UK MTB hall of fame

[REKIBorter]

I think the Retrobike collective attending Mountain Mayhem should let the HoF organisers know about their feelings if Geoff Apps is omitted from the initial inductees. Friday 22nd June 2012, 8:30pm Eastnor Castle Deer Park, start making banners and bring loads of megaphones.

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

Not including Geoff Apps whilst inducting lesser mortals would be like the Apollo Hall of fame inducting Wallace & Grommet whilst forgetting to include Neil Armstrong

However I would also say that the majority of British mountain bikers have never heard of Geoff Apps.

For example In last months issue of Singletrack Magazine there were two articles, one an interview with Wes Williams describing him as "..the original big wheel evangelist". The other one discussed 650b wheels including their history.

Neither article mentioned Geoff Apps who was persuading Gary Fisher and the other NorCal pioneers of the advantages of big wheels seven years before Wes Williams built his first 700c mountain bike. And the Finnish Hakkapeliitta tyres that they copied were only available in America because Apps told the US pioneers that they existed and where to get them from. The article also did not pick up on the fact that the tyres that Williams used were only 40mm wide, So not 29ers compared to the 47mm wide Hakkapeliittas used by Apps on his 1981 700c wheeled Cleland.

The second article supposedly covered the history or 650b mountain bikes saying that " Ross Shafer and Tom Ritchey started building bikes on 650Bs"......."The 650B tyres available then weren't wide enough for off road though."

In reality Shefer, Ritchey and others started building mountain bikes to fit the 65B x 54mm Hakkapeliittas that Apps first sent to Gary Fisher and Charlie Kelly in 1981. And a 54mm wide Hakkapeliitta is more than adequate for off-road use. The problem was that they were difficult to obtain as the Russian army bought most of them.

My point is that today's young journalists get there information about the history of mountain bikes from books written by Americans. Whilst the US pioneers talk freely about Apps involvement but to my knowledge it has never appeared in any mountain bike history books. As a result Apps who invented both 650b and 29er fat tyre mountain bikes is almost always left out of their history story.

Together, Retrobike members have all the knowledge needed to create a definitive history of mountain biking that could be an accurate and very useful resource for cycling writers the world over.

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

It would seem that this will not be the first UK Mountain Bike Hall of Fame!

http://www.bikeradar.com/blog/article/v ... now-15273/

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

Hollow Fame

The inaugural 12 inductees to the new UK Mountaiin Bike Hall of Fame have been announced online prior to the awards ceremony at Mountain Mayhem tonight.

The inaugural members are:
Jason McRoy,
Barrie Clarke,
Caroline Alexander,
David Baker,
Martyn Salt,
Helen Mortimer,
Tim Flooks,
Steve Peat,
Tracy Moseley,
Rob Warner,
Tim Gould and
Nick Craig.

“These guys are all at the top of the tree in the UK mountain biking world," said Patrick Adams and Jill Greenfield of Pacific Edge Events."

In the run up to today's launch they also said:
"We have created the UK MTB Hall of Fame as a way of showing respect for everyone in the mountain bike industry, be they riders or people connected in other ways," said Patrick Adams, director of Pacific Edge Events".

If so, why have a list of initial inductees that is restricted of racers and race organisers?

Where are the pioneers?
Where are the mountain bike' engineers, designers and inventors?
Where are the entrepreneurs and industrialists who founded the UK mountain bike companies?
Where are the journalists who popularised our sport?
The advocates of mountain biking who set up riding centres and worked hard for improved land access, mountain bike friendly trail policies and responsible rider ethics.
The adventurists who pushed the boundaries of what can be ridden on a mountain bike and in doing so publicised the sport?

Is this a serious attempt to create a meaningful "Hall of Fame" that reflects the whole of UK mountain biking or just a publicity stunt for the Mountain Mayhem organisers?

 

[firedfromthecircus]

There are some very worthy names in that list, but I agree that there are also some glaring omissions.

I suppose any organisation or company that is going to conduct something like this will have their own ideas of what is important. To some people that is racing, and it seems these organisers fall into that category.

Perhaps the next set of inductees will be more inclusive?

Some lobbying may help that along.

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

.....Perhaps the next set of inductees will be more inclusive?

If not they will eventually run out of race winners and then have no choice also induct those who came second, third etc. :facepalm:

All in all it will be very pointless and boring
You might as well simply compile have a list of people who used to be good at racing.

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

UK MTB Hall of fame?

This year 2014, the so called "UK MTB Hall of Fame" has corrected at least one of their numerous omissions, by inducting the late Steve Worland.] No explanation of why someone as well known and respected as Steve, hadn't been nominated in previous years has been given.

In a break with their founding intentions of having annual public nominations and public voting, Steve will be the only 2014 inductee by decree of the HoF organisers.


The opening statement from the website reads as follows:
"How do you write about someone who’s been part of the British mountain bike world virtually since there have been mountain bikes?""To say that Steve Worland was a central part of British mountain biking from the beginning would be – well, it would be very true. Steve Worland had been a mountain bike journalist since the beginning of the 1990s and his bike tests and features have been read by hundreds of thousands of riders over the years..."

http://www.ukmtbhalloffame.com/

The above statement shows that the organisers of this so called hall of fame do not have a clue, when It comes to UK mountain bike history. If Steve was still alive he would have no doubt corrected them straight away. Because, even though he was not actually involved in the early UK mountain bike scene, he certainly knew his history. He would have told them that in 1978 Journalist Richard Grant brought the first mountain bike into Britain. That the first mountain bike rides started in 1982 and racing events in 1984 with the first national championship series running from 1987. He would have made it clear that UK mountain biking did not, as this HOF seem to believe, appear fully formed from nowhere in 1990.

It is a travesty that a hall of fame using the term UK, and so supposedly representing the entirety of UK mountain biking, does not even appear to know about the UK mountain biking founding fathers. People who worked hard to introduce mountain biking to Britain but who's work is largely forgotten.

And an early promoter of mountain biking like Richard Ballantine, is probably more famous than most UK HoF inductees. But unfortunately, he and others were so "early to the party" that their contribution has been largely overlooked.

Even if you take the view that the success of mountain biking as a sport in Britain was inevitable, it did not seem that way at the time. Just because the bikes existed did not mean that a new sport would develop. And without people willing to invest the time to stage race events lead rides and produce magazines etc, mountain bikes could have easily become the bikes of couriers, urban commuters and weekend park riders.