Vote for Geoff Apps - Mountain Bike Hall of Fame 2010

[john]

Geoffrey Cleland Apps, the UK mountain bike pioneer has been nominated for the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame - hopefully this year he will be voted in and a glaring omission corrected. Mr Apps was riding bicycles off road in the mid 60s and his unique take on the 'mountain bike' pre dates the Marin County pioneers by several years. If you don't know about Geoff Apps I suggest you read up about him and his bicycles here on retrobike, here on wikipedia or here and here in the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame.

Graham Wallace, long time Apps aficionado has made the nomination and has gathered support from Bike Biz (read their article online here) along with such luminaries as Charlie Kelly and Gary Fisher. What can you do? Simple. Click here to register for the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame and vote for Geoff Apps! I know votes are closing soon so please be quick.

 

[orange71]

It costs $20 to be able to vote, which seems unfortunate as for most of us this will probably be a one-off exercise.

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

The $20 is really a way for the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame to raise money for its museum which is a registered charity.

This is the first time that non-US residents can join via PayPal. Previously you had to post a cheque in US$ in order to join.

On the plus side the $20 does mean that only committed supporters will bother voting. If voting were free and open to non-members the results might be even more US weighted than now.

I suspect that the number of votes cast for successful induction may not be very large. In 1999, a campaign by Joe Breeze successfully inducted the then unknown 1950's French pioneers known as the VCCP, into the Hall of Fame.

The only Brit currently inducted is the racer Tim Gould, though he was internationally renowned.

Geoff is well known and respected amongst the US pioneers some of whom are prepared to support Geoff in preference to strong American nominees.

We also have the support of people in the UK cycle trade and cycle journalists who know of Geoff and his remarkable bicycles and inventions.

Last years nomination was a long shot. This year we are in the running.

 

[john]

The $20 is really a way for the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame to raise money for its museum which is a registered charity.

This is the first time that non-US residents can join via PayPal. Previously you had to post a cheque in US$ in order to join.

On the plus side the 20$ does mean that only committed supporters will bother voting. If voting were free and open to non-members the results might be even more US weighted than now.

I suspect that the number of votes cast for successful induction may not be very large. In 1999, a campaign by Joe Breeze successfully inducted the then unknown 1950's French pioneers known as the VCCP, into the Hall of Fame.

The only Brit currently inducted is the racer Tim Gould, though he was internationally renowned.

Geoff is well known and respected amongst the US pioneers some of whom are prepared to support Geoff in preference to strong American nominees.

We also have the support of people in the UK cycle trade and cycle journalists who know of Geoff and his remarkable bicycles and inventions.

Last years nomination was a long shot. This year we are in the running.

I've paid up my US$20 to vote. I'm sure Geoff deserves the recognition.

 

[Stick Legs]

Yes Yes 3 times yes.

Geoff deserves this. I have joined to vote.

£14 is a small price to pay to prove that along with television, the jet engine, suspension bridges, air liners, etc etc etc

we also invented mountain biking.


(ducks and waits for US based abuse)


BTW:
I do know that John Logie Baird's TV was rubbish and the system designed by Philo Farnsworth is the one we use today!

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

My ballot form for the MBHOF has just arrived. It is a strange voting system with five voting categories and one vote per category per member. The three nominees or groups with the most votes will be inducted, so in theory all the inductees could be from one single, popular category.

Voting for others, apart from your preferred nominee, could mean that the extra votes, could edge the preferred nominee out of the top three. So the safest bet is to only vote for people you really want to be inducted.

The ballot form states that you need to, "complete the ballot & postmark it by July 16th 2010". So there should still be plenty of time for ballots to be sent out and returned.

 

[Stick Legs]

I haven't got a ballot form, despite paying. :?

 

[Stick Legs]

dbl post.

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

The Ballot may well be in the post. It took 6 days, from the date of posting, for my ballot papers to arrive from the States. Because of the post marked date policy, we still have just over three weeks left to receive and return the forms.

The advice for anyone not receiving a ballot form is shown below. It says that they will Email out ballot forms.

"If for some reason you did not get a ballot and your membership is current or you are an Inductee..Email me soon and I will email one to you. Please give me your physical address so I can get you on my mailing list and this will not happen next year... ...Please get the ballot in the mail to us postmarked by July 16th to make it count".

I wonder why they don't Email them all, and so save time and money?

Thanks for your support,

Graham.

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

Geoff Apps with his 1981 Cleland Aventura 29er prototype
and his Aventura TT (2010), Cleland-Cross-Country-Cycle.