Bimbler - Member
"I'd never heard of Geoff Apps before and I was an earlyish acolyte of (1986/1987) mountain biking
Interesting stuff on Geoff Apps and Cleland bikes
I have no doubt that mountain biking as we understand it, especially the gnarr rad-dude wing is an American invention. They merchandised it, industrialised it and through the power of marketing proselytized it".
"Lets face it if it wasn't for American can-do-ism there'd be a few hundred mountain bikers in the UK paying £2000 for a 30lb bridleway blasters built by Geoff Apps and his ilk".
This last statement is probably pretty close to the mark. Though Cleland Cycles Ltd. stopped trading in late 1984, this wasn't directly due to competition from American style mountain bikes. Geoff Apps had been promoting his designs for years but conservative British manufactures did not see the point of cycling off-road and so were not eager to make his designs. So he set up his own business making them. However the timing was not good as Britain was in the middle of an industrial recession, suppliers were jumpy and pulled the plug on credit facilities, and that caused a cash flow crisis. By then Apps had spent all his money and was not prepared to go into debt in order to keep the Cleland Cycles trading.
However, Cleland customer David Wrath-Sharman, both loved the way the Clelands rode, and had the engineering skills to improve the design and build Cleland style bikes to order under his Highpath Engineering Brand. Meanwhile Geoff Apps' frame builder, Jeremy Torr, carried on making Cleland style bikes under his own English Cycles brand. Both these ventures did well at first and I believe if the American mountain bikes had not been invented they would have carried on making expensive bespoke bicycles for a steadily increasing band of enthusiasts. But the high quality and relatively inexpensive mass produced mountain bikes, made the Cleland style bikes look increasingly overpriced, and Apps's vision of affordable mass produced Clelands never came to pass.
However Cleland style bikes did not disappear completely. Many owners still used their Cleland, English Cycles and Highpath bikes, often in preference to mountain bikes. Some like myself still do, and Geoff, D.W.S.and others enthusiasts continued to design, built and ride a wide range of developed variants. However it is only now with the backing of Brant Richards that the the dream of a mass produced and affordable Cleland is looking likely.
If the mountain bike not been invented in the US would the Clelands have been more successful?
I believe they would. As both the design, and the idea of cycling off-road for fun, are sound.
There would certainly be"...be a few hundred mountain bikers in the UK paying £2000 for a 30lb bridleway blasters built by Geoff Apps and his ilk." Things could have grown and evolved and got more sporty, sexy and less practical. There were UK based entrepreneurs who promoted mountain biking like Errol Drew of Ridgeback, or Drew Lawson and Ari Hadjipetrou of MuddyFox etc, who could have equally seen the potential in Apps' ideas.
Had the mountain bike not been invented, could Cleland derived bikes may have eventually gone on to be sold and adapted globally?
We will never know, as mountain bikes were invented, and we can only speculate.
