The Snyper has been designed from the ground up to be a bike that you can be as happy ripping up a World Cup DH course as you can be tooling around the woods in baggies and backpack. We think it'll appeal to a broad spectrum of UK riders who will revel in the ability to put 140mm of travel to full use, but be able to spin along with XC race-like speed.
From the first turn of the pedals the Snyper feels crisp and tight turning in the tight singletrack. The 140mm of rear travel is the hot ticket for 2008, it seems like a lot, but it's quality we're interested in and this travel is Premier Cru. This is partly down to some real obsessing by Joel Smith (owner of Tomac Bicycles) over the quality of the bearings, hidden from dirt, as far as is possible, to help extend service life.
Out on the trail, the comfortably stretched Snyper chassis will roll effortlessly at casual trail speeds, but true to its Tomac name it responds best to flat out 'attack' style riding as first made famous by John Tomac. Incidentally, the 'Tomes' had power of veto on all aspects of the new Tomac designs, but is reportedly ecstatic about the ride quality of the end result. There are two spec versions of the Snyper at £2199 and £2855 and an astonishingly competitive £1159 frame option.
Downsides are few and far between, the rear tyre clearance at the chainstay bridge isn't huge with a Kenda Nevegal 2.2 (about the same as an SC Blur) so tyre choice will be a factor in the gloop.