I picked up a Coventry Eagle Bicycle a few months ago with hopes of converting it to a fixed gear. It has the awesome Coventry Eagle headbadge on it. I know that these bicycles were at one point considered top of the line bikes, but then they were bought by Falcon bicycles and the Eagle was apparently dropped into a lower level than the other falcon bikes. Mine has the great head badge, but the lugging on the frame seems different than other coventry eagles i've found online. For instance the top stay wraps around the seat tube on the ones i've found, but on mine they are welded on the side. Also on the down tube there are some strange little 90 degree pipes that come out and look like a cable would've have gone through them. The bike has Sugino Maxy Cranks, a "Palace" (made in Japan) bike seat, Atom (made if France) Hubs, and a Perfect freewheel by Maeda Industries (which I have found is Suntour). It also has HP Sport Schwinn tires, but I think those might not be original. I want to know if anyone can tell me when my bike was made and if it is high quality and worthy of a nice fixed gear conversion. Also was wondering if anyone knew if this is a 531 reynolds steel frame. Anything you could tell me would be helpful. Thanks!!

Hi there, congratulations on finding a Coventry Eagle with that brilliant sculpted eagle head badge! You're right about the link up with Falcon. Pure guess is that your bike may be early 1970's with that badge. The 90 degree pipes you describe could be pump pegs? (another guess!) We need photos of your bike to give you any real help, with detailed shots of the lugs, frame joints and parts. A clue to the type of tubing might be if the bike has forged rear drop outs with a built in derailleur hanger - they only put these on the higher level frames with better tubing during the late 1960's early 1970's. Flat plate drop-outs with a bolt on claw bracket derailleur don't necessarily mean a lower-end frame, it could be an older model. Parts could be replacements of course.

PLEASE POST PHOTOS OF YOUR BIKE!!!!

My own Coventry Eagle Commodore is made of Reynolds 453 butted main tubes (titanium/manganese/steel alloy seamed tubes), which are very strong and slightly heavier than 531 but for a touring style frame it makes a comfortable ride. It does have forged ends with a derailleur hanger. I think the bike is around 1982 as it has a cheap foil sticker in place of the elegant sculpted eagle on the head tube. It was a lucky shed find that I've built into a commuting bike for my son to use in London, hence the deliberately tatty look, to discourage thieves. Here are some photos, which may be of interest, but really because I like an excuse to show pictures of my bikes!

A little background looking at the pictures. The paint is not original and it's missing the decals because when i got the bike, I didn't really know what i had and the original paint was terrible. There was no way to get the paint off an salvage the decals so I just took them off with an exacto blade... which is why I am in this predicament to begin with. I resprayed it in metal flake blue, which has subsequently chipped from reassembly. During reassembly I somehow manage to split the metal in the fork and stem and now I am in the process of replacing them with bianchi parts. When I bought it, it came with all the parts shown. I got the bike for 80 bucks from a guy who was going to convert it to a fixie, which I am in the process of doing now. I am going to keep it as original as possible though. The cranks are Sugino Maxy. The Freewheel is "Perfect" by maeda industries. The wheel hubs are by ATOM (and says made in France). The brake system is Weinmann. There is also a Palace seat from Japan that isn't pictured. If you need more pictures be sure to let me know. I can't wait to hear what you have to say.

Ps: Sorry about the picture fuzziness... Apparently my 12MP isn't very good...

Hi Mind 537, Photos are fine. If you want new decals try Nick Tithecote at H Lloyd Cycles of Penrith, Cumbria, UK. They have a web site and can usually supply genuine factory decals or authentic replicas at great value prices. Respray looks good, just touch in the chips with a small paint brush. I'd recommend rebuilding the wheels with 27" alloy rims, the braking will improve. The crankset will be fine for a fixie, as will the hubs. The GB stem looks original and together with the lugs, in my opinion date this frame to around 1971 to 1973, so a real classic. It's one of the lower end models from that period, certainly not Reynolds 531 but so many British riders "cut their teeth" in club events on this type of frame before moving on to greater things that it does have a certain cachet. Again, for a fixie it's ideal. Those fittings on the down tube are definitely pump pegs. You'll need to measure between the conical ends and find a pump with that closed length. Nice catch at that price, well done. Should be an easy conversion and a fine ride. Please keep us updated with photos of your progress.

