English Range Rider

I looked at the mudguards after a good clean.
Failing to find any decent solvent-based adhesive that would work, I made a plastic weld of the thin outer surface to tack it together in position, then used hot-melt glue to fix a splint to the inside of the cracked area.

Rear Shimano XT axle, cones and balls replaced with new, since the old ones were pitted, and the axle bent.

Rest of the assembly went all OK.

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You’ve done a beautiful job Dan! Thankyou so much! It looks just like it did the day I bought it back in 1980 something!! It rides like a treat too and I’ll take some photos when I’m out and about in the Lakes for you!
 
Hi Peter, what a great bike you have there. 👍.
I just popped onto the forum (as I do once in a blue moon) & saw your posts in my old Range Rider thread.
Looking forward to seeing your bike up & running again, they are a bit thin on the ground as you probably know!
Hello Graham, and everyone else. 😉

🙂
Check out the final pictures! Dan has done a fantastic job!
 
Out on the Yorkshire Wolds on a fantastic Spring evening… and a picture of Geoff Apps (I presume), the Designer of this fantastic bike!
 

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Out on the Yorkshire Wolds on a fantastic Spring evening… and a picture of Geoff Apps (I presume), the Designer of this fantastic bike!
It's great to see such a rare and unusual bike beautifully restored to its former glory. :cool:

Yes, that's a photo of Geoff Apps in his country gent persona, sporting his tweed jacket and flat cap. He is pictured alongside a Phase III 700c Range Rider prototype that was the architype for both the later English Cycles' Range Riders and Cleland Aventura variants. Both models having frames and forks fabricated by Jeremy Torr in Telford.

These bikes do not belong to the Californian Klunker/mountain bike tradition, but instead evolved from an earlier homegrown British tradition that involved post-war teenagers modifying their road bikes to make them more suitable for jumping, wheelieing and riding off-road.
British Dirt Track Bikes

Apps cleverly used his experience of motorbike-trials riding to design sloping top-tube bikes with larger wheels and with more reliably powerful brakes than found on contemporary American 'mountain bikes'. Unfortunately not enough of these bikes were made and too few riders got to experience just how well they ride.

I hope that you continue to enjoy your Range Rider with its "lightweight front, so easy to hop over logs etc", for many years to come.
 
It's great to see such a rare and unusual bike beautifully restored to its former glory. :cool:

Yes, that's a photo of Geoff Apps in his country gent persona, sporting his tweed jacket and flat cap. He is pictured alongside a Phase III 700c Range Rider prototype that was the architype for both the later English Cycles' Range Riders and Cleland Aventura variants. Both models having frames and forks fabricated by Jeremy Torr in Telford.

These bikes do not belong to the Californian Klunker/mountain bike tradition, but instead evolved from an earlier homegrown British tradition that involved post-war teenagers modifying their road bikes to make them more suitable for jumping, wheelieing and riding off-road.
British Dirt Track Bikes

Apps cleverly used his experience of motorbike-trials riding to design sloping top-tube bikes with larger wheels and with more reliably powerful brakes than found on contemporary American 'mountain bikes'. Unfortunately not enough of these bikes were made and too few riders got to experience just how well they ride.

I hope that you continue to enjoy your Range Rider with its "lightweight front, so easy to hop over logs etc", for many years to come.
I’d forgotten how liberating it is to ride, a great riding position and the width and height of the handlebars make it so easy… you’re completely upright and great steering control. Thanks for putting me in touch with Dan who has done a fantastic job bringing it back to its former glory!
 
Great bike and restoration.

A selection of early English Cycles adverts:

Bicycle Times No. 21, Feb 1982 pp 13
Bicycle Times 21 Feb 1982 pp 13.webp

Bicycle Times No. 32, Jan 1983, pp 29
Bicycle Times 32 Jan 1983 pp 29.webp

Bicycle Times No. 39, Aug 1983 pp 4
Bicycle times 39 Aug 1983 pp 4.webp

Cycling World 9, Sept 1983, pp 20
Cycling World 9 Sept 1983 pp 20.webp

Bicycle Times No. 48, May 1984, pp 119
Bicycle Times 48 May 1984 pp 119.webp
 
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