them.
Ask a typical manufacturer why their bikes are special and they’ll talk about things such as stiffness, weight and aerodynamics. Thompson, on the other hand, is more likely to start chatting about how good his creations are for riding through puddles or the numerous conversations you’re likely to attract while out riding one.
‘I never wanted to make just one type of bike,’ he tells Cyclist. ‘I like the challenge of figuring out designs and
how to make them. It’s a big part of my motivation.’
It’s this curiosity that first drew Thompson to tall bikes, which, for the uninitiated, are exactly what they sound like – bikes where you find yourself unusually high off the ground. If you’d like to see tall bikes in action, type ‘Frankenbiking’ into Google and watch the short film that pops up in ‘videos’. It’s 15 minutes well spent.
Thompson had flirted with the idea of tall bikes for a while, but when one particular project left him with a Transit van full of old bike frames he decided to build one for himself by welding an old Raleigh mountain bike and a 531 racing frame together.
‘I took it along the bike path and I was hooked. It wasn’t an immediately comfortable experience. I don’t normally ride around looking for attention – quite the opposite – and you do end up getting noticed, but it’s generally in a good way. Tall bikes make
people smile, and you end up having a lot of interesting conversations.
‘It’s funny,’ he adds. ‘It takes people a minute to work out what to make of them. They often want to have a go. It sometimes takes a little persuasion, but everybody loves them once they get going. It immediately breaks down barriers and promotes just having some fun. And all the better because it’s with bikes.’
Read more about Tomo Bikes in issue 80 of Cyclist Aus/NZ…
