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I recently bought this old road bike to fix up, but I haven't been able to identify it, as the brand stickers are partly scratched out.

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  • Might be a tricky task to identify. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but it looks like it has perhaps been repainted once already? The image of the seat-tube appears to show some gold lettering on a white background that has been revealed where the black paint has come off
    – Andy P
    Sep 14, 2021 at 11:57

3 Answers 3

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Thanks to Criggie's sharp eyes spotting the word "Coventry"

From a forum thread here is a match on the head badge
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The decals on the bike look similar but the lug work looks different.

Here is a nice example in the wild
The 2020 post says the bike is 37 years old so 1983 enter image description here
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  • Awesome find - notice that OP's headtube badge is more similar to the second one - your first example shows a partial union jack. Also OP's seems to be embossed metal, whereas the other two examples are the same overall design but appear to be thinner water decals. I'd guess OP's is plausibly "earlier".
    – Criggie ♦
    Sep 15, 2021 at 10:07
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    @Criggie I think the first on may be better. The union jack - like the words Coventry Eagle - are painted on a texture and not actually embossed. There is more room below the horizontal long oval in the first example than in the second. I could be wrong, it's hard to tell from just pictures. It's amazing to me that such a long lived and storied brand has so few catalogues and documentation online.
    – David D
    Sep 15, 2021 at 13:09
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I see "Coventry" in the scratched out decals.

The head tube badge appears to be an eagle, which is often associated with Germany and similar areas.

"Cycle Shop Somerton" is probably a bike shop in Somerton, of which there are many, in the UK, US, and Australia according to Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerton#Places A search doesn't find them still trading sadly

The photos show an `80s road bike, mostly based on the angle of the head tube and the rake of the fork.

It was probably equipped with a derailleur originally and has a bodge single-speed conversion. The larger chainring is still clearly visible.

All in all it could be a loverly bike again, just needs some cleanup and maintenance, and perhaps a new chain. Some new bar tape would make it look a lot less janky, and the brake inner/outer cables might need a refresh for safety. I can also see what look like rust spots on the rims - which will eat brake pads quickly (or maybe its just dirt/leaves)

Some derusting of the brake levers would help the appearance too. Depends how bad the chrome is damaged, you might use a rust converter and then sand and paint, or you might sandblast to remove the lot. All depends if you want it to look good or merely function.

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The badge picture seems to show some (lost in time) engravings on the horizontal band. Try to look/take pictures with different light, to try to read some word or at least letters.

In the meanwhile, you may try your luck in one of the biggest digital collections of headbadges that I know of:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bikegeek/albums

Or ask at the library if by any chance they have this book (same author as flickr page here above):

A Cycling Lexicon: Bicycle Headbadges from a Bygone Era 
Authors: Phil Carter, Jeff Conner, Paul Smith
Publisher: Gingko Press (August 1, 2016). ISBN-13: 978-1584236283

Good luck!

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