Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 09:58:59 +0100 From: "Sam Wise" <whinge2me@yahoo.co.uk> To: <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Subject: [CR]Wanted - Clements Frame Message-ID: <MONKEYFOODT66Cw6IsG000067b4@monkeyfood.nt.phred.org> Content-Type: text/plain;charset="us-ascii" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Precedence: list Message: 15
Hi all
In my youth, I owned a 531 frame marked Clements. It was equipped with nothing-special wheels and chainset, and I had no idea what it was. When I set off to travel the world, it was left at a friends house, and I wasn't to worried what happened to it. That was some 7 years ago, and recently, through the archives of this list, I discovered that it must have been built by Ernie Clements in the 50's, before he took over at Falcon. I made some calls to try to get it back, only to discover that it had been thrown on a skip with a number of other "bits of old junk" several years ago. Having remembered what a nice bike it was, and looked forward to getting it back, I'm now rather gutted! I wonder if anyone else out there is selling a Clements frame? Price dependant, I might be very interested to buy it
Thanks
Sam Wise Southampton UK whinge2me@yahoo.co.uk
Sam, You should have been bidding for a Clements Ercall on eBay a couple of weeks ago. I was highest bidder but didn't quite make reserve, so I did a deal with the owner from Shropshire. I will certainly keep my eyes open, though they don't come up very often. Mine is either 1949 or 1950. It was just f&f so in the process of building it up. Btw Ernie himself is still alive though a Parkinson's sufferer and his son runs a bike shop in Ledbury, close to the old family home, with a few of his dad's old frames hung on the wall. Ernie ran Ernie Clements Cycles in Shropshire from 1947ish until going bust in 1955. He then moved to Roberts Cycle Industries in Smethwick and became works director, introducing a range of racing frames called Falcon. I was actually given a f&f a few months ago from that era and a nice frame it is. Coventry Eagle then bought Roberts in 1959, due to losing their Coventry base and kept Ernie and his Falcon range on. They moved to Barton on Humber in 1968 due to again losing their base through city centre redevelopment and took over part of the Elswick-Hopper factory. Ernie took over shortly after that when the last of the Mayo family retired and Ernie decided to move production to Brigg to a more modern facility. He eventually ran into difficulties in 1978 and sold the business to Elswick-Hopper for shares and a seat on the parent board. This lasted until about 1984 when he sold out and started up British Eagle in Newtown, Powys, also working with Barry Hoban and producing bikes with Barry's name on them. I believe British Eagle hit the rocks in around 1994. So there you are, more than you asked for and no frame in sight! This is all part of my research for the Elswick-Hopper/part Falcon book I am writing and while I am on, if anyone has post 1965 catalogues or model lists on Elswick-Hopper or Elswick bicycles I would like to hear from them off list. I have much early stuff but very little from the later years.
Nigel Land
Barton on Humber England