Eclipse Canyon Ltd 1984/5 -Finished-

[Johnboy]

Re:

Hi Guy,

The script on the top of the seat stays is actually stamped into the metal and filled in with paint.

Looking forward to seeing your build. Once it's completed we will have to have an Eclipse meet......it'll only be the two of us though!

I take it you've read the warnings about how addictive this pastime can be?

 

[guybagnall]

Re:

It’s your fault, all that brilliant polishing set a bad example - I’ll have to ask u what u used, I’m drinking CIF at an alarming rate, but it seems to clean almost everything. My Berthet/Lyotard pedals are shinier than the the £95 on eBay...

 

[guybagnall]

Re:

Hi Johnboy - finally cleaned up - though nowhere near your standards... sadly it feels too big a frame after all that (24.5") - I should swap it for a 22/22.5"... I just spotted the paint in to keep it original, and so you can see the work...
excuse the horrid gel cover over the Brooks B17...

 

[Johnboy]

Re:

Very nice, I do love to see old bikes brought back into a clean working condition. If only I could do the same with my decrepit body.

Are you going to apply the new decals?

Good luck with trying to find one in a smaller size, easier to get your legs stretched I reckon!

 

[guybagnall]

Re:

Try a pint of CIF - it worked for the bike.

I've lowered the seat and brought it forward, but need to try more options - and now away for weeks (just got away before quarantine date). I'm also hopeless at adjusting the derailleurs so the chain comes off too easily! I did get the brakes right at least. I'll try googling leg-stretch operations...

There is a smaller Eclipse up at the moment but £295 and only 21" (nice Campag bits).

Also just came across a pair of 'Ambrosio 19 extra Super Elite' with snazzy black rims, seem pretty rare?

 

[guybagnall]

Hi - Through the strangest of routes - a Stuart Purves 1951 frame advertised as a barn find Roy Thame (not) - it seems my Eclipse frame is a Holdsworth/Claud Butler mid 1983 Claud Butler Majestic - the lugs are almost identical - and if anything slightly better done on my frame. Greg of Bike UK told a Routier frame buyer he had frames made by Holdsworth. This is Holdsworthy in fact, not the Holdsworth shop, which became Roy Thame in 1976 - hard to keep up? The Routier frame has another six-digit frame number but is not a Holdsworth - but the buyer has a link to Greg - so it is possible there is a lot more info to come...All from the Holdsworth Frame Numbers brilliant posts by Dave Scrimshaw.

 

[guybagnall]

Sorry, mid 1984...

 

[robert11]

I was a mechanic at Charring Cross during this time so can probably fill in a few details from memory
The Canyon was an expensive bike and was not really sold that much I probably only built about 5 in the whole time I was there. (2 years)
BikeUK became agents for Cannondale bikes and this really put an end to that bike. It was a nice ride but pretty soon the Specialized Rockhopper and all the others. If I remember correctly that was an epoxy finish and only came in black. It came with Farmer John tires and
All the Eclipse touring frames arrived from Orbit painted and delivered with the start of a thread in the bottom bracket.
Lugs were Hayden,
531 tubing was used for the whole tubeset and forks except for MTB which were supposed to use the new fangled 501 MTB tubing.
Every bike had threads cut, faces milled and final alignment done in the workshop before it was built from a well considered touring groupset. We were all cyclists and pretty passionate about cycling. Greg, Richard and Annita ran the business and grew it very quickly from the 3 shops when i started to 5 and then more.
We did have black decals but they only ever went on white bikes. Everything else got a white decal.
Not all of them had the rear stay decal as we normally tried to "forget" to put them on and put on a proper chain protector instead.
many of the Eclipse bikes went straight from the workshop to long tours and were built for that. They weren't perfect but were good bikes. Hope that helps

 

[robert11]

Hi - Through the strangest of routes - a Stuart Purves 1951 frame advertised as a barn find Roy Thame (not) - it seems my Eclipse frame is a Holdsworth/Claud Butler mid 1983 Claud Butler Majestic - the lugs are almost identical - and if anything slightly better done on my frame. Greg of Bike UK told a Routier frame buyer he had frames made by Holdsworth. This is Holdsworthy in fact, not the Holdsworth shop, which became Roy Thame in 1976 - hard to keep up? The Routier frame has another six-digit frame number but is not a Holdsworth - but the buyer has a link to Greg - so it is possible there is a lot more info to come...All from the Holdsworth Frame Numbers brilliant posts by Dave Scrimshaw.

The Routier was made by Orbit the same as the Countryman The Routier had much nicer gear on it than the Countryman but was the same frame
BikeUK did at one point have many complete bikes from Holdsworth but I never turned one into an Eclipse

As an aside both the countryman and routier came with full SKS mudguards as standard and a welded alloy rack. Routier had Blackburn rack

 

[Johnboy]

Re:

Oooo, this is good stuff. I love the way these threads keep on giving!

So would you agree mine is possibly a Canyon? It's hard to find any information about it now.