Industry Insights - Tom Wheeler

In our latest series MoreDirt is giving you an insight into the MTB industry and asking the all important questions to some of the faces that make it tick! Meet Tom Wheeler of Mojo Suspension and Eyesdown Films!

MD: Who is Tom Wheeler?

TW: Tom Wheeler is a guy who grew up in South Wales racing mountain bikes and had dreams of being a world cup downhill racer right up until 2 years ago while racing at Rheola where he got injured and lost the use of his right arm. He still continues to work at Mojo suspension near Newport where he has been ever since carrying out his work experience while at school. He's also one half of EyesDown Films.

Give us an interesting fact about yourself?

There’s only one interesting fact about myself but I don’t think I can tell you that one but I did take part in my first bike race when I was 3 years old!

Whats your role within Mojo?

Haha! I legitimately don’t have a specific title within Mojo but I am generally sales and support and I look after the media side of things with my Eyesdown films background!

How long have you been doing your job and how has it changed over the years?

I’ve been here quite a while! Originally I was working part time on the packing bench at Mojo along with traveling, racing and university but now after my crash it’s evolved into the sales, support and media roll I occupy at the moment.

You are stuck in a lift for the next 3 hours, you can pick 3 people to be stuck with you, who would it be and why?

If I could pick anyone... Despite him no longer being with us I’d have Jason McRoy. He influenced all my riding as a kid and was who I looked up to as a bike rider!

I'd also take my Brother, Reece Wheeler… We talk about bikes pretty much like we are at this coffee table here for hours, He’d keep me super entertained and I guess he’d quite like to meet Jason in the lift aswell!

Finally I’d go for a cycling hero somebody like Nicolas Vouilloz.  I’ve never had the chance to meet him but he’s been very inspirational to how I like to approach my riding and inspired the technical side of things for me.

What bike do you ride?

I ride a highly customized Orange Five 29er… I think it could have been one of the first ones that was about actually! I'm pretty sure I have the only small in existence because man your backside gets pretty close to the back wheel when you’re on the steep stuff!

It’s a great bit of kit with tons of modifications and I absolutely love it. It’s got a Hopey steering damper to make things a bit easier to control one handed. It obviously runs Fox suspension with my ties here at Mojo and I feel I have the bike absolutely dialed in.

I hate blagging but I would love to thank everybody whose made it possible and helped me out getting back on the bike!

26, 650b or 29?

It’ll definitely be 27.5”… We need to stop referring to it as 650b as that opens a whole can of worms in terms of the sizing!

Tubes or Tubeless?

Tubeless, despite me having a tube in the back of mine at the moment as I can’t get it to seal!

Clips or Flats?

Clips!

Whats the best thing about working in the cycle industry?

It has to be getting to talk about bikes all the time!

And the worst?

Probably getting to talk about mountain bikes all the time haha!

What’s the Best mountain bike product of all time?

I have 2 main front runners I guess.

I can't really not say suspension! That changes a bike so much... Specifically the biggest thing that changed everything for me was the first time I rode the Fox DHX RC4 fitted. I’d gone through all the fox shocks available at the time from the Vanilla RC which was fox's first ever downhill specific shock then onto the likes of the DHX 5. I had a bit of time away from the downhill shocks and then when I came back I started to use the DHX RC4 and it blew me away. I was finally able to control everything and get the bike riding exactly how I wanted it !

The DHX RC4 has been a real game changer for me, so much so at the moment I’m trying to work out a configuration so that I can use one with my arm brace for riding on the Orange Five 29er!

The clutch rear mech comes in a very close 2nd place...

I'll tell you what does really annoy me... I find myself getting really frustrated that we still haven’t seen a viable production gearbox. Don’t get me wrong the current solutions we have work very well but the technology is dated and its time we had some change.

I really don’t like the idea of having an expensive bit of metal hanging off the back of my bike so unprotected waiting to be hit by a rock! The whole 1x11 thing manufactures are chasing at the moment looks ridiculous! Who wants a dinner plate sized cassette attached to the rear of your bike. It's almost like we have gone backwards in the world. Don't get me wrong I will probably be running it on my bike in the future but there just has to be a better method of changing gears.

Running a gearbox would be a hell of a lot more neat and tidy!

Honda did it a wile back and showed that it could be reliable and functional but I guess it wasn't viable to run financially!

Sorry, what was the question? Haha!

Haha, you've got me thinking now!

I guess we are always going to be held back by how integrated gearboxes would have to be into the actual frame itself. Until the manufactures join forces with Gearbox manufactures we won't see anything... Who knows if it would even be a step forward after all that fuss!

And that bring us on to the worst mountain bike product of all time?

What really frustrated me and I never got along with was the original MRP chain device. One because it was really heavy and it was next to impossible to set up. You had to get the hammer on it to adjust the thing!

What’s the best piece of advice anyone’s ever given you?

“Stay fast little guy”… and that was on a poster from Jason McRoy when I was 4 years old

And the Worst?

“Stay fast little guy!” It’s why I kept crashing!

Who’s the most famous/influential person you’ve ever had dealings during your time in the Mountain Bike Industry?

Fabien Barel… He almost comes across as a bit of a bike geek and a lot of people talk down upon him in a way. I got the chance to spend the whole day riding my local trails in Cwmcarn with him and its probably one of my fondest memories of riding bikes ever.

It was so cool for somebody with such riding talent and experience to spend the day riding with us and gave me real confidence to step up my riding and probably gave me the focus that spurs me on today!

What will be the next big innovation to take off in the mountain bike industry?

I think bikes are pretty much getting to a place where they are as good as they will be for a while. Chris Porter from Mojo and I have talked at leng about this. Maybe we are loving running bigger wheels on bikes because we are finally able to make bikes the right size and get a bit more wheelbase for stability.

But also I know we've covered it but I’d like to see a gearbox so we won't go down that alley again haha

So do you think we have all the ingredients on the market at this current time to make the ultimate bike?

Well I think we are getting close!

Chris has proved that with the a bit of creativity he has made a bike thats perfect for him, even if that has involved taking the rear end from one bike and mixing it with another to get the angles and wheel size he was after. It certainly wouldn't work for everybody thats for sure but in principal I think we are pretty close to perfection.

I still haven't answered your question haha! The next big thing will be bikes with the correct angles and wheel sizes!

Have you got any sneak previews of something new that’s coming from Mojo or Fox in the near future?

We don’t really know anything! I know a sneak preview of something else but I can’t tell you that!

And finally…

In 10 years time what will the average trail centre warriors bike look like?

They will run a 27.5” wheel, it will be will be somewhere in the area of 4 to 6 inches of travel and I think we’ll see a serious improvement in angles. Frames will adjust to accommodate the bigger wheels so wheelbase will get slightly longer.

I say this but really it's more what I would like to see happen... It's more likely that something stupid will come along and then we’ll all just focus on that!

Cheers Tom!

Missed the first installment with Pete Drew of Silverfish? Check it out here...