Bert's Tomac Carbide Report and Pix

I built up the Tomac Carbide with some new and some of my existing components. I’m planning on acquiring a few upgraded components but I wanted to get it out and see how it felt. I’ve ridden it a handful of times and each ride it has certainly impressed me. The frame feels rigid with a very tight rear triangle and with the rear end in lockout it climbs brilliantly (better than me). You know I love to climb and that becomes a good portion of my riding with not enough of the exhilarating and/or technical single track or ripping downhill. So breaking from the boring and malign I’ve making sure to find something other than fire road to test it on. So far I’ve experienced nothing but joy with this frame. I’ve ridden around the lake at Bonelli, in the Whittier hills, up to Simi Peaks and China Flats, climbed and descended 2500+ ft in Santa Cruz and each place with different terrain I’ve been extremely impressed. Oh and when I climbed for over an hour to what appeared to be desolation in the Santa Cruz area mtns. I came across a female rider at the summit who entered from the Watsonville side and she was jazzed as heck to see the new Tomac actually out. She had seen it at Interbike dirt demo and was completely impressed to see one out on the trails already. She was looking forward to the opportunity of having her own soon and glad to see Tomac back in the bicycle market after their brief sabbatical. And just the other day, out at Bonelli Park , I jockeyed alongside Tinker Juarez up a climb and saw him taking a look at my ride, but neither he nor I were into stopping for conversation. I did invite him to the UCI Cyclocross race and series finals this weekend at Bonelli, to which he declined.



So with a new fork and wheels I’m thinking I’m going to really enjoy racing the Carbide this season. Oh crap now I’ve got pressure to ride it proud near the front. Better hope my off season training will serve me better this season than last.



The attached photo is with Lake Puddingstone in the background. I took others but didn’t want to send too large a file size at once.

Bert