30th anniversary of the sport of UK mountain biking weekend

[GrahamJohnWallace]

The Aftermath:
This event was held to mark passing of thirty years since the first mountain bike specific competition event, 'The 1984 Wendover Bash'. The 'Bash' was the first mountain bike specific event to be held in Britain and took place in Wendover woods on the 17th of June 1984.

For the Anniversary British mountain bike designer and pioneer Geoff Apps invited some friends and RetroBikers to join him on in revisiting the site of the original 'Bash' and to ride in the hills and woods where he designed his Cleland mountain bikes. This is also where he started the first mountain bike rides in Britain in 1982, to promote his Cleland Cycles company, the first mountain specific bike manufacturer in Britain, probably Europe. The bikes were designed when Apps lived in Aylesbury and manufactured in nearby Rowsham from 1982-1984.

An unprecedented number of 'Apps' bikes were gathered for the event. From the remains of first bicycle to be ridden up a British Mountain, the 1980, Cleland Range-Rider prototype, which was ridden up Snowdon in October 1981 (by a team led by modern day television presenter Nicholas Crane), to Apps' most recent Cleland Aventura TT design.

Also being ridden was the first Cleland bicycle produced at Rowsham in '82 and the most influential of Apps' designs the 1981 700c wheeled Range-Rider prototype. A bike that inadvertently led to the development of a whole new class of mountain bike, the 29er. This happened after Apps exported some of the big Finnish Hakkapeliitta tyres he used on this bike, to US mountain bike pioneers Gary Fisher and Charlie Kelly.

The weather on Saturday's ride was hot and humid, but despite Apps now being in his 60's he still managed to lead a ride of over 18miles of hilly and difficult terrain. More reports and pictures to follow.

On the Sunday we joined in with the festivities at the Chiltern Cycling Festival held at Amersham, whilst wearing some fancy dress deemed appropriate for the occasion. It was at Dees Cycles in Amersham that the first frames for Geoff Apps' mountain bikes were made in 1979/80. One of these would have been the first mountain bike to be made made in Britain, but unfortunately it no longer exists. However the search is on to track down what happened to a second Dees Cycles made machine.

All in all a great weekend was had by all.
Watch this space for photos.....

All the best,
Graham.

 

[elPedro666]

D'oh! Thought this was the announcement - managed to miss that entirely :facepalm: :x

Great to hear you had a good time anyway and I look forward to the photos

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

D'oh! Thought this was the announcement - managed to miss that entirely :facepalm: :x

Hi elPedro666, sorry you missed it. It was posted up on a variety of threads and on the Regional Rides Calandar: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=283254#p2116718
The best way of not missing 'Cleland rides is by keeping an eye on the Rides section of the Cleland website:
http://clelandcycles.wordpress.com/weekend-rides/
You will notice that the next ride is on Sunday the 7th of December.
RetroBikers are always welcome even if they bring modern bikes.

All the Best,
Graham.

 

[elPedro666]

Re:

Thanks Graham, would love to tag along on one of the rides sometime - looks like I've only got myself to blame for missing this one! :facepalm:

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

Whilst I wait for people to send me photos of the weekend, here are some of Friday's gathering of the Clelands:

 

[M-Power]

Re:

Awesome. Looking forward to more pics of the event.

 

[DrJo]

My only slight disappointment with this weekends fun is that I don't get my retrobiker badge as this was not a retrobike event. Apart from that..

WTF

I can't believe a filthy thirty year old bicycle that until a few days ago looked like this :mrgreen:


with minimal parts swappage and only emergency adjustment, iffy shifting, missing a tooth on the smallest sprocket and not my brooks!! Could propel me almost twenty miles up and over the Chiltern hills and through the roughest parts of the woods with ease, confidence and comfort.
Did I tell you I was Impressed, this thing is ******* awesome...


My deepest thanx go to Geoff Apps for his lifelong commitment to creating a truly British cycling experience, this man deserves a place in the Mountain bike hall of fame!! I got to ride with a legend and if ever you get the chance then you should too....
Also to Graham for his hospitality, generosity and patience. Looking forward to the Birthday bash.
And as ever to John the Guvnor for creating this site without which I wouldn't be writing this....
Props
Drjo

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

I can't believe a filthy thirty year old bicycle that until a few days ago looked like this

Here it DrJo's newly restored Cleland on the Friday night, when it still required a total overhaul of the drive-chain to get it ready for the next day's ride. So I got up early at 6am, and with Jo's help replaced the front & rear derailleurs, the chain, the shifters, tuned the brakes, tightened everything up and Jo quickly tested it before we headed off for the ride. As back up we took along a Cleland NRS in his van but thankfully this wasn't needed.

And all of the last minute rush to make the bike trail ready was well worth it as the bike performed brilliantly in the woods. Even despite loosing a freewheel tooth and the fact that DrJo had never ever ridden a Cleland before.

(By the way, the reversed handlebar stem is an old way of improving the wrist angle when a small Cleland is being ridden by a tall rider. Strangely, it makes no difference whatsoever to the handling of the bike).

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

Re:

Whilst I wait for people to send me some proper photos, here are some frame grabs from my headcam. The site of the Wendover 'Bashes' is somewhat overgrown these days. However, we braved the nettles and low branches to relive those formative years


Here, Jez, who came 2nd in the 1985 Wendover Bash 'Gecko' hillclimb on a Dawes Ranger when he was 15, trying to recreate his success. First on a modern full-susser, and then a Cleland TT.

Here he re-enacts the 'Suicide Hill' downhill shown in The Bicycle Action page at the beginning of this thread.

 

[elPedro666]

Re: Re:

Love the re-enactment shot!

Here, Jez, who came 2nd in the 1985 Wendover Bash 'Gecko' hillclimb on a Dawes Ranger when he was 15, trying to recreate his success. First on a modern full-susser, and then a Cleland TT.

Come on then, how did they compare on the climb...?