That's a shame that it probably isn't reynolds 531. Do you think it's still steel? I checked where the lugs connected and they have definitely been welded or brazed. If not Reynolds 531, than what else could it be?

Sooo I've found another old coventry eagle that is very similar to mine and has the same decals mine had before i sanded them off. The million dollar question is does anyone know what the shiny decal on the seat tube is for?

https://bicyclog.files.wordpress.com/...1/imgp0744.jpg

If someone recognizes it please tell what it's for! Thanks!

Also this frame is even more identical to mine:

https://www.mytenspeeds.com/My_TenSpe...FFFullLeft.jpg

Can you get any information from the decals on those bikes?

Hi Mind 527. Your frame is definitely steel, either Hi tensile or possibly Ti (Tube Investments Ltd, not Titanium!) 'Tru-Wel 205'. Carlton used a lot of Tru-Wel 205 for their mid-range frames, as did Falcon and Elswick-Hopper. The foil decal fits in very well with the early 1970's vintage. I can remember these bikes hanging in the windows of my four LBS's in about 1972-3. Tru-Wel is not as light as butted 531, but by this time Ti owned Reynolds, so the tubing was most likely drawn by the same men in the same factory in Birmingham, England. OK it's not the top-end frame but it will make a nice ride and if you're building it into a fixie it will be perfect, provided that it fits you. This may even be rarer, since they were comparatively cheap people did not consider them particularly valuable and scrapped them when the components wore out - so less surviving examples. Please don't chop off any brazed fittings though, that would destroy the future value of this frame.

Dear oldpeddaller, wondering if you can help at all with my own Coventry Eagle puzzle - I have recently brought this frame also meant to be a CE with a bad repaint and non-original head badge with the intention of restoring. Can you help tell me anything about it - you seem quite knowledgeable...

Hi djm778,

Not particularly knowledgeable but I do love old British bikes and where memory serves, can remember a lot of those I've worked on, ridden alongside, drooled over in the bike shop window or just seen over the years!

Earlier this year I built up an almost identical frame in the same size for my niece, Emma to ride in the London to Brighton (which as a previous non-cyclist she finished without problems). It was/is a Marlborough Sports cycle, fitted with steel 27" wheels but alloy 700's went on OK. Originally it had a 5 speed Simplex derailleur with single cottered chain ring and full outer cable from the down tube shifter to the rear mech and Weinmann side pull brakes with "turkey levers'. I set it up with clamp on tunnels and 10 speed Falcon gears for Emma and it worked fine.

Now for the interesting bit - yours most likely is actually a Coventry Eagle. Back in the 1970's and 80's, UK bike factories like Coventry Eagle and Townsend received bulk orders from mail-order catalogues for bikes to sell on credit. These were built down to a price, generally used the same frame sets in about three sizes and had lower specification parts fitted to cater for the budget market. The catalogue brand used for Coventry Eagle bikes sold by the Marlborough catalogue was (boringly) "Marlborough Sports". So my frame was the bargain bucket version of your Coventry Eagle. It was the only frame I had to hand that was small enough for Emma, who in her usual fashion, forgot to ask me to build her a bike until a few days days before the event. She won't give it back now though.

Both are 'entry level' frames; pressed steel drop outs, very relaxed rear triangle, hi-tensile steel tubing but with quite nice lug cut outs (not 'real' lugs, more cut away tube sockets but they are strong and look attractive), brazed on lamp bracket boss on the fork, neatly pointed seat stay caps. Despite their humble origins they build up into a nice smooth ride, soaking up rough roads and quietly eating up the miles. With alloy wheels, Sakae alloy chain set, alloy bars, stem and seat post, Emma's weighed in at about 26 lbs. Not ultra lightweight by any means but a reasonably quick, competent machine that she absolutely loves, much better for longer rides than the mountain bike she originally thought she wanted.

