Tom Mayer

in 1992

Tom Mayer began riding dirt trails in his 20 acre backyard in 1959. It wasn’t until 1963 that desire to explore made him seriously begin riding the back-country trails near Durango, Co. At the time, the widest tires he could get were 1 3/8 inch, which made for a challenge on rough trails. Tom also quickly learned that low gears are essential for riding steep climbs. He experimented with different gearing systems and even built one with 120 speeds. That bicycle had a gear range from 12” to 156” and could shift a wide range very quickly.

In 1972, Tom, along with Ed Zink, founded the Iron Horse Classic Race from Durango to Silverton.

Today, Tom lives in Albuquerque, NM. With his wife Esther and son Andy. He rides year-round, almost exclusively on single track. His favorite riding is very technical single track, especially climbing. Over the years, Tom has devoted hundreds of hours to trail construction and maintenance. He also teaches mountain bike classes for all levels, but especially enjoys the advanced technical single track classes.

Tom owns GIOS TEAM, which produces the Mountain Tamer Quad and the Mountain Tamer Triple – adapters which allow smaller chainrings on standard cranksets for lower gears. Tom is an engineer at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque where he designs, builds, and evaluates teleoperated all-terrain robotic vehicles. Mayer continues to develop innovative mountain bike products.