Tomo Bikes is a bespoke frame builder and fabricator based in Chertsey, Surrey. Although they carry a reputation for making some really exciting tall bikes, the company is proudly and loudly genre-agnostic, building frames of every type – and even working on the fabrication of other products like bags, furniture and wall mounts.

Founder, Jon Thompson incorporated the business in 2021, but it was never really a new venture, more as a continuation of something he’s been doing all his life: building bikes.

As part of the Bespoked UK show in April, Brooks England put a few questions to Thompson about the company origins, his approach to design, and fitting things in as a one-man builder.

What was the Bespoked vibe like this time round?

The vibe was great this year. It was really nice to catch up with the other builders and because it was in London there were lots of people I knew that turned up. It’s always nice to put some faces to names and meet new people. We had a lot of interesting conversations with folks.

Big thanks also to the organisers for making it run really smoothly and to Will and James from Brother Cycles for their support on the Apocalypse Build-Off challenge [a special competition at Bespoked UK where builders must create bicycles capable of withstanding the demands of a theorised post-civilisation existence]. It was really good fun this year.

What brought you to bikes, and how did that turn into frame building?

I’ve always been into bikes since we were kids. We always used to do builds with whatever parts we could get hold of. Later that got into building motorcycles and cars and did a bit of motorsport whilst always riding bikes. I wanted to take my engineering and making further and bikes gave me a practical avenue to do that as well as being something I love. I did a course to properly build my first and the rest is history.

What’s the first frame you ever built and where is it today? 

Before the course I built a BMX tandem to take my son to school and a pretty rough recumbent. The first proper one was in the course – that was about 13/14 years ago. This was a ‘cross bike in candy apple green. It did a lot of racing, commuting, bikepacking and general riding.

It was looking a little tired so I recently gave it a few changes moving the position of the seat stay bridge that had always bugged me and a bit more tyre clearance, of course. It now runs 42s and GRX 1x and a lovely bunch of parts from friends at Redshift Sports.

When you’re designing a frame, are you thinking as an engineer, designer or artist?

I like to think all three. For the design process it has to do its job, so has to be designed to work well in terms of the geometry and parts. And it has to balance functional design aspects to select tubes and parts.

I think the aesthetics are also important. To me these aren’t just tools, you want them to look good and probably want a certain type of style that suits your vision. So in reality I start with a vision of what I want a bike to be then go through that process. With customer bikes that’s why it’s important to try and understand their vision of what they want and what they want to do with it, then design to that.

That one reason I like the things like the Apocalypse Build-Off. You’re given some new criteria to work to and a freedom from the norms, but still want to create something that looks cool and works well.

I can’t say that lot without mentioning the finish. Many people who buy off the peg really buy the paint scheme. It’s massively important and one of the biggest opportunities to really create something individual and personalised.

What’s a moment you nearly gave up on a project?

As a part time builder the normal pressures are time and money; things not happening as well or as quickly as I’d like. I have a massive list of projects I’d like to do, but not given up on any of them yet. There have been moments. I find most issues come from rushing things. With limited time I used to feel the pressure to squeeze more in. I’ve reduced that, but that also does affect productivity.  Better to do things properly, once.

The beauty of steel bikes is you can go back and improve things for version 2.

What qualities make a good frame builder?

I think that’s a long list but at heart of it you have to like spending long hours in a workshop, probably a lot on your own creating things. You must have an eye for quality and accuracy or at very least a desire for that. And problem-solving. That’s a constant drive.

There’s so many aspects to deal with especially trying to make it commercially. At the end of the day you need to have enough passion to keep going when there’s bumps in the road.

Finally, tell us about the bike you brought to Bespoked.

The one I’m most excited for is the long tail. I made a long tail cargo bike a long time ago, but wanted to try a lighter-weight bikepacking version. I’m looking forward to putting some miles on that, not least of which as it means some decent riding. 

It was based on my 29er that needed a refresh, so got an extended rear and a new splash of paint. After some riding I can work out any racks and bag needs.

tomobikes.co.uk

• Brooks extends a special thanks to John Watson of the Radavist for the images used in this article.