In terms of monetary value, these are pretty much bottom of the bin but built up at low cost they make really ridable convenience bikes.

Hope this is helpful. I could be wrong. but I don't think so in this case. I now remember I rode a gold coloured 10-speed Coventry Eagle with an identical frame for six months back in 1974. For reasons too involved to go into I borrowed a friend's bike while he was away in the Forces and I had no wheels. That one was a lot heavier, it gad everything hung on it - steel wheels, chainset and Huret gears, steel bars & stem, chromed rack & kickstand, bags, bell, lights - after my full campagnolo 531 lightweight it felt like it weighed a ton! Thankfully you can build it a lot lighter, as Emma's bike shows. Have fun with your bike!

Thank you for that Oldpeddaller, so probably 1970s rather than 60s - thats a real help as although i'm going to build this up as a singlespeed I want to kep a nice classic feel to it.

Late 60's/ early 70's, say 1968 to 1972. If the original colour was gold it'll be an early one, if it was metallic blue or dark silver grey, a later model. Can't recall the model name now, I keep thinking the ten speed was labelled as a "Tour of Britain", but I don't really know why that name persistently keeps coming to mind. Bike shops would keep stock until sold back then, so you could buy a "new" bike in 1971 that had left the factory in 1969. Serial numbers don't help a lot either.

If you build it as a single speed or fixie, it'll be a lot lighter as you'll have no gears, multiple freewheel cluster, shifters or excess chain. Fit as many alloy parts as possible and it should turn into a really good ride. I always put two brakes on my fixies nowadays as I'm not as brave (ot as reckless) as I was back in the day. I also like having two brake hoods to give an additional hand position, aero levers with decent rubber hoods can be found NOS quite cheaply from time to time and I actually prefer not to have loops of cable in front of my face when down on the drops. YMMV.

I too am looking to identify a CE Reynolds 531....HELP!!!!

hi folks, i am currently eyeing on a coventry eagle bike, i wanna get as much information as i could about this bike. i am planning to strip all of its components and make a single speed bike out of it. the bike is being sold for $75, is it something worth buying for $75? thanks a bunch.

I have a similar Bike and it is Reynolds 531.
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...try-eagle.html

"Not particularly knowledgeable"

"In terms of monetary value, these are pretty much bottom of the bin"


Bottom of the bin..."Not particularly knowledgeable" You hit the nail on the head with this statement...

These were Hand made British Bikes using Reynolds 531 Tubing. How does that make them "bottom of the bin"??

...I think maybe you have an erroneous impression of all the different bicycles that sported Coventry Eagle headbadges over the years.

Admittedly, the brand name is a little confused, but the older ones gradually morphed into Falcon bikes (again, various models and levels of quality).

Quote:

The high end bikes in either the Merckx or the Falcon line were comparable in quality to the other premier marques of their day, British and Italian, offering great handling with a fairly tight stage race geometry with arguably better finish than the Italian competitors.By 1978, Falcon was purchased by the Elswick-Hopper group (which by this point included Wearwell), becoming Elswick-Falcon (1982), and it in turn purchased Holdsworth (including Claud Butler ) in 1987, before the whole firm was acquired by Townsend (Casket) in 1991, who had also acquired Ernie Clement's old firm Coventry Eagle. Mr. Clements moved to Ledbury and ran his own cycling shop from 1989 until his death in 2006, although it is unclear if he continued to make frames.
Falcon Bicycles

At any rate, the only Coventry Eagle I've seen in person was a rather disappointing frame. The headbadge was still impressive, though.

To state, as you have, that all of them were hand made 531 bikes is wrong in my experience.

Your experience seems very limited. I can only go by the one that I have.

...why does that make my experience more limited than your experience ? We've each seen exactly one in person.

Wileyone: I say, steady on old chap............

On a sample of one, you seem to be asserting that all Coventry Eagle frames are hand-built 531?

