40th Anniversary Wendover/Chiltern hills ride Sunday 4th June 2023

GrahamJohnWallace

Retrobike Rider
Cleland Fan
Feedback
View

We will meet at the Wendover Library car park from 10am onwards The ride will set off at 11:am.

The ride is really just an excuse to play around with bicycles in the woods and to chat about all things bicycle. The pace is to that of the slowest rider interspersed with stops for chatting and taking photos of the beautiful Chilterns’ landscape etc. One or more of the stops may involve messing around on an impromptu ‘trials section’, another will be for a lunch stop at one of the pubs or tea-shops

We should roll into the car park behind the Red Lion around 6pm. Riders wanting to return to Wendover earlier can do so as this usually involves only few minutes of mostly downhill riding back to the town.

Travelling down from Scotland for the ride is no longer practicable for Geoff, so he probably will not be there.

You don’t need a retro-bike to join in this ride, any bike will do retro or modern. Though it can be muddy so reasonable frame/tyre clearances are useful.

https://clelandcycles.wordpress.com/rides/

Ride History:
Originally setup by Geoff Apps in 1982 as a monthly ride to promote his Cleland Aventura bicycle. The first rides consisted of rough stuff bikes and Clelands. The emphasis of having fun riding the challenging terrain of the nearby hills made the ride ideal for US style mountain-bikes when they first went on sale in the UK in 1983. The ride was advertised by Cleland and listed in the Roughstuff Fellowship Journal. Being accessible by car or train from London they became the first organised mountain-bike events in Britain. They continued as a monthly rides until the 1990s after which they continued as the annual 'Birthday ride' because Geoff Apps and two other original rider's birthdays were in early December.

Though the terrain and conditions can be demanding we will have frequent stops for everyone to catch up. The ride follows a circular route around Wendover so riders who want to finish early can drop back down To Wendover at any time.
 
Last edited:
It's now less than two weeks before we re-evoke the spirit of the 1980's summer Wendover rides. Much as I love the bleakness and challenge of the winter mud, summer riding in the Chilterns is a much more relaxed affair with plenty of time to play and stop and talk about bikes without risking frostbite. The summer conditions should better suit retro-bikers who would prefer not to get their bikes dirty.

It will be great to see some old and new 'Retrobike' faces, along for a ride in the hills where British mountain biking began.
 
Back
Top