Re: Re:
hedgesteeper":2f03fi2s said:
Looking at this picture the wheels would appear to be 650A or thereabouts
650B to be precise, with a 54x584 (26"x2"-1 1/2") Nokia Hakkapeliitta fitted on the back and a 44x584 (26"x5/8"-1 1/2") on the front. The wider tire on the back was used by Geoff Apps in 1980 and remained in use on the early English Cycles Range-Riders.
hedgesteeper":2f03fi2s said:
...rather than 700c that I have randomly fitted to my bike, though the latter looks fine with a pair of Panaracer Smoke Lite 700c prototypes that were given to me in 1995 for evaluation long before the concept of 29'ers were ever invented.
Gary Fisher was the instigator of the 29'er movement when he spent $50,000 of his own money to have fat 700C knobbly tyres produced. Here Fisher explains that he got the idea from Geoff Apps who having made a 700C Range-Rider in 1981 subsequently exported hundreds of 700x47C Hakkapeliittas to Fisher.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8syt59gK65o
Though I have never seen a 700c English Cycles Range-Rider, Geoff Apps did use the size on his Range-Riders and Highpath Engineering made 700C bikes based on Apps' designs.
hedgesteeper":2f03fi2s said:
My bike has the braze-on's for a chainguard so I built one as an exact replica of the one on my Cleland save for the mounting point beneath the BB shell being different.
Cleland Aventuras had 90mm wide bottom bracket shells that allowed for straight chainstays whilst Torr used much narrower, standard bottom brackets where the stays had to be bent to clear the tyre. Therefore the chain-guards and bash-plates are not interchangeable and are quite different in shape.
hedgesteeper":2f03fi2s said:
The handlebar setup on my RR was borrowed from the Cleland, by the way, though I have a lovely pair of Renthal trials handlebars and a shorty stem to replace these.
I will ask Jeremy Torr if he fitted the CW mini-bars I suspect that he did and have seen Range-riders fitted with them. These days the CW's are very hard to find and sought after by people restoring Aventuras.
I own this completely original, unrestored English Cycles Metro-Trekker. The frame is identical to the Range-Rider but was fitted with 26" wheels, cantilever brakes and bull-noose handlebars. It is a Cleland frame fitted with US MTB wheels and componentry. Fitting 26" wheels to a frame designed for 650B gives very generous wheel/frame clearances.