» 700C WHEELS ON MOUNTAIN BIKE

Quote:
Dr S wrote: "The most important [bicycle in the history of mountain bikes] must be the Pre-war Schwinn. Its ground zero, year dot, Independance day, first chicken from the egg. Without it there would be nothing".

Since Geoff Apps's Cleland designs were inspired by trials motorbikes [Montesa, Bultaco, Ossa C1970], without any knowledge of Schwinns, clunkers or American mountainbikes, their existance has no connection whatsoever. The 1979 production date of the first Cleland even predates even the Raleigh Bomber of 1981.

In 1982, Geoff read about the Ritchey mountain bike and made contact with those at the MountainBike Company in Fairfax, California. Knowledge and ideas were exchanged and 700c and 650b Finnish-made snow-tyres were sent to California for evaluation.

Here, Gary Fisher, speaking about the current growing popularity of 29ers, gives his perspective:
“We got some tyres from Geoff Apps really early on and we [Fisher and Kelly] said
‘Holy Toledo!’” But the poor supply situation of the larger diameter tyres meant the
fledging MTB industry stuck with the smaller wheel size."

That same year, 1982, Geoff started manufacturing his Aventura design.

Would he have started Cleland Cycles Ltd without knowing about the Ritchey-designed bikes?

Would he have been more successful in selling his Clelands, without the competition from the US mountain bikes?

~ Notes by Graham Wallace
~ Photograph by Geoff Apps

Total weight: 40.5 lbs. (including filled water bottles, lights, and frame pump)

The unloaded configuration - my 2008 Kona Sutra touring bike. I replaced the stock rear rack with a Jandd Expedition rack rated at 50 lbs. I broke both welds on the rear rack before I'd owned the bike for 2 months.

The Sutra is a steel frame dedicated touring bike with bar-end shifters, Shimano Deore XT components, 700c wheels and Avid disc brakes. I've modified it a bit, changing out the original 30-39-50 crankset for a 26-36-48 mountain bike crankset (which required a new bottom bracket), an 11-34 cassette instead of the 11-32, a longer stem, and the rear rack. At the time of these photos, the bike has 3,880 miles on it (in 7 months), has cosmetic damage to the frame from the California trip, and has just had both wheels rebuilt and the fork replaced after a collision in late August with a 2003 Mercedes.