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Geoffrey Cleland Apps, the UK mountain bike pioneer has been once again nominated for the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame - hopefully this year he will be voted in and a glaring omission corrected. Mr Apps was riding bicycles off road in the mid 60s and his unique take on the 'mountain bike' pre dates the Marin County pioneers by several years. If you don't know about Geoff Apps I suggest you read up about him and his bicycles here on retrobike, here on wikipedia or here and here in the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame. Graham Wallace, long time Apps aficionado has made the nomination once again. What can you do? Simple. Click here to register for the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame and vote for Geoff Apps! I know votes are closing soon so please be...

The June 2011 road Bike of The Month contest was taken by yo-Nate-y's 1981 Chris Chance Criterium. The full result is as follows 1. yo-Nate-y's 1981 Chris Chance Criterium 2. Mark34's 1989 TVT Lemond 3. RooKilo's 1985 Roy Cottingham Chronometro Now taking nominations for the July 2011 rBoTM contest. Click here for more details and full results The June 2011 road Bike of The Month top three are as follows 1. yo-Nate-y's 1981 Chris Chance Criterium Click here for full 1981 Chris Chance Criterium build thread 2. Mark34's 1989 TVT Lemond Click here for full TVT Lemond build thread. 3. RooKilo's 1985 Roy Cottingham Chronometro Click here for full 1985 Roy Cottingham Chronometro build thread.

Another excellent year at Mountain Mayhem for Retrobike. Big thanks to Bikefood for their excellent support once again. 48 riders and plenty of hangers on meant we had one of the biggest camps on site. Hope other riders enjoyed the 'encouragement' via the megaphone, 5 hour bear based DJ set and light show as they came past Retrobike HQ. The Friday night team presentation, BBQ and International Two Man Jenga tournament was also a classic. Think we might even have done some riding at some point too. Retrobike Mountain Mayhem aftermath thread now up, full report to follow soon (ish).

Selling out… Rather than the usual “goodbye” or “see you” for some reason I can’t help saying “keep it real” or “don’t sell out”. Hopefully I will stop it soon, but no doubt will move on to something equally annoying. Anyway, it started me thinking that it is actually a nice thing to do and while I don’t mean anything by it, maybe I should be taking my own candid advice. So, seeing as I race for Retrobike, I have the dilemma of riding old skool, whilst when it comes down to it, actually wanting to win. Perhaps this concept isn’t completely incompatible, but it could take some doing. So, to come clean right from the start and seeing as this is meant to be a race report, I do have a history of competing in quite a lot of mtb from...

On 11th and 12th June 2011, BespokedBristol hosted the inaugural UK Handmade Bicycle Show, with a nod to the well established North American Handmade Bike Show. Obviously the bikes featured would be handmade in the UK. On the evening of the 10th, The Guvnor and I, living the dream, went along to check it out. A few highlights included: -Milk Bikes -Lee Cooper Cycles / Alex Hatfield Concepts -Tokyo Fixed -Freshtripe -Brian Rourke -Feather -Enigma Full report and pictures of Bespoked Bristol 2011 can be found in the forum.

Traditionally Mountain Mayhem is Retrobike's biggest and best event of the year. This year will be no different! The weekend's schedule is now finalised. So whether you're racing solo or just coming along to hang out and heckle there will be something for you. Click here for full schedule. Highlights include • The Retrobike Concours Show • BBQ • Giant Jenga • Flea Market • DJ Bernard • Trackside heckle tent • Some racing (perhaps). See you at MM :D

The latest Coolwall vote has been declared! Cannondale is COOL. Big aluminium tubes and headshocks are judged to be cool by the retrobike users :D Next up on the vote is the Girvin Flexstem. Is the suspension stem which provided an inch of suspension travel via an elastomer cool? As ever you decide!

Summer is here and RetroBike Rides are occurring all over the British Isles. May was a particularly active month with the Forest of Dean witnessing one of RB’s finest events to date as it hosted Round 3 of our National Ride Series. June promises to be even more eventful with Mountain Mayhem highlighting the calendar. This year with have in the region of 50 riders taking part in the race, but also a Flea Market and concours event on the Friday night all in conjunction with the usual BBQ, beers and bizarrely the institution that is Jenga! So even if your not riding please come along and enjoy the party. Click here to read full retrobike rides June 2011 newsletter.

Retrobike member breezerfatty is completing the Lands End to John O'Groats ride for a good cause, Great Ormond Street Hospital. Here is what breezerfatty has to say (or read more in the forum). We are three cyclists (Graham Reeve, Graham Jackson, and Shane Taylor) taking on a huge challenge for a great cause. Four years ago the surgeons at Great Ormond Street removed a tumour the size of a tennis ball from the heart of Graham Reeve's daughter Beth. It was clear that if untreated Beth only had days to live. Now that she is well again, it's time to repay them by raising money to help them with their work. There are people all over this country who know what it’s like to have their children returned to them by the work done at Great...

