Annual Cleland ride
by Crispin Sage
Each year, Geoff Apps travels down from Scotland to revisit the Chiltern Hills, the locality where Cleland designs were first conceived, tested and produced. During the 1980s, a regular ride used to begin in Wendover on the first Sunday every month, usually led by Geoff, often on one of his ‘latest’ concept machines.
After he moved to Scotland in 1990, it was thought that a single ride each year would be more practical, and since there is a cluster of regular participant birth dates around the beginning of December (including Geoff’s), the first Sunday in December would become the date for each ‘Birthday’ ride.
This is a completely informal event, with no need to register, or anything like that. Just turn up with your mountain bike, or Cleland, or home-brewed lash-up, with an open mind and not too competitive a spirit.
Last year’s ride took place on:
Sunday 4th December 2011
This year’s ride will be on:
Sunday 2nd December 2012
We meet at the Wendover Library car park at around 10am, and then go round the corner to Crumb’s Cafe and sandwich bar near the Clock Tower at the bottom of the High Street, for about 10:30, where we gird our loins with something to sustain us, and usually set off around 11am.
The pace is generally quite slow, with frequent stops for the younger riders to catch up with the pensioners! Although slow, the going can sometimes be quite challenging, involving lots of mud and as many bumps as we can find. One or more of the stops may involve messing around on an impromptu ‘trials section’, another could be for lunch at one of the hilltop pubs.
We should reach the Cafe in the Woods, at the top of Wendover Woods in time for tea, between 4 & 5pm. After this we turn our lights on (or not, sometimes) and take a descent back down to Wendover in darkness where we roll into the car park behind the Red Lion, in the High Street, arriving about 6pm. Here we can enjoy a brew, smoke a fag and discuss mud under the outdoor heaters.
There is some chat about the ‘Birthday Ride’, with a few pictures, on the retrobike website.
So, even if you’re not riding, you may be able to catch up with us at one of the venues mentioned above. We look forward to meeting you!
Have a go on a Cleland
If you’re interested in seeing an AventuraTT in action, or even have a go on one, this is where to look…
As well as the Annual Birthday Ride in the south of England, Geoff is always out and about around the Scottish Borders, just make contact if you’d like to join in.
Additionally, any ad hoc rides taking place, details will be posted here ~ email Geoff on geoff@cleland-cycles.co.uk for details.
RetroBike ride.
From Wendover in Buckinghamshire: Sunday 20th of May 2012.
See link below for more details
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1515073#1515073
11am Start from Wendover Library Car Park. Easy going ride with cafe and pub stops. Back to Wendover about 5.30pm. There could also be an evening / night ride if anyone is interested?
Rides led by Graham Wallace.
This ride will take place whatever the weather.
Scottish Border Weekends
To see the quality of the accommodation, check availability and prices, here is a link to the Holiday Cottage website:
Friday evening: Arrive, settle-in, introductions and briefing on the morrow’s route.
Saturday daytime: Join Geoff Apps on a ride round the circuit detailed below.
Saturday evening: We can have a chat about things like bicycle design, the early days of mountain biking, off-road riding techniques, route-finding… anything folks want to talk about. I’ve an archive of magazine pages from the early 80s, when mountain bikes were first emerging in the UK.
Sunday morning: Join Geoff Apps on a ride round the circuit detailed below, return in time for a late lunch.
Sunday afternoon: Departure late afternoon/early evening.
Of course, you can book a stay for as long as you want, and extend your stay in the Scottish Borders.
Saturday Route
This route begins at the Car Park near Elba Bridge, continues through Avenue Wood, then along some singletrack through Retreat Wood and Butterwell Wood to Abbey St Bathans, from there we’ll climb the road, and then climb off-road to the summit of Cockburn Law. The descent takes in Cockburn Dean, and some very tricky singletrack, then comes Mill Burn, nearly a kilometre of rocky stream riding. At Millburn Bridge, we climb the road up to Cockburn, which road soon turns into a track looking down on Whiteadder Water. This takes us back to Elba Bridge, and so back to the Car Park. Click on the map and once the image comes up, you can use the magnifier for a closer look.
Sunday Route
This route is much shorter and should take about three hours to complete. Several parts of it are no more than deer tracks. The outward climb (the northern-most line of the loop) is mostly along wide forest tracks; a steady grind through the woodland up to Jeanie’s Wood. The return descent (with a few uphill bits) is, in places, much more demanding on skill and is quite technical in places. Some of these parts of the route can be treated like an ‘observed trials section’; in other words, we all stop and each take it in turn to have several goes at riding the section ‘clean’ (without putting a foot down, or leaning against a tree), and if it proves too easy, little extra bits can be added to make it more difficult. Quite informal, just a bit of fun. The route passes through a nature reserve, and there our progress will be steady and quiet on this portion of the circuit, as if we are a group of walkers …who just happen to be aboard bicycles.
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