1950's Claud Butler - on the road again!!!!

grumpycommuter

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In December 2010 i bought this frame and forks from 'frinkmakesyouthinnk' for the princely sum of £80 - http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... aud+butler - with the intention of building a bike to improve my maintenance skills.

From the outset there would be two major considerations, Money and Time. Firstly money of which there wasnt any and two small children ensured that it was always in short supply. I would have to buy the best bits i could afford as i didnt have any other bits to speak of. As for time i wanted it on the road for spring 2011 which meant a full and painstaking restoration wasnt going to happen, i just wanted it on the road to enjoy.

After years of very dull miles i discovered single-speeding in Jan 2010 and was completely besotted. Towards the end of the year i began to fancy getting a fixed wheel bike together and the Claud Butler seemed perfect. I fell in love with the metal look and decided to run with that and see what happened.

The saving began in December and then all the money went on Xmas pressies...Bugger. Of we go again. March arrived and i finally had all the bits from here (thankyou wired99), ebay, friends and t'internet. I stripped all the laquer from the frame and then sanded, polished and a friend of a friend clearcoated and stoved it.

The build day was a doddle, i use the word build lightly as even i put it together in a couple of hours. Spencer13 was on hand to supervise, pass beer and make sure i didnt get too excited and forget to tighten stuff up.

I scared myself silly going home (all very downhill) but anyway here she is......

Ps more pics in next post....
 

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Im not usually a fixie fan but that works for me.

I like the pared down style. I like the rawness... its got a good look.
 
Why'd I ever sell it eh?

Looks bloody lovely. The gold chain matches the brazing perfectly, and the centrepull looks great (no nasty plastic outer wire on show!). Looks great now it's been polished properly. The new stoved enamel should be much tougher than my 2-pack acrylic too!

Here it is when I owned it:
dsc000663.jpg

It was a bit more of a rat bike back then
 
In January when i was drinking lots of tea and deciding what to do i did a quick 'google' search for 'claud butler fixed wheel' and found this picture on Bike radar. I suspected it might be the same bike. I've still got some Brooks honey tape to put on which requires total sobriety so im working up to that. Glad you approve :)
 
Thats a great looking machine - love the frame.

(Although I d get some gears on it! :LOL: )
 
Might well have been built by Bill Grey who built my lugless Dave Russell, he was an ex-CB frame builder. Very nice smooth welds (or should I say 'brazes'?), interesting to see them 'in the raw' so to speak.

Not sure about the 'bars though. What are they?
 
Hi Old Ned...the bars...hmmmm!! They are radonneurs of a late 40's Pollard (which is another very long story), with no makers mark on. Perhaps GB? They were fitted on a tiny GB stem. Being fixed i wanted some bars i could 'pull up on' and the bars it was fitted with looked odd tilted way back. Regarding the brazes, I thought it would be criminal to cover up such quality work, i would even go as far as describing it as artistry, which is one of the reasons i kept it 'raw'. Its great you have a name for a CB frame builder, if i ever met the man who built it i'd buy him a lot of beer!!! It rides like a dream.
 
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