Claud Butler Kylami

Hi everyone, I am new to this forum & this is my first bike build so please be patient with me.

I brought this Old CB Kylami not sure of its age but i am sure its old enough to go in this forum.

I only picked up last night & plan on stripping it down & rebuilding it as my main commuter bike for london.

The first thing i noticed was that the spring in the v brake calipers does not reach the anchor point on the frame am not sure if these particular calipers are ment to do this or not?

I ve attached some pics let me know what you think & also if you have any advise.

Cheers Joe

Damm there big pictures how do i re-size them?

Looks like the spring has broken! Those V-brakes aren't very special, you can get a replacement spring or another cheap set of Vs or Cantis from a tip bike, maybe. They are pretty standard with items of that quality.

The frame looks very similar to a Claude Butler I picked up for £30.00 a couple of years ago:



It was in a bit of a state when I got it and I needed to sort out all the bearings and replace the brake and gear cables, but apart from being dirty the frame was virtually unmarked. I've since fitted a rack and mudguards and removed all the decals which were factory fitted crooked and pealing off anyway and use it as my "shopping bike". Mine has a Reynolds 501 frame rather than CroMo and cheaper components than those on your bike.

It's a bit of a heavy beast, 35lbs, in its current guise with 4lbs of Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres fitted, but I've never had a puncture with them, so I'm happy to make shortish trips without taking a pump, tools or spare inner tubes etc. The frame is a bit big for me, but as I only use it on road it's not a problem and it rides OK.

If it's anything like mine, it will never be a light bike and I wouldn't spend a fortune on it, but it could be practical runnabout and will have limited theif appeal if you use it as a commuter/shopper and have to leave it locked up unattended.

As well as fixing the brakes, I think you should replace the seat stem, it looks bent and could be dangerous.

That looks most pleasant. I steel I take it?

Chopper1192":3h3l90k0 said:

That looks most pleasant. I steel I take it?

Click to expand...

Did you mean "It's steel I take it?"?

If so, yes they are.

Reynolds 501 is one of their lower end frame tube sets, it's CroMo, not manganese molebdynum and I think it means just the main tubes; forks, seat stays and chain stays are probably plain high tensile steel, but I'm not certain.

I'm not sure about Reynolds Cr-Mo badged frames, may be the same stuff, it's certainly not one of their best or lightest tube sets, but probably a good step up from a plain guage no-name steel frame.

Yeah, sorry. My sausauge fingers are notoriously bod at tipping.

My guess is it's a 1996 as the 1995 was black (below). Would have come with cantilever brakes and someone has added V's later.

Seat post looks nicely bent but it'll look very classy once you strip off the decals.

I had a Kylami but it was stolen in 1996 with a Joe Murray Bottle cage...

Mine was in Purple but never seen another one!! Nice bikes!

Edit - Thinking about it, it was around 1993 I got the bike, pre Grip shift!

So this is it rebuilt on a budget.

i have replaced all the cables, swaped the grip shifters for triggers & on the shopping list is some road tyres & a seat post with saddle.

The only problem i have is that when I am in the 2 highest gears they keep slipping when theres a lot of preasure on the crank.

Could it be the cartridge on the rear wheel sliping??

Cheers Joe

Are the teeth rounded and looking like a shark's fin? The chain is probably slipping over them and may have stretched too. Hit eBay for some cheap replacements.