The start of mountain biking in Britain 1984 picture thread
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Thank goodness fashion moved on!
Wow first time I've come across this thread I was born down the road in Aylesbury and visited the woods numerous times with my mum an dad and my brothers. I was riding in them woods around 78 to 82 after that my bike was too good for riding forest paths, I'd pushed my bikes up the hills :facepalm: with no forestry commission bans you could ride where you like happy memories Is there still a DH track at Aston Hill that came about in about 2007 IIRC
Is there still a DH track at Aston Hill that came about in about 2007 IIRC
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It's great to see photos of Norman Hiller. I remember him as the friendly owner of the original Covent Garden Cycles shop in London. I used to visit there most lunchtimes back in 85/86 when I worked in the area.
What were you riding back then? and were there many others riding off road at the time?
Yes those are photos of the first Wendover Bash and so the first downhill mountain bike competition in Britain, maybe Europe? Thanks for sharing!hmmhmm":tvmh7yfi said:
It's great to see photos of Norman Hiller. I remember him as the friendly owner of the original Covent Garden Cycles shop in London. I used to visit there most lunchtimes back in 85/86 when I worked in the area.
78 to 83 was the time that Geoff Apps was developing his bikes in these woods gradually evolving his 'Tracker bikes' into something that could actually be ridden up the hills. By the end of 82 he was just starting to manufacture his bike designs from the front room of a cottage in nearby Rowsham. Probably the first mountain bikes to be manufactured in Europe and certainly the first 650b wheeled mountain bikes.kingbling":tvmh7yfi said:
What were you riding back then? and were there many others riding off road at the time?
Yes, the Aston Hill DH is still running and popular.kingbling":tvmh7yfi said:
I actually had a 24inch road bike that I'd built up from allsorts at the time never had a proper MTB back then. I used to ride through Rowsham on my way to my Nan's in Bletchley if only I knew. Never really saw people biking up it the woods back then a few tourers was about it. I used to ride up to Aston Hill and the make my way down the woods to the back of RAF Halton then into Wendover via Hale lane. Also used to ride up around Butlers Cross on the other side of Wendover
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Prior to 1981 the only place you could buy a mountain bike was in the USA. A couple were shipped over but the only homegrown offering was the Raleigh Bomber from 81, with Ridgeback and Muddy Fox/Araya bikes being imported in 1983. So the only people riding off-road in the UK would have been roughstuff riders using road bikes and young 'Tracker' bike riders mainly using home built bikes or the few street legal Cycle Speedway bikes fitted with brakes. Sometime in 1982 Geoff Apps became involved with the Rough Stuff Fellowship and started running monthly rides starting from Wendover Library car park. Riders came from all over the south of England came on these rides and some started similar rides nearer to home. This led to the formation of the Cross Country Cycling Club with its network of monthly rides being held all over Britain and their promotion through the CCCC Making Tracks newsletter.kingbling":2j70lyum said:
So organised UK mountain bike riding was just at the conception stage as you were leaving the area in 82. This also connects to the early competition events held in the area and later to Jeremy Torr co-founding the Mountain Bike Club (MBC).
mrkawasaki
Retrobike Rider
Will make every effort to attend - with period bike and car... ;-)
I was with the Aylesbury CC at the time and a guy called John Pickard was also with the CTC he organised a few rough rides out around Checkers actually didn't leave Buckinghamshire until I was 28 but lots of other things had taken my interest by then such as cars and women such is life's distractions
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