The Raleigh John Tomac Signature would only see two races with this drop bar set up before Tomac focused on mountain biking full-time and reconfigured the bike with more traditional flat bars. The spec evolved throughout the year, but it was set up with drop bars for the first two races of the ’91 season. The first iteration had a full Shimano XT build kit, Tioga Tension Disk, and Bradbury Manitou fork. As unforgettable as it was to see Tomac race on drops, that road-based setup should not be emulated.
Builders like Charlie Cunningham, Steve Potts, and Scot Nicol regularly built mountain bikes around off-road drop bars, and there is a specific way to set a mountain bike up correctly. The practice of off-road drop bars is nothing new and was commonplace in the mid-80s. To make the bike go as fast as he did is a testament to his skill.īecause of his popularity, this set-up was often emulated and resulted in a negative experience. Tomac has stated that this setup was absolutely sketchy to ride. He set up the mountain bike to mimic his road bike positioning for consistency. Tomac attributed his decision to run drop bars off-road because he was pulling double duty at the time, racing professionally on the road as well as MTB. He started the season on a rigid FRO and ended on the famous carbon/steel C-26 with a Doug Bradbury Manitou fork and Tioga Tension Disk.Īs if the C-26 with thundering Tioga Tension Disk wasn’t distinct enough, Tomac ran the bike with drop bars. The following year, Tomac went full Yeti on a handshake deal with John Parker. In 1989, Tomac rounded out his Mongoose contract on a Merlin-made titanium Mongoose with a Yeti fork. The first Tomac signature was a Tange Prestige Mongoose released in 1987. When John transitioned from BMX to MTB, he was a factory Mongoose rider. SHOP BIKES John Tomac’s Legacyīefore we get to the Raleigh, we’d be remiss not to acknowledge the Tomac bikes that came before. The bike that took him there was this Raleigh John Tomac Signature. He capped off the season by taking gold in the XC World Championships in Il Ciccio, Italy.
Tomac’s winningest year on the international stage was 1991 when he took the title of overall GRUNDIG World Champion. Gracing the pages of every mountain bike magazine with countless articles and interviews, he was the most flamboyant rider and the humblest human. Through the late 80s and into the mid-90s, even if you were the most casual of mountain bikers you knew the name John Tomac.
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