This weekend sees the first running of Bespoked Bristol - the UK's first handmade bicycle show. The event is running on Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th June at the Paintworks, Bristol, click here for full details > http://www.bespokedbristol.co.uk/. The show includes numerous frame builders, bike designers and small scale manufacturers of premium components, clothing and accessories. Retrobike will be there over the weekend, look in here for a report and pictures next week.

The The May 2011 road Bike of The Month contest was taken by Slotcar55's Galmozzi Super Competizione. The full results are as follows 1. Slotcar55's Galmozzi Super Competizione 2. Stedlock's Hetchins Magnum Bonun Scorpion 3= The Don's Klein Quantum Pro 3= Piperdave's Raleigh Cadet 12 'Panasonic' Now taking nominations for the June 2011 rBoTM contest. Click here for more details and full results The May 2011 road Bike of The Month top three are as follows 1. Slotcar55's Galmozzi Super Competizione 2. Stedlock's Hetchins Magnum Bonun Scorpion Click here for full Shorter build thread. 3. equal The Don's Klein Quantum Pro 3. equal Piperdave's Raleigh Cadet 12 'Panasonic'

The The May 2011 'Made In Canada 'eh' Special Bike of The Month contest was taken by Woody's 1991 Rocky Mountain Blizzard. The Blizzard will be featured in next month's mbr magazine and Woody will receive a year’s subscription to the magazine. The full result is as follows 1. Woody's 1991 Rocky Mountain Blizzard 2. Uschibert's Brodie eXpresso 3. Sovereign's Brodie sovereign Now taking nominations for the June 2011 BoTM here. Click here for more details and full results The May 2011 'Made In Canada 'eh' Special Bike of The Month top three are as follows 1. Woody's 1991 Rocky Mountain Blizzard Click here for full Rocky Mountain Blizzard build thread. 2. Uschibert's Brodie eXpresso 3. Sovereign's Brodie sovereign

As the site approaches it's sixth anniversary we've reached another major milestone - 15,000 users! Click here to discuss in the forum. Retrobike - original and best since 2005 :D

May 2011 sees a welcome return for the Feature Bike series. First up is doctorbond's 1989 Team Peugeot / Roberts White Spider (click for original build thread). Enjoy! I’ve always had a soft spot for old Peugeots. In fact, one of my earliest off road memories was as a kid, bouncing along a dirt track in the back of an ancient 404 estate. And when Peugeot turned their hand to producing off road bicycles during the MTB boom years of the 1980’s, it was a similar no nonsense sturdiness that typified the machines that they created: great for touring and recreation but not out-and-out racers. Which is why, when in the late 80’s Simon Burney’s Ace Racing cyclo-cross team was asked by sponsors Peugeot to compete as an MTB outfit, he ended up...

Plenty has been written on this and other internet forums about the re-emergence of cult Canadian brand Off Road Toad. Michael Golinski, the Managing Director of Off Road Toad Bikes has agreed to speak exclusively to Retrobike about their current and future plans. 1) Retrobike: So, welcome back Off Road Toad. First things first, what sort of bikes will you be making? And perhaps more importantly can we see some pictures? Off Road Toad: Thanks! We are glad to be bringing the brand back. Like the original Off Road Toad frames, we will be building hardtail chromoly frames. These will be available for both 26" and 29er tires and no, at this point there is no plan to built Horny Toads (the elevated chain stay Off Road Toads)! 2) RB...

Saturday saw Retrobike take on the Forest of Dean with support from Bikefood. Forty five riders were out on their retro machinery and ably led around the FoD's sinuous singletrack by Pete. Click here for the Retrobike FoD aftermath thread, possibly the biggest event to hit the Forest since EMF's seminal "Rave in The Cave".

:: Date: Saturday 14th May 2011 :: Time: 10am for a 1030 start. :: Meeting at: Pedalabikeaway Cycle Centre, near Coleford, United Kingdom. There is a Pay and Display carpark, £3 for the day. :: Directions: Postcode: OS Grid Reference: SO 624 114. Post Code for Sat Nav is GL16 7EH but check the map as this may put you in the centre of Coleford or at the cottages down the road! http://www.pedalabikeaway.co.uk/findus.html Cycle centre telephone: 01594 860065. :: Terrain: Forest trails, mainly sweet fireroad singletrack, the vast majority of it natural. While not flat, the route planned is not super up or down. Although parts of the Forest are extremely well drained, conditions can be a little muddy in places if it has been raining...