Tom White recently spent about a week on the West Coast, traveling from San Francisco to Long Beach and in general, enjoying all that California life has to offer. Along with Dave Belcher and Edwin De La Rosa, the East Coast cats spent some time getting down in the ocean, doing some cliff jumping, and taking full advantage of the chiller lifestyle that California provides. This being my first time meeting and spending time with any of the dudes, I got a pretty good picture of what Tom White is about–not too much normal stuff stresses the dude out, and his bike setup is exactly along those lines–Tom ain’t stressing about his bars being a tad bit off, the PSI in his tires, or how loose or tight his chain is. If it works, it works and if it doesn’t it doesn’t–check out what Tom’s bike could look like on any given day, and catch some release details and random bits about how (little) Tom cares about his bike setup.
Tom and his signature setup in Long Beach. Photo: Brady
Frame: Skavenger El Blanco Loco, 21″
Fork: Skavenger Flat Iron
Headset: Animal
Stem: Animal Jump Off Remix
Bars: Skavenger Swift Bars
Grips: Animal Edwin
Tires: Animal Tom White Walls, 2.20″
Rear Wheel: Primo Mix Casette, Animal RS Rim
Front Wheel: Animal Javelin Hub, Animal RS Rim
Cranks: Animal Akimbo
Pedals: Animal Hamilton
Chain: Half Link
Sprocket: Animal Sprocky Balboa
Seat: Animal Nigel
Post: Animal Pivotal Stump
Clamp: Animal
Pegs: Animal
What’s good with your frame, the El Blanco Loco? Is it out yet, or is it coming soon?
You know, I don’t really know exactly when the shipment comes it, but from what they’re (Skavenger/Animal) telling me, it’s coming out at the end of this month, so within the next two weeks, I guess. Me personally, I’ll ride anything; I’ll get used to anything. It just needs to be 21 (inch top tube). I told them to just find the most popular selling bike and make it like that, and to make it a little bit stronger. You know, I really don’t care, I’ll get used to anything, I just wanted to make something the kids were into. I guess the Ed and Vinnie frames come in little bit different sizes from normal frames these days, just sorta different from what’s out there, so I told em just I’ll get used to anything, just make something that the kids want and are gonna be into.
You’ve got your signature Tom White Walls from Animal available. What was the story behind them?
Ralph actually came up to me with the idea, like, “We’ll have it be your name, the white wall, all that.” It took a while cause the GLH is so popular, they didn’t want to be coming out with three tires at the same time, so it was a long time in the making. We’re all psyched on it, we got white walls, tan walls…I’ll make it in any color and I don’t care, I’ll still call it the White Wall.
Tom's signature Tom White Wall from Animal Bikes. Photo: Brady
Is there anything you’re real particular about on your bike?
To tell you the truth, I don’t care, I’ll get used to anything. You know how it is, you saw my bike; the bars are semi straight…you heard (Jeff) Z, my bike’s a piece of shit, my back wheel’s bent but it don’t matter. I don’t manual, so I don’t need my back wheel to be straight. My handlebars and front tire aren’t straight, you saw it out in Cali.
So yeah, you were just out in Cali, do you want to comment on that a little bit? I know you were pretty into Long Beach over Nor Cal…
Every time I been to California, well, Long Beach, it’s been breezy, nice, just my ideal version of California. And every time I been to San Francisco, it’s always been freezing. And unless you got a local, there’s no way I’m just pedaling to the tops of those hills unless I know there’s something at the top, you know what I’m saying? We linked up with D-Block, that’s all I cared about. We also hit two shops, then came down to Long Beach and kicked it with you dudes.
Lil Jon took us cliff jumping, was that the first time you’d done that?
You know, I’d gone with Rob Wise before, climbing on some shit, but I was too scared to jump. It was good in Cali though, except for that part where I got stuck on the rocks, you know, some cliffhanger style shit (editor’s note: we were walking through some areas at high tide that required timing out the waves properly, and Tom got stuck clinging onto the wall for a sequence of waves after Dave Belcher had already passed through without issue).
Tom captioned this one something along the lines of "I was doing backflips but Andrew Brady missed them all." One and done. Dude's got jokes.
You got anything else in the works with Skavenger or Animal?
Not really, we got the frame coming out at the end of the month, and the Tom White Walls, and that’s about it.
What are you getting into for the rest of the summer? You gonna go anywhere?
Nah man, September through November is the best time to ride around here, so I’ll be chilling around here for the rest of the summer. I might make another trip out to Cali, but for the most part, I’ll be around here.
TAGS: Animal Bikes, Bike Check, Features, skavenger el blanco loco, Tom White
