Tomac Bicycles Keeps Wheels of Enterprise Churning Nonstop

Tomac Mountain Bikes promises its customers “hardcore, quality products.” When one takes a glance at the company’s inner workings, it’s obvious those same descriptors apply to the man behind the brand, Joel Smith. Here’s a breakdown of a typical workday in his own words:

“We work the sales side of things early in the morning, because we have a large European business. Our company is actually growing, so that can encompass a big part of the afternoon, and around evening you have to deal with manufacturing stuff. Manufacturing is done in Taiwan, so Skyping with those guys starts around 9 p.m and goes to about 2 in the morning. The whole thing can translate into very long days.”

After acquiring the rights to the ailing Tomac name from the American Bicycle Group back in June 2006, Smith moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, from California, hoping the state’s lower cost of living would prove an assent in his quest to revitalize the high-end bicycle brand.

In more ways than one, it would seem, biking is in Smith’s blood. The son of three-time motorcycle Hall of Fame inductee Malcolm Smith (who was instated in the Off-road Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1978, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1996 and the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998), Joel Smith possesses a solid legacy on which to build his passion. And it’s his love of riding that’s carried him through his strenuous uphill struggle.

“When do I sleep? I just try,” Smith joked. “‘When do I ride?’ is the critical question. We’re proud of the quality of our bikes, but the biggest strain is finding time to get out and ride them.”

Nebraska’s distinct lack of mountains make it difficult to find local customers, Smith admitted, even though Tomac Mountain Bikes is the only bike manufacturing firm in the state. Still, a combination of unrelenting work ethic and fierce pride in their product (all the bikes are designed here in the U.S., with Tomac designers working out of Colorado and California) helps Smith and his employees muscle through.

“The most difficult part (of my job) is making money,” he said. “We’ve had to run a pretty lean operation the past two years. One of the first things that takes a hit when the economy starts going bad are bicycles, especially the high-end equipment we produce.”

Fortunately, along with the lion’s share of the U.S.’s shaken marketplace, Tomac’s showing the signs of a solid recovery.

“2010′s been very strong for us,” Smith said. “In the first three months, we’ve sold as many bikes as we sold last year. These are big numbers, which may be an indication things on the whole are turning around.”

No doubt, this resurgent success is in no small part thanks to Smith’s nearly two decades in the bike industry, the company’s international clientele and just a smidgen of chain grease when things get tough. Above all, Tomac is willing to go the literal extra mile to provide its customers with the best quality bikes possible. More often then not, this strict adherence to excellence means riding off into the sunrise and back again.

“Sometimes, we’ll drive to Colorado, test the bikes, and then drive back in the same day,” Smith said. “We can actually do some testing on some models around here — like in Platte River State Park — but the full-suspension bikes we make require a special type of terrain for testing, and Nebraska doesn’t really offer much in terms of the right landscape.”