goves

Morning
I have my dads old bike and trying to find out what make and year it is so can get it rebuilt with the original gearset. He had it resprayed back in the 90s and the swapped the original campagnola gear was swapped out to suntour, I recon its 60/70s vintage and is a 531 frame. Anyone any ideas what it is a gearset it originally had on it please!
As I am a new member it will not let me upload a pic - the frame badge has a bike wheel with what looks like a canon in the middle with at the top 2 swords and a crown. Says the Service on top and England on the bottom
Any ideas
thanks
Andre

Bianchigirll 

Good morning and welcome to the forums. Go ahead and upload some good pics of the frame into your album and someone will post them for you. The better the pics the more likely we can assist you. Pics of the dropouts and lugs and any markings on the frame are more important than the parts on it. OH where are you and the bike located? A cannon on the headbadge makes me think of BSA but all I can find are badges with rifles.

Pics something like this

goves

will need to click on view original to see at better qual

cb400bill

Pic Assist

goves

thank you - I want to restore it - was my dads and then mine as a teenager - it is a 531 frame

cb400bill

Can you post some more pictures?

goves

unfortunately not - I am up in Inverness and its stored at my dads house in the Cotswold which is unoccupied at the moment

juvela

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appears it may have begun life in the early 1960's

readers should be able to give you more help/information with additional images


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Hummer

The Royal Enfield head badge had artillery, but it was not the same.

The Holdsworth head badge has some similar element, crown and crossed swords. The rivet holes were also in the same place.

cb400bill

Pic Assist. Please do not make junk posts just to get to 10. Participate in the forum.

juvela

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Andre,

numerous items appearing in the images thus far posted are clearly later than cycle

these include tubing transfer, saddle pillar, front mech, handlebar stem & possibly chainset

items visible which appear contemporaneous to frame include headset, brake calipers, bottom bracket cups, downtube cable guide and pedals

evidently your father's machine received a good deal of revision in its time

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ramzilla

Man oh man. When the rust is coming up through the paint like that it's time to take dramatic action. Complete disassembly. Rubber gloves, sandpaper, steel wool, rust remover, chemicals, new coatings, new paint ..... etc, etc, etc. Good luck. Be good. Have fun.

Senior Ryder 00

Hi,
Are you in the U.K.? If so, you may want to try posting on Retro Bike or Cycle Chat. Lots of good info on vintage English bikes and a very knowledgeable group of participants.
FYI, I wouldn’t do anything to the frame, but wipe it off until it’s identified. You never know about the paint on those old bikes and you certainly don’t want to lose the transfers.
This sounds like a great project. I recently acquired a Falcon from the early 70s and really like the workmanship.

Enjoy the project & the bike.

Cheers,

Van

goves

thanks for all the replies
I want to restore it back to its original spec, i know it had campagnolo on it - i clearly remember the rear derailleur with smooth jockey wheels and looking on line looks very familiar. So will kit it out with as much of that as i can find.
juvela said contemporaneous to frame include headset, brake calipers, bottom bracket cups, downtube cable guide and pedals - so will plan on keeping these - what's everyone else's thoughts about rest of stuff to try and sort to put on it? I don't have wheels either, is it best to accept this and use modern in keeping or try and get old? Also I assume would have been 6 speed?
Senior Ryder 00 the bike was respray back in 90s so has no transfers and i can not remember what colour it was, I will join the forums you mention to see if i can find out - thank you all again

Interestingly i found another bike in my dads shed - gave it a clean pumped tyres up and went for a ride - frame is a bit rusty, its a 531c. I have managed to get the transfer on line so looking at getting it resprayed in original colour as well - its a Raleigh competition 531c from about 1982 i think - soz cant post pics yet!

elcraft

Hate to throw water on this parade, but the Reynolds sticker seems to be significantly newer than the rest of the bike. The sticker looks Eighties vintage, yet I don’t think GB was making brakes past the early Seventies.oilers in the Botton Bracket seemed to have disappeared in the Seventies.

juvela

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thank you for this update Andre,

regarding your query as to 6V:

Regina was offering 6V gear blocks as early as the late 1950's

it remained something quite special for a long period and was not oft encountered

beginning about 1978-80 it became standard on many/most production derailleur geared cycles

so given the probable date of the bicycle it is highly unlikely it would have come from the factory with a 6V gear block

you mention that original gear ensemble was Campag. for this time period would expect a Gran Sport model gear ensemble. manufacturer catalogue pages of 1960:





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goves

Hi and thanks for the comment - just worked out i had the bike about 13- so i recon it was rebuilt in 1986. It was resprayed then so the 531 sticker would have been replaced about then which would answer the newer sticker - that would bring the brakes and bottom bracket oiler back into the right time frame - my dad was born in 1944, and had the bike ( we believe) in his late 20s so late 1960s is what we are guessing - thanks

goves

Hi - that is exactly what i remember as a kid - i clearly remember the rear derailleur and now yo have put the image above I recognise the front derailleur as well. It gives me a great starting place to go shopping !!
As a side note asked on Facebook about the make and we might be getting somewhere some one said:

I have a small collection of head badges including one of these, The Service. I think it came from the Wearwell Cycles factory at Alverley where my father worked for a while'

So it would not have been a 6 speed - what would be the most fitting rear block to put back on it? Thank you to everyone for the help so far!

juvela

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Wearwell Cycles is a helpful piece of information

they maintained several "in-house" badges

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gear block would have likely been a 5V from one of the two then active Brit producers:

Thomas D. Cross & Sons Limited of Birmingham ("TDC" brand)

Cyclo (England)

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original stem & bar set would have likely been GB Hiduminium




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plausible hubs may have been BH (British Hub) Airlite large flange quick release

a less costly alternative would have been Resilion

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