Home > Event Coverage

Road to Philly Bike Expo 2021: Tom La Marche Breaks and Makes Bikes

a yellow Tom La Marche bike in a wooded environment
Support us! Bikerumor may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn More

From riding with the Specialized team to TIG welding his own frames – Tom La Marche’s career has been nothing if not varied. Tom was driven to make frames out of a desire to ride something he created. We caught up with Tom in advance of the Philly Bike Expo, where he’ll be debuting a mountain bike frame he’s been cooking up. He’s also working on a foldable bike!

Please enjoy this interview with Tom La Marche.

a La Marche frame against a white background

Bikerumor.com: What’s your name, your bike brand, and where are you based?

Tom La Marche: Tom La Marche, Philadelphia, PA. I started apprenticing frame building in 2015, so 6 years.

a collection of bike frame materials

Bikerumor.com: What’s your preferred frame material and building technique? 

Tom: Steel with a mixture of TIG welding and fillet brazing.

Tom La Marche TIG welding

Bikerumor.com: What sets your bikes apart from other custom builders? 

Tom: Branding, semi-production, no-frills, lots of riding experience.

a collection of bike frames of different colors against a white background

Bikerumor.com: How did you get into this? Who inspired you to get started making bikes? 

Tom: Years of breaking frames, being unsatisfied with frame designs, and ultimately just wanting to ride something I created. I think some of the first examples of frame building that inspired me to make bikes were Brooklyn Machine Works, Ted James Designs, and Squarebuilt.

a yellow Tom La Marche bike in a wooded environment

Bikerumor.com: Who inspires you now? 

Tom: Anyone who breaks outside of the norm. The people making their own tooling and frame parts really get me horny. Some of my favorites are: Tonic Fabrications, Tommi, BTR, Swarf, Hunter, WHTHOUS, Foes, Chapman Cycles, Frances Cycles, PechTregon, Moulton, Thursday Bikes, S&M, Ted James, Bike Friday, Clandestine, Starling Cycles, Eeder Metal, Falconer, and Inglis/ Retrotech.

tools and frame parts in a workshop

Bikerumor.com: How was Covid era for you? Good, bad, about the same? How did it change your business and business model, if at all? 

Tom: I moved into a new workshop at the begging of the pandemic which kept me plenty busy. Luckily I was able to work alone and not interact with many other people. This is my first year as an actual business, so tough to say.

a wider shot of the Tom La Marche workshop

Bikerumor.com: What’s the most interesting bike you’ve built over the past year? 

Tom: I’m currently working on a folding travel bike that compacts into a manageable size. It’s single speed, uses some BMX parts, and is very simple. I got sick of stressing over all of the ever-changing standards and wanted to build something that brought things back to basics. Riding and traveling are the two best things to me. Why not make a bike that suits that lifestyle?  It’s fun to build things to your own standards and not have to worry about squeezing tires, chainring, and cranks into a 1 mm clearance zone. Going with a BMX crank allows an adjustable chain line and will be the heart of the folding mechanism.

a Tom La Marche bike against a white background

Bikerumor.com: What are you bringing to Philly Bike Expo this year? Any teasers or sneak peeks? 

Tom: Hopefully two do-it-all/gravel bikes and a mountain bike frame. You’ll have to wait and see!

It’s been a ton of work to design the bike and dial in all the details so I am very excited to bring it to the public and start producing them.

Tom La Marche working in his shop

Bikerumor.com: If you had to do a multi-day bikepacking adventure with anyone else in the cycling industry, dead or alive, who would it be and why? 

Tom: Hm, maybe the Wright brothers? Would be cool to see what kind of contraption they could come up with for bikepacking.

lamarchebikeco

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.