Geoff Apps' Seminar Date fixed: Sunday 28th July

Re: Geoff Apps wants to talk to us - in Person!

Never ridden in the blackdowns. Round here I ride Woodbury, Haldon, Dartmoor and occasionally the Quantocks.
 
Re: Geoff Apps wants to talk to us - in Person!

Having met Geoff on the MacRetro National at Innerleithen in 2012, I can only say what a pleasure it was to meet such a humble, generous and fascinating person.
Great sense of humour too and loads of knowledge and insight to share.

It would be great if he could make it to the North York Moors National ride in a few weeks time, or at least to the pub/brewery in Cropton.
 
Re: Geoff Apps wants to talk to us - in Person!

hydorah":3865w6rp said:
The mighty Geoff Apps, the man behind the Cleland line of off road bicycles would like to share his insights, experiences and the inspirations behind his pioneering work

Geoff has been engineering and producing off road bicycles for over 40 years and his career is full of amazing events and incidents...attendees

On my way home tonight I pooped into my local bike shop to have a look at all the new 2013 bikes:
Most of the mountain bikes were 29ers. Back in 1982 Geoff Apps produced his first 700c wheeled off-road bicycle and sent some of his 700x47c Hakkapeliitta tyres to Gary Fisher in the US. Fisher was impressed and so it seems were some others, because in 1988 Bruce Gordon a US 29er pioneer had some 700c Hakkapeliitta copies produced. This eventually led to the Gary Fisher funding the production of the first modern 29er tyre, the WTB Nanoraptor in 1999.

There were also a few 650b wheeled mountain bikes. A size first used by Apps in 1979 and also exported to Gary Fisher & Charlie Kelly who built up some mountain bikes to fit them from 1980 to 1984.

Another new trend is the use of extra wide 90mm bottom bracket shells. A feature found on Cleland bikes from 1982 that so impressed Joe Breeze when he saw a Cleland in 2011 that he integrated the feature in his newest Breezer mountain bikes.

They also had non-round chain-rings of the offset axis type as recommended by the latest bio-mechanical research. Apps has used these since about 1987.

There were of course twist-shift changers similar to those developed and used by Apps since about 1985.

It is not that all of the ideas had been copied from Apps but more that they were just good ideas, and as such, ripe for rediscovery.

But there are still many Apps ideas that have not been "reinvented" yet:
*30mm drop, swing-pedals, that when combined with well designed non-round chain rings can extract up to 5.3% more power from a cyclists legs.
*Flexible tubes that keep the chain clean.
*effective mudguards
*hybrid transmissions
*Ultra low pressure tyres on narrow rims
*the benefits of high and rearward centre of gravity bikes designs
*wide range modulated braking systems

So there are a few odds and sods that you might like to ask Geoff about. Alternatively you could always wait a decade or two. By which time your local bike shop owner will also be able to tell you how these ideas work. And how they are in fact the latest "new" ideas to come into the cycling mainstream.
 

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Re: Geoff Apps wants to talk to us - in Person!

GrahamJohnWallace":8hbexzao said:
:LOL:
Tazio":8hbexzao said:
GrahamJohnWallace":8hbexzao said:
On my way home tonight I pooped into my local bike shop

Harsh.
:LOL: It's not actually a crap bike shop!..

...At least it wasn't before I arrived! :facepalm:


Brilliant typo!
 
Re: Geoff Apps wants to talk to us - in Person!

Looks like I've got a lead on a venue in Uffculme

...What a difference one character made to that post GJW!

That one was a corker!
 
Re: Geoff Apps wants to talk to us - in Person!

hydorah":2v0f0a78 said:
Looks like I've got a lead on a venue in Uffculme

...What a difference one character made to that post GJW!

That one was a corker!

Yes!
I have decided to include toilet humor typos in all my posts from now on :cool:
 
Re: Geoff Apps wants to talk to us - in Person!

OK, so Geoff is going to be available from the 27th

So depending on the availability of RB members to be in the vicinity of Uffculme in Devon, we'll be looking at 27th/28th July or 3rd/4th of August

So chip in with a date. Geoff wants to do several rides so anyone knowledgeable about rides around the area, don't be shy feel free to step up and take the lead on organisation of that element

I'm taking care of the Seminar:)

Cheers all!
 
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