My Vintage Clem Eagle

[lindsay]

Well folks after what has been a long time coming and a lot of looking I have finally settled on my vintage bike. I found it yesterday in Mick Mazza's and he got it off an old Dulwich Hill rider who finally opened the gate for his old friend to make his way in the wilds as best he can.

It a Clem Eagle who was a frame builder in Enfield from about 1940 until 1970. He had a shop on Hume Highway. I suspect it' about a mid 50's vintage. I won't do much to it, a bit of a clean up, get rid of the awful 70's plastic seat & in time a pair of singles as that is what it would have had in racing trim.

Except for the seat, clinchers & handlebars everything else is as it would have been at that time which is very rare. I love the adjustable stem & steel cranks.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60245112@N ... 6903/show/

[fixedgear]

Fantastic vintage racer......

[matt]

Love the chainrings, and youre right about the lug work. A thing of beauty, and the right colour too.

[mikesbytes]

Beautiful bike Lindsay.

[T-Bone]

Doesn't look like too much to be done. Should turn out nice.

[weiyun]

Lovely find! What's the story with the chainrings? Two of them aren't very different in terms of the number of teeth.

[fixedgear]

weiyun asked:
"What's the story with the chainrings? Two of them aren't very different in terms of the number of teeth."

Chainring combinations such as 50/46 or 51/47 with a widely spaced 4 or 5 speed rear block were common until the mid/late 1960's, in part due to the limited capacity of many of the contemporary front derailleurs. Note on this bike, the front deraillueur cage only slides sideways on a pushhrod, and does not swing outwards and upwards as more modern derailleurs do.

[weiyun]

Chainring combinations such as 50/46 or 51/47 with a widely spaced 4 or 5 speed rear block were common until the mid/late 1960's, in part due to the limited capacity of many of the contemporary front derailleurs. Note on this bike, the front deraillueur cage only slides sideways on a pushhrod, and does not swing outwards and upwards as more modern derailleurs do.

Thanks for the explanation and I did take note of that FD design.

What are the teeth numbers on this setup? I'm interested in getting an idea of the gear range bikes of that era offered.

[T-Bone]

big chainring is 50, so using what fixedgear said, i'd say it's 50/46, biggest cog looks to be between 23 and 25, so cassette range is probably 15 or 16 to 23-25. Lindsay would bea ble to tell us exactly.

[mikesbytes]

big chainring is 50, so using what fixedgear said, i'd say it's 50/46, biggest cog looks to be between 23 and 25, so cassette range is probably 15 or 16 to 23-25. Lindsay would bea ble to tell us exactly.

Perfect for a spin up to Waterfall

[Huw]

Excellent!

I take it E. Wylie was the owner - will you change this to L. Munks?

[Simon Llewellyn]

Except for the seat, clinchers & handlebars everything else is as it would have been at that time which is very rare. I love the adjustable stem & steel cranks.

Lindsay I think it would be a crime against nature to remove that saddle for something more comfortable. If they had to suffer in the 70's you should have to suffer in the new millennium...

[mikesbytes]

Lindsay I think it would be a crime against nature to remove that saddle for something more comfortable. If they had to suffer in the 70's you should have to suffer in the new millennium...

Your got a point there Simon, however if you insist, perhaps a Brooks B17 may be a suitable replacement.

Pretty sure I've had those tyres in the past. Are they 700c or 27" ?

[fixedgear]

Getting back to the Clem Eagle's gearing, some closeups of the pics and counting appears to show a 50 and 47 chainrings, and what appears to be a 15,17,19,21,23 5 speed screw on block (not a cassette!).

This would give gear inches as follows:

50/15 90.0
47/15 84.6
50/17 79.4
47/17 74.6
50/19 71.1
47/19 66.8
50/21 64.3
47/21 60.8
50/23 58.7
47/23 55.2

In other words to change down to the immediate one lower or higher gear would sometimes involve a front shift downwards or upwards only, eg from 50/15 to 47/15, or both front and rear shifts, eg from 47/15 to 50/17. Shifting of course was by friction downtube shifters, (no indexing or wussy brifters back then...) which compared to even the down tube shifting of the 1970's and 1980's was very slow and inprecise.

[weiyun]

Thanks Fixedgear. That gave me a good reference of the gearing range provided. It's amazing how much the drive train has evolved since those days.

[Grant Bond]

Lind-c,
that lugwork is a work of art...cant wait to see it in the flesh.

i hope the eagle flys for you at "la eroica."

Cheers

Grant

[Toff]

The more I look at this bike the more I realise what a great find it is.

Apart from the Gran Sport groupset, it appears to have the rare 40 hole Gran Sport hubs. These are also quite valuable as well as rare. It's hard to tell, but it also looks like the spoke lacing is 4-cross, which makes for a super strong wheel. I'm surprised they're not tied and soldered too.

If you ever get the right rims Lindsay, you'll have to give some thought to the lacing pattern. Crows foot was popular in the 50s, but with 40 holes, the maths doesn't work. I found this page with an idea though...

http://www.terminalvelocity.demon.co.uk ... 0spoke.htm

[timyone]

does it need washed?

[T-Bone]

I didn't check what the hole count was. If it was 36h, i've got some rims that could be suitable, otherwise i'll let you know if i see anything. Otherwise a bit of a polish and clean and it should be looking good, though i suspect some new brake lever hoods could be good (can't see well enough).

[mikesbytes]

While 27" tyres are hard to get, there are some around, I think that Contential make gator skins in 27", could be wrong.

[Toff]

I found these wheels while browsing ebay for some other stuff.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... :IT&ih=003

32/40 hole hubs/rims with great provenence.

I'm guessing they are 27", in which case singles tyres will be hard to find. You would either have to cut and sew together a 700C tyre, or maybe ask Sheldon Brown/Harris cyclery.

[mikesbytes]

No such thing as 27" singles. It was a term used to describe 700c singles. Therefor no probs with tyres.

[Kieran]

The more I look at this bike the more I realise what a great find it is.

Apart from the Gran Sport groupset, it appears to have the rare 40 hole Gran Sport hubs. These are also quite valuable as well as rare. It's hard to tell, but it also looks like the spoke lacing is 4-cross, which makes for a super strong wheel. I'm surprised they're not tied and soldered too.

If you ever get the right rims Lindsay, you'll have to give some thought to the lacing pattern. Crows foot was popular in the 50s, but with 40 holes, the maths doesn't work. I found this page with an idea though...

http://www.terminalvelocity.demon.co.uk ... 0spoke.htm

You can always use 40 hole hubs as a 36, just skip 4 holes evenly spaced around the hub.

[mikesbytes]

Good luck with bidding on the B17

[Kieran]

Yopu should check out the latest Bicysling Aus magazine, there is a reference to Clem Eagle, P45,

Gary Sutton: "The first bike I had was a Clem Eagles. Clem was rick Eagles farther. Rick was a great champion and a real gentleman. He was one of my pinups because he was well mannered and showed respect for everyone. He was the quiete achiever and the role model for kids coming through. ....."