First UK production mtb a Ridgeback?

[GrahamJohnWallace]

We have beautiful documentation that F. W. Evans started selling Conquests in 1984. It still leaves open the possibility that Staples/Saracen sold their mountain bikes up to a year earlier.

The F.W. Evans that first went on sale in May 1984 were named and advertised as The F.W. Evans ATBs. The identical spec Saracens that I first saw later in 1984 at Bell St. Bikes were named and advertised as The F.W. Evans ATBs. I think that the Conquest models came out later in 1984 and may have been named as such because of the of the conquest of Kilimanjaro that was planned. The Conquest models may have been made from 531 whilst all the ATBs I saw were made from Reynolds 501. I believe that the Kili Flyer name/model was introduced after the expedition.

I will see if I can find magazine adverts for each of the models and also the dates when each was published.

In order for a 1983 Staples/Saracen to be made, Reynold's 501 All-Terrain tube-sets would also need to have been produced in 1983. Any supposition that the Saracen ATB was first made in 1983 is dependent the existence of the tubing it was made from at that date.

If we could prove that Reynolds 501-AT tubing was available in 1983 it would make the existence of a Saracen ATB in 1983 possible. However, only advertising or published accounts would prove it. Unfortunately, the first ever book on mountain-biking was not published until 1984. And the only UK market bikes mentioned in it are the UK made Cleland Range-Rider, and the imported Ridgeback and Ritchey Montare mountain bikes.

 

[BoyBurning]

This FW Evans Conquest early MTB - made from Reynolds 531 tubing and featuring @rideshimano Deer Head - was made in collaboration with and manufactured by @saracenbikes in Leamington Spa in 1985 where, 31 years later, it will return to our brand new branch this weekend.

That is being 'economical' or 'hopeful' with the facts. Can't beat a bit of spin with your advertising I guess... Excluding the minor inconveniences that neither Evans nor Saracen are the same companies / owners / structures / locations etc that they were when these bike were made, they were never made in Leamington Spa. But I guess it depends which version of the truth one wants to promote.

 

[ferrus]

A bit of a vague anecdote here so not much use, but may as well mention it.
My first ‘proper’ bike was a Saracen road bike, purchased in ’82 from Mike Thomson cycles in Coventry; not really a bike shop, more a hardware store with a few bikes and bedding plants for sale outside. Apparently Mike knew the owner of Saracen and had these half dozen ‘racers’ on special offer because the company was struggling or had gone bust (??). They were parts-bin specials; Ishiwata 0245 frames with an odd mix of Shimano 600 and cheapo Tourney gears. I think I got a duffer as it had pressed dropouts unlike the others and wasn’t very well built.
Anyway, sometime later Mike told me that Saracen were back in business again. I asked him (pressed him) to inquire whether they had any plans for a Mountain bike and was informed that they were thinking about it, and on another occasion that it was in the pipeline. None were available at that time.
This must have been some way into ‘83 as I didn’t really know about the existence of MTBs before reading a short feature on Stumpjumpers in the Observer in ‘83….

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/f-w-evans-atb-1984-5-milton-keynes.438797/

1984/5 F.W. Evans ATB - For sale in Milton Keynes

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

I found this article in a March 1986 copy of Bicycle Action Magazine. It's from an article written by Tom Bogdanowicz about the options available when buying UK manufactured mountain-bikes.

This confirms other contemporary accounts, that Gary Smith, the then owner of F.W Evans, was the designer of the first Saracen ATB bicycles.
It gives further credence to the idea that Gary Smith commissioned Saracen to build mountain-bikes for F.W. Evans. And in doing so, he inadvertently changed Saracen from being a manufacture of road-bikes, to a brand entirely associated with making mountain-bikes.

Maybe, Saracen were already a supplier of F.W Evans' branded road-bikes and frames?

However, this article was out of date as by 1986 the 'ATB' models had been superseded by the Conquest and Kili Flyer models.