1949-2024: Geoff Apps, pioneer of mountain bike design

We’ve just heard the sad news that Geoff Apps, pioneer of mountain bike design, died unexpectedly at home on 25th July. His passing is as quiet as much of his life, which is why you may be forgiven for wondering who he was or why you’ve never heard of him. Indeed, so light was his footprint in this digital age, he worried that his friends would not get to hear if he died. To all his friends and family, we are sad to hear of his passing, and hope this brief tribute serves to allay his fears, and also help note his rightful place in the history books of mountain biking.

I quite enjoy trespassing and going places I’m not supposed to go. And a bicycle is ideal for that.

Geoff Apps, in ‘Mountain Biking – The Untold British Story

Geoff came from a motorbike trials background, and brought his knowledge of what works off road to his efforts to build a bicycle. Before the Repack riders were racing down Mount Tam in Marin, USA, and about to kick off an entire industry, Geoff was meandering around the English countryside on his distinctive ‘Range-Rider’ bicycle. With a wealth of innovations designed to keep momentum over rough terrain, he was ahead of the bicycle design game on many fronts, but his use of 29er wheels is perhaps the piece of foresight given most publicity. By 1981, he’d ridden the bike up Snowdon in Wales – in case you had any doubts as to this bike’s capability.

By that point, mountain biking was an infant (and the name of a company rather than an activity), and he corresponded with its Californian parents. In the pre-internet age, letters went to and fro over the most appropriate wheel size, geometry, and inadequacy of available components with (now) Mountain Bike Hall of Fame members Joe Breeze, Gary Fisher, and Charlie Kelly. ‘Cross country cycling’ as Geoff called it did not catch on in the same commercial fashion as the American version, nor did his bikes, and while Geoff continued to work in the world of cycling, he never attracted the same attention as the Marin County crew. Nor did Geoff ever make it into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame – despite a nomination, the tyres were judged (possibly erroneously) to be too narrow to qualify as ‘mountain bikes’.

Nevertheless, he retained a solid and respectful following in the UK. Featured in ‘Mountain Biking: The Untold British Story’, as well as beloved of retrobike forums, he’s spoken of fondly. He comes across as being recognised as an innovator and free-thinker, with a love for getting outside and seeing just where a bicycle might be able take you.

Graham Wallace in the foreground, Geoff Apps on the right, out for a ride.

Since I never got to meet him in person I asked Graham Wallace, friend of Geoff and often-cited Cleland expert, to provide a brief account of the achievements of his friend:

The story of Geoff Apps and his bikes could be described as someone who had the right idea at the right time but in the wrong place. This picture of the bike design he entered into a Sunday Times Bicycle of the Future competition in 1978 is what we would today describe as a mountain bike. However, Geoff arrived at the design independently without any knowledge of what was about to happen in Marin California. Had the judges foreseen that the many children enjoying cycling off-road would want to continue to do so as adults, and not dismissed his design as a pedal powered off-road scrambler motorbike’, the history of the off-bicycles could have turned out in Geoff’s favour.

Undeterred, Geoff went on to create his first Cross-Country-Cycle in 1979, focusing on off-road touring capability compared of the speed and racing emphasis of American mountain bike pioneers like Joe Breeze and Gary Fisher.

After his designs were rejected as being ‘too niche’ by UK bicycle manufacturers, in 1982 he teamed up with frame-builder Jeremy Torr and with his own money to set up Cleland Cycles Ltd. Cleland were the first manufacturer of mountain-bikes in Europe. However, in the long run the small firm could not compete with the big advertising budgets of the importers and producers of mountain bikes that flooded the UK market from 1984 onwards.

Apps also turned his attention to promoting the new sport of mountain biking. After a less than successful XC race at the Eastway cycle circuit in London in May 1984, Apps was asked to use his knowledge of off-road cycling to devise the next event the first Wendover Bash that took place on the 17^th of June 1984. The Bash was the first UK multi discipline event including XC racing, a downhill time-trial, hill climb and trials competition a format was repeated by the Mountain Bike Club until British Cycling took over in the late eighties.

Geoff Apps’ Cleland bikes had design features that were far ahead of their time like; slopping top-tubes, powerful brakes acting at the wheel centre , not the rim and large 650b and 700c wheels. Some of these features did not reach the mainstream until decades later. In 1980, Geoff made contact with Gary Fisher in the States and sent him the larger diameter Finish snow tyres used on Cleland bikes. Impressed by their success  at the races, decades later Fisher allegedly invested $50,000 of his own money to have 700c tyre moulds created even though the resulting 29er tyres would not fit existing mountain bikes.

Geoff’s’ idea of the perfect mountain bike was not that of a fast racing machine but a comfortable, reliable machine capable of being able to traverse extreme terrain in a similar way that an original Land-Rover Defender might.  Determined to improve his bikes he continued to experiment and innovate developing, amongst other things,  swing-pedals combines extreme elliptical chain-sets and drive trains where the chain runs through flexible rubber tubing.

Geoff said that his ultimate machine was his 2015 Cleland Landseer designed for all weather off-piste wild-riding in the Scottish Borders. This is not many peoples idea of the perfect mountain bike but in the wet and muddy landscape It was designed for, its tank like capabilities are unrivalled, and especially so in Winter.

Thanks to Graham for taking the time to share this with us.

Cleland frame-builder and Mountain Bike Club founder Jeremy Torr, also provided following tribute to Geoff:

‘Geoff was a brilliantly free thinker and impressively original designer and creator of all sorts of things, including bicycles. He shared his ideas on bikes with me way back in the early 80s, and we were lucky enough to give birth together to some of the very first off-road bikes produced in the UK.  I still value his faith in me to build his ideas into rolling realities, and also value with fondness his never-ending cup of tea and biscuit breaks. He wasn’t your average bloke, and could take a while to get to know, but he definitely brought a smile to many, many faces. Any more to ask? I don’t think so; Vale Geoff.’

Whether we met Geoff or not, in his innovation and ideas, we all owe him a moment of thanks, for the contributions he made to what we ride today.

Hannah Dobson

Managing Editor

I came to Singletrack having decided there must be more to life than meetings. I like all bikes, but especially unusual ones. More than bikes, I like what bikes do. I think that they link people and places; that cycling creates a connection between us and our environment; bikes create communities; deliver freedom; bring joy; and improve fitness. They're environmentally friendly and create friendly environments. I try to write about all these things in the hope that others might discover the joy of bikes too.

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