Friday was the first day of the final color base coat and clear coat running into Saturday. With all the components required for the build assembled, though all disassembled into individual parts, the challenge was on to see if Andrew could achieve the impossible and get his dream bike done in time.Īndrew's description of that week of madness is this: "Tuesday to Thursday of that week involved an all-night frame sanding session and undercoating. Just the week before the Malverns Classic, the frame welding was completed, and that left one week to go until the 2023 Retro Bike Show and Shine competition. So, the challenge and journey began to build a rideable replica of the 1994 DH bike from the iconic photo that inhabits my passion and relationship with MTBing." With my retro MTB hero always in mind, I started researching JT bikes, with the YETI and Raleigh replicas quite numerous, but never the first Giant bikes that Tomac transitioned to in early September 1994. The retro MTB bug has featured in my life for a little while now, having started by reliving my youth rebuilding early 90s MTBs I still owned, helping friends with retro RockShox MAG rebuilds and projects, and lusting after those bikes and bling parts that I could never have afforded back in the day. I’ve been lucky enough to have remained in the cycle industry since starting at the age of 12 as 'the Saturday boy' in the bike shop workshop, moving on to frame building, wheel building, marketing, brand building, management, systems, operations, and everything in between - currently playing my part helping to run UK cycling distributor Saddleback. This is an image that has stayed with me to this day and given immense inspiration, along with still creating a smile inside every time I think about it – this one photo centralizes my unescapable relationship with MTBing and its constant enjoyment. Cornering at full gas with unmistakable JT style, a rooster tail dust cloud in his trail. A rider that always appeared to be pushing the technical boundaries of the sport with cutting-edge kit and advancing performance gains with tech unseen in the MTB cycling world, yet married with unmistakable riding style – oh, and he managed his own sponsorship dealings and race schedule! This Hall of Fame rider needs no introduction, the great John Tomac.Ī poster of JT proudly adorned my teenage bedroom wall well into my late twenties, the iconic photo of the American eagle airbrushed BELL helmet, black skin-tight all-in-one aero suit, aboard a Tioga Disk Drive wheel-equipped Giant DH-specific bike. A rider that would win a World Cup XC race in the morning and then take the top spot in the World Cup DH in the afternoon. After a brief gap from BMX racing, these new, bigger-wheeled off-road bikes came on the scene with their mix of intoxicating, ever wilder colors, progressive designs, riders with serious style and attitude, backed up by accessible magazine media coverage – I was hooked! Out of all this incredible journey of excitement and inspiration in my teenage years, one character stood out as the epitome of what MTBing meant to me. It has been pivotal in shaping my life and career and remains an integral part of my life. "I consider myself lucky to have ridden the wave of the MTB craze in the early 90s. So, here's what he said about what brought him to the point he's at now with this bike: Normally, I would take that and rewrite it, but Andrew's passion is the biggest story here. I asked Andrew to send me some information about the bike and to explain why he chose this particular bike to bring back to life. 1994 Giant ATX John Tomac Photography & Words by Nick Bentley
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