Cycling UK Forum

If you clean up the area where the number is it should be possible to get the letter so we can date it accurately. I have never come across a number beginning with zero on E-H frames, and if the letter O, it would mean 1942 or 1966, as the letters were on a 24 year cycle. I would not expect to see chrome on a 1942 machine and if 1966 the transfer would be Elswick-Hopper rather than Elswick. So is there a number before the O? I think there may be a 'U' lurking above the number - that would be 1961 and there was a very similar model still being made then. I can send you a scan from the 1960 catalogue, which one of these days I must get on the V-CC library website - free access to all.
The clip head set was still being used in 1961 and the head badge is the style introduced in c1956, which is another reason it can't be 1942.
They do restore well and the chosen method depends very much on future use. If for display or showing then it is going to cost to get a proper stove enamel job. If for road use I would go for powder coating. Hope that helps - my current shopping bike is a Pashley ex-Royal Mail cycle, an Elephant Bike and it is quite phenomenal as a load carrier and was great value. Still available and being restored by a charity.
Let me know if I can help as I do have quite a bit on Elswick and Hopper following the research I did for the 2010 company history book.

I'm a bit late with this post but stumbled on it when searching for information on Roberts Cycle Industries. I have assembled a pretty comprehensive history of Falcon Cycles as part of writing a book on Elswick-Hopper. From 1968 the stories start to entwine. So if anyone still has questions go ahead and ask. I do own an early Falcon - probably 1956, which is close to when Roberts Cycle Industries started to make them at the suggestion of Ernie Clements. Ernie hadn't been there long and so far as I know RCI was purely a producer of own brand bicycles - never making any under the Roberts name, which was probably just as well! The badge on mine is clearly labelled made by RCI and is the only one I have ever seen. It has a 531 sticker though is quite heavy, so...?? Anyway, I would be very interested in learning more about RCI and also about any other Falcon frames bearing the RCI name. The web is full of misinformation as usual. Ernie moved to Roberts in 1955, a couple of years before Coventry Eagle relocated to Hartford St, Hockley in 1957. They were short of space so after a short time bought the Roberts concern, and along with it the assets, including Ernie and his new Falcon brand. So Falcon bikes were made first by Roberts, and then by Coventry Eagle. In 1968 the Smethwick site was up for redevelopment and contacts between Douglas Mayo and Elswick-Hopper resulted in CE taking up an offer of buildings in Barton on Humber. EC was works manager and when Mayo had a car accident and retired Ernie bought him out and renamed the company Falcon Cycles. So that is the early part. Any information on Roberts Cycle Industries would be much appreciated!
Nigel