1989 John Tomac Wicked

Once again I want to dedicate an entire page to what otherwise may be considered just another Wicked. This particular bike was built for and possibly raced on by none other than John Tomac. It eventually ended up with Charlie Litsky before finally making it into the hands of a private collector as a frame and fork and then got built up as you see it here today.

To set the stage for why this bike exists here’s a little bit of relevant history. Back in 1987, John Tomac is racing on the Mongoose mountain bike team and will be starting the next season on a signature model bike made to his specifications. The story goes that Mongoose couldn’t crank out custom bikes to meet the rigorous demands imparted on them by the level of racing guys like JT were putting them through. Fat Chance stepped in a built a series of three bike for JT to race on while Mongoose got their new production line up and running. Fat built three bikes for JT and delivered them to Mongoose to get painted and decaled in team livery.

I can’t find any good photos of those bikes, I think one is possibly in a private collection but not much is known about them after leaving the Fat factory. I assume that eventually Tomes got Mongoose made bikes before yet again switching to an all Titanium, Merlin made version for the 1989 season. Allegedly the consumer version of that bike, which featured a hybrid Titanium front triangle and steel rear end, had the steel ends made by Fat Chance. So, the relationship between Fat Chance and Tomac is rooted in collaboration going back a couple years.

So in 1989 Charlie Litsky, John’s manager reached out to Fat to have them build a one off custom bike for JT to ride in  charity or maybe a promotional race for Nike. Not sure this ever happened, and JT doesn’t really remember anything about it. That aside the bike is identified in the serial number log book with a double asterisks and a note that says “CAMPY – TOMAC”, so there is that.

The frame construction on this bike doesn’t have any specific notes next to it in the serial number registry making this a regular Wicked. The only thing of note are the roller cam or U-brake mounts on both the frame and fork, and odd choice one a bike built for a racer who hadn’t been using U-brakes much throughout his racing career, but here we are. What makes this paint stand out from the rest are the hand drawn graphics which adorn much of the front triangle. I’ve gotten the story behind some of the graphics from Mike Pappaconstitine who painted it, I’ll do my best to recount as many as I can.

Some of the graphi

The seat tube includes one of the earliest drawings / sketches of the Yo Eddy character who would not make his official debut for another year with the launch of the Yo Eddy

This graphic portrays the end stage of “Some Cool Race” with Ron Andrews taking the checkered flag with a notable “Big Gap” to John who is followed by some guy Max and Ned who seems to have crashed.

Perhaps the most well known segment of this bike is the slogan “Draft Tomac not Humans”, rather self explanatory it pays homage to the Tomes for being largely regarded as the fastest and beyond human racer on two wheels in those days.

I don’t recall the significance of these two graphics but will reach out and try to find out.

Advertisement for “Wingo” Quality Tool Products, another one I need to run to ground.

I seem to recall this being a reference to a motorcycle engine of some kind, but not can’t remember what special significance it held. Below is one of the very early depictions of the Yo Eddy, a full year before the model was released for sale.

By the time this bike made it into the hands of collectors it was just a frame and fork stripped of all the parts. So the build represents an attempt at representing what the bike may have been built like in its original state. The dual U-brake/Roller cam brake choice is an interesting one given that I’ve never seen JT ride a bike with one U-brake, let alone two but who knows. That bring said Campy did make some nice brakes at this time and so it works in this build configuration. The brakes used here are Campy’s 1989 Monoplanar design u-brakes which were some of the more elegant models on the market at the type.

Characterized by the unusual way in which one arm was more or less captive inside the other and their gorgeous silver finish the brakes looked great on any bike. I don’t have any experience with these on the trail so can’t comment as to how they perform, but Campy’s brakes were about the only good thing about these early groups, so perhaps these aren’t bad.

While the vast majority of you are here to see the frame and read about any connection it has to JT, some attention has to be paid to the support cast, here performed elegantly by the remainder of the Campy Eculid group. While you don’t get points in a race for having nice parts, in the pits Campy tends to be in a league of its own. I particularly liked their early chainrings, they seemed much higher quality than Shimano or Suntour. In fact I recall that while I was restoring Tinkers 92 Adroit I noticed that he was running Campy mid and outer chainrings (IIRC), a testament to their quality given his preference was strong in the age of M900.

No matter what draws you to this bike, the possible history / connection with one of the biggest personalities in the history of mountain biking, the outrageous paintjob or the cool build this bike deserves top billing among the throngs of other amazing Fats made by Chris and the team.