Even though I don't have the very detailed knowledge of this marque that I have of say, Claud Butler or Holdsworth (just as examples), I have examined these cycles closely when they were new in the 1960's and 70's, ridden one exclusively for six months back then, have worked on many more over the intervening four decades and am currently restoring a Coventry Eagle Commodore. I can categorically assure you that the majority of Coventry-Eagle frames are NOT hand-built, or constructed of Reynolds 531 - but some of the top models were, The OP's is NOT one of these. Yours may well be, please post photos, they are nice bikes and we all like to look at C&V frames on this Forum. I'd be very interested to compare

However, as I said , even the lower models still build into nice riding bikes - but as a potential investment for spending a lot of money on, the outlay will not produce a commensurate return on investment. Hence "In terms of monetary value, pretty much bottom of the bin". Doesn't mean it's not worth refurbing and riding, just don't expect anyone to pay much for it.

Coventry-Eagle did produce some treasures, yours might be one? My Commodore is a lugged steel touring frame built from Reynolds 453 - very unusual. Simplex drop-outs with mainly French equipment; Simplex 10-speed, Maillard high flange hubs, Rigida rims, Stronglight cranks, Lyotard pedals. Decent but not top drawer. The Reynolds 453 tubing is unusual, a manganese-titanium steel alloy, butted but rolled and seamed. Similar weight, maybe slightly heavier than a 531 frame of the same size but not much. I'm planning to build new wheels, run a triple Campagnolo Daytona with Daytona front mech, Campagnolo barcons TA Campagnolo pattern BB and Shimano 105 long-cage rear der, SR Road Champion bars & stem, Dia Compe or Weinmann side-pulls, NOS alloy mudguards and so on. I know, pictures or it didn't happen. I'll post finished photos once it's all done, but for now here are some 'before' snapshots - scruffy and with lots of potential.

For now, toodle-pip old bean.

Wileyone, just found the post of your 531 Coventry-Eagle from the 1970's - nice project, how's it coming along? 531 main three frame tubes, chromed fork socks and Raleigh/Sun style lugwork and tubular wrap around seat stay eyes. Similar models were made unser the Sun, Falcon and I believe Viking badges at the time. Higher in the range than the OP's frame the original post was about, but they all ride well.

Oldpeddaller...Just found my post?? Is there another Oldpeddaller?

She has been all stripped down and getting prepped for paint. Decals have been ordered. I was lucky enough to find the original owner who bought the Bike in he "thinks" 1971. According to him it originally had an all Campy Group. Sadly all that is left of the Campy is the Shifters. But the Suntour V Gt drivetrain that is on it now if not heavy works flawlessly. So I am probably going to leave it as is. As the price of Vintage Campy is in a word Stupid. I made up some Mavic open pro 700c rims with Suntour Sprint Hubs that work well with the Weinmann Brakes. I will keep you posted.[h=1][/h]

Sounds great! Did you order your decals from H Lloyd Cycles of Penrith? I know that Nick there lists some, but haven't found many others on the web so will probably make my own water slides for my C-Eagle when the time comes. Early 70's seems about right - 71 or so - golden age of British bikes :-) I've had great results with Suntour V-GT gears, I'm running them on three of my bikes and on my tandem. They work flawlessly in all conditions - 'fit and forget', I think they look great - really solid and last for ever. Ditto Suntour hubs and Mavic Open Pro's - good choices. Looking forward to news as it comes along. I'm not making much progress with mine at present, too many non-bike related time pressures at the moment but maybe in a month or two I can get into it.

I just picked up this little beauty. So I have judge where my money and time go. The Alan is a 1987 with full Campy components.

https://

You're right, that really is a beauty! I know where I'd put my time and money - and it wouldn't be the Coventry-Eagle! The Alan is in a whole different class. I have a similar, but not identical, Vitus 979 bonded aluminium frame built up with Campagnolo Chorus 9 speed - and it's brilliant, really light and handles well. Some riders say the frame is too "noodly" (flexible) but I actually quite like that, it's a different feel to the more usual stiff road frames, more comfortable and seems to glide along. I've put a 54 big ring on my 979 in place of the original 52 as I find on this bike I can turn it without seemingly using extra effort. Great catch.