1935 Coventry Eagle Royal Prince Gent’s Roadster

1935 Coventry Eagle Royal Prince Gent’s Roadster

This Royal Prince has been living the life of a frog for a while. I rescued it from the basement of a museum. As you can see, various parts are missing. But it won’t take much to sort out, and it will be feeling the road beneath its tyres again one day soon.

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COVENTRY EAGLE CYCLE & MOTOR Co Ltd,

Bishopsgate Green Works,

Foleshill Rd, Coventry

The business began in 1890 as Hotchkiss, Mayo & Meek, but they changed their name to Coventry Eagle in 1897 when John Meek left the company.

Coventry Eagle’s first cycles to be offered were ‘Royal Eagle’ safety models, but by 1898, they also began to experiment with motorised vehicles including forecars and motor-bicycles.

Production was naturally hampered during WWI, but resumed in 1919, and through the guidance of Percy Mayo, began to build machines of wide appeal mostly powered by JAP engines using Montgomery frames.

After a works move to Foleshill Road, by the mid-1920s Coventry Eagle released perhaps one of their most iconic motorcycles – the 998cc ‘Flying 8’ model. The ‘Pullman’ arrived in 1936 and a few years later, the economic 98cc lightweight ‘Auto-Ette’.

By 1950, The company were only producing a small range of cycles and auto-cycles as the industry began to suffer nationally. One final move to Tile Hill saw only the production of cycles but this was all finally wound up in 1959.

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1935 Coventry Eagle Bicycle Brochure

Compare the 1935 model range with advert below, from The Cyclist magazine. It illustrates the prime of the 1937 Coventry Eagles, as exhibited at the Olympia Show. As you can see, the styles have become much more ‘modern’ over those two years.

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We don’t do ‘modern.’ So it’s good to know that this dear old Royal Prince is one of the last of the old-style lines of Coventry Eagles.