First UK production mtb a Ridgeback?

[broadway]

A bit of googling says that the shop was called Beta Bikes.

 

[frank.youngman]

For anyone whose eyes are beginning to moisten with nostalgia,googling Ridgeback 501 produces one for sale on preloved in Scarborough.Can just make out the ugly lumps on the handlebars which suggest it has the old triangular stem.

 

[jaypee]

The Ridgeback I missed out on (grrrr) in the picture at the top wasn't lugged. But it did have bi-plane forks and the only reference I've found to that was in this eBay and marketplace forum link to a 1983 Ridgeback:

viewtopic.php?p=191623

Biplane fork an' all:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 0226804312

Now that's retro!

It wasn't Reynolds either but in the thread on the Evans (the link at the top) it's mentioned that in the really early days there wasn't enough 531/501 ATB to go round.

 

[jaypee]

Glad to have inspired your nostalgia chaps! Good info all round

 

[jaypee]

I think we have the answer

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=260404&p=1950633#p1950633

First UK specific mtb marketed here but made elsewhere

 

[Chopper the ex Copper]

Desgned specifically for the UK market, for Englands foul and murky conditions, and sold here...

http://clelandcycles.wordpress.com/bikes-1978-2010/

All pre dating the Ridgeback.

It's nice. It's early. But the only 'first' it scored is the first Ridgeback.

 

[jaypee]

I'm certainly not one to knock the Cleland - a far more significant bike than the Ridgeback and with clear links to the US MTB scene. But the Ridgeback is based on early US MTBs - a different lineage. And it seems its the first 'UK' production bike in that lineage.

I know its no grand claim - the first British knock-off of something American (still pretty significant given what it led to) - but it is the answer to the question I started off with.

 

[Chopper the ex Copper]

It is indeed inspired by a different lineage. Nevertheless, in term of mountain bikes (or bikes designed to be ridden off road road with various different names) it's neither the first sold in the UK, the first designed for the UK market, or the first designed specifically for UK riding conditions (which it isn't).

And while it was inspired by the US lineage, it was not a part of it. Somewhere between a rip off and a tribute, but not anywhere on the actual evolutionary scale. It's no more part of that actual Californian lineage than Cleland were.

 

[jaypee]

I agree with all that. Was just trying to find out how Ridgeback could make the claim they do, having come across it after nearly getting hold of one. The bike itself was nothing special, apart from its history and nice suntour parts. A curio, I'd have been happy to have it for £40 and it was in very good nick.

I think it's probably factually correct what Ridgeback say. It is the first production British knock-off/tribute/rip-off of a 'mountain bike'. It's certainly got nothing on a Cleland, but it does have some significance, in this country at least. A minor footnote.

 

[Chopper the ex Copper]

And Dawes were themselves claiming their Ranger as the first British built MTB - and dire as it was it was certainly in the American style - and even claimed so in their ad for the bike in Making Tracks magazine upon the models launch in 1983.

Ridgeback might be claiming it today, but someone else was claiming it 30 years ago. I don't know who, if either, are correct, but certainly Dawes were making the claim first.