Voodoo Tom
MTB Addict
Not the best kept secret on my part but it’s official, got me a shiny new Hightower.
Santa was crazy good to me this year. We are not a big gift giving family, those are for the kids so at best we usually exchange gift cards and such amongst the adults if anything. So we are sitting at my mom’s house on Xmas eve and Nick was raring to open gifts. Saw a particularly large box under the tree but didn’t think anything of it, just figured it was for Nicholas. My mom slides this big box across the floor and I’m just sitting there like the clueless fool I am still assuming it was legos or something big for Nick. Finally she looks at me and says “it’s yours go open it”. Before taking my first step towards that box I instantly thought “no frikkin way, a frame?”. Yep a shiny new mango orange size large Hightower frame. I lost it, dropping expletives and wiping away tears. There’s no way I deserve something like this. I feel so weird and uncomfortable and not worthy of a gift like this.
This all started a couple months prior. My stepdad had a new Hightower that wasn’t getting ridden so of course I “hijacked” it. Wanted to hate it but fell in love with that bike and must have hijacked it about a dozen times. My mom jokingly was telling my stepdad “you better start riding that thing or I’m going to put a big red bow on it and give it to Tom”. This was a running joke for a while. Heck I even showed up one night on my own bike, rang the doorbell and told him to open the garage cuzz it’s my weekend for visitation with the Hightower, swapped pedals and was gone in about 2 minutes. So probably mid November my mom was asking what I wanted for Xmas and I kept saying nothing, I have everything I need and the stuff I want is too dang expensive. Every time I saw her she kept asking and my answer was always the same. Then one day as I was over there stealing the bike again she asks and I pop off with “a new Hightower” as a joke. Well apparently it wasn’t a joke and the whole family was in on it.
I was pretty dang excited to say the least. Still am for that matter.
My bikes gotta have names. I loved the Dukes of Hazard & the General Lee as a youngster. That was one kick ass car and this is one kick ass orange bike so that’s how it got the name. This bike is gonna be a keeper and deserved new parts and nice ones so I slowly hand picked and started ordering stuff. Everything brand new except the wheels which I scored off fleabay. I had absolutely no plans of building another bike till the Yeti sells but I couldn’t just sit and stare at this pretty orange frame forever. I used to be a major dezert moto rat and rode KTM's so I kinda like orange.
Build spec basics:
2018 Hightower CC frame
Sram Gxp team BB (Threaded yeah baby)
Cane Creek 110 headset
2018 Rockshox Pike fork (set to 150mm)
Eagle XX1 “black stealth drivetrain” (Didn’t know such a thing existed till I started shopping)
XT brakes
Fox transfer 150mm dropper
Santa Cruz carbon 800 riser bar (cut to 780)
Raceface Turbine R stem 50mm
Roval Traverse 38 SL Fattie 27.5+ wheelset with DT 54t ratchet
2.8 Rekons
29” wheels & tires to come when funds allow
26.5lbs before adding Stans and pedals.
Pics from late last night when it was just about done. Almost too dang pretty to ride but "character" marks are inevitable so why wait. Maiden voyage tomorrow.
Santa was crazy good to me this year. We are not a big gift giving family, those are for the kids so at best we usually exchange gift cards and such amongst the adults if anything. So we are sitting at my mom’s house on Xmas eve and Nick was raring to open gifts. Saw a particularly large box under the tree but didn’t think anything of it, just figured it was for Nicholas. My mom slides this big box across the floor and I’m just sitting there like the clueless fool I am still assuming it was legos or something big for Nick. Finally she looks at me and says “it’s yours go open it”. Before taking my first step towards that box I instantly thought “no frikkin way, a frame?”. Yep a shiny new mango orange size large Hightower frame. I lost it, dropping expletives and wiping away tears. There’s no way I deserve something like this. I feel so weird and uncomfortable and not worthy of a gift like this.
This all started a couple months prior. My stepdad had a new Hightower that wasn’t getting ridden so of course I “hijacked” it. Wanted to hate it but fell in love with that bike and must have hijacked it about a dozen times. My mom jokingly was telling my stepdad “you better start riding that thing or I’m going to put a big red bow on it and give it to Tom”. This was a running joke for a while. Heck I even showed up one night on my own bike, rang the doorbell and told him to open the garage cuzz it’s my weekend for visitation with the Hightower, swapped pedals and was gone in about 2 minutes. So probably mid November my mom was asking what I wanted for Xmas and I kept saying nothing, I have everything I need and the stuff I want is too dang expensive. Every time I saw her she kept asking and my answer was always the same. Then one day as I was over there stealing the bike again she asks and I pop off with “a new Hightower” as a joke. Well apparently it wasn’t a joke and the whole family was in on it.
I was pretty dang excited to say the least. Still am for that matter.
My bikes gotta have names. I loved the Dukes of Hazard & the General Lee as a youngster. That was one kick ass car and this is one kick ass orange bike so that’s how it got the name. This bike is gonna be a keeper and deserved new parts and nice ones so I slowly hand picked and started ordering stuff. Everything brand new except the wheels which I scored off fleabay. I had absolutely no plans of building another bike till the Yeti sells but I couldn’t just sit and stare at this pretty orange frame forever. I used to be a major dezert moto rat and rode KTM's so I kinda like orange.
Build spec basics:
2018 Hightower CC frame
Sram Gxp team BB (Threaded yeah baby)
Cane Creek 110 headset
2018 Rockshox Pike fork (set to 150mm)
Eagle XX1 “black stealth drivetrain” (Didn’t know such a thing existed till I started shopping)
XT brakes
Fox transfer 150mm dropper
Santa Cruz carbon 800 riser bar (cut to 780)
Raceface Turbine R stem 50mm
Roval Traverse 38 SL Fattie 27.5+ wheelset with DT 54t ratchet
2.8 Rekons
29” wheels & tires to come when funds allow
26.5lbs before adding Stans and pedals.
Pics from late last night when it was just about done. Almost too dang pretty to ride but "character" marks are inevitable so why wait. Maiden voyage tomorrow.
Last edited by a moderator:
This is Tom's Hightower thread. 
...
. Love what you ride, ride what you love. Life is way, way too short to not be riding the most awesome bike you can get your claws on.
