English cycles 'Special' - Jeremy Torr

A very short history of English Cycles of Telford.

Because of the unusual geometry of the Cleland design Geoff Apps found it very difficult to find reliable framebuilders prepared to make frames for him. After using framebuilders as far apart as Amersham and Liverpool Apps eventually made contact with Jeremy Torr at English Cycles in Telford, Shropshire. Thus Torr became the framebuilder of the first off-road bikes produced in Europe.

Jeremy made his first prototype Cleland frame in 1982, it still exists, and then went on to build all the production Cleland Frames. He also built a version of his own that he called the Range-Rider after the name Geoff Apps used for the very first Cleland bikes. The English Cycles' Range-Rider differed from the Clelands in that they had standard 68mm, not 90mm, bottom bracket shells with bent chain-stays and Renthal "trials" handlebars. About one third of Range-Riders were fitted with cantilever brakes and not hub brakes like the Clelands. And while Cleland Aventuras were advertised and promoted in the cycling press and sold widely throughout the UK, The English Cycles' Range-Rider were not and probably sold mostly around Telford.

Torr also made experimental one-off bikes to his own design but usually with Cleland like geometry. He also built frames for London bike shop "Bike UK". These were marketed under their Eclipse brand.
 

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Both the Cleland Aventura and the English Cycles Range-Rider used 650b wheels. However Jeremy Torr also tried other wheel sizes.
Sometimes on the same bike!

Another one-off!
The 1985 English Cycles' "Rat"
 

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LGF I so so wanna have a go on this! It's perfect, retro 80's cruiser bike lushness at it's best....
Definitely up there with the Swallows and Zinns!! BOTahemcoughcoughY no but seriously I love it...
 
certainly! I'm in Norwich friday so can stop off in 'Norfolk' depending on where you are. Or theres always the Turkey Twizzler.
 
Interesting thread, I have an original brochure and letter from Jeremy Torr - perhaps I should have bought one!

Rk.
 
awesome stuff. maybe some big upright bars for that bad boy! nice biek that and great to get the full history on it.
 
roadking":3psa824x said:
Interesting thread, I have an original brochure and letter from Jeremy Torr - perhaps I should have bought one!
Rk.

I would love to see the brochure. Any chance of scanning or photographing it for uploading here?
Out of the three companies making 'British school' cross country cycles, English Cycles are the least well documented. Apart from the Cleland Aventuras, legrandfromage's 'Green Machine' is the only surviving Jeremy Torr made bike that I know of. So what happened to all the Range-Riders he made at Telford? And what of the US style mountain bikes he made for Bike UK that were sold under their Eclipse brand?
 
GrahamJohnWallace":hfh7mtz0 said:
Both the Cleland Aventura and the English Cycles Range-Rider used 650b wheels. However Jeremy Torr also tried other wheel sizes.
Sometimes on the same bike!

Another one-off!
The 1985 English Cycles' "Rat"


LOVE that photo :D
 

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