claud butler lugged reynolds something. pics!

Thats from around 1994 onwards and mid to low range. Magnum just meant oversized tubing.

The gallery link is for a 1990/1 season bike with its skinny forks. The frame is slightly different too (cable routing, bridges and so-on). Big oversized forks appeared with the 91/2 season onwards.

They are 'okay' frames. I had the 531 Magnum version with full top routed cables guides which was heavy, stable but not that exciting off road or on road for that matter. Did a lot of touring with mine. If I was offered another one, I would have it purely for nostalgia - maybe.

But I would definitely have another Raleigh Yukon in red and yellow...
 
I have a Claud Butler Virago:

CB.jpg


Now racked and mudguarded:

CB2.jpg


Similar forks, but the frame is tig welded Reynolds 501, rather than lugged and with bottom of the range Shimano Tourney components and cheap wheels. I'm guessing from the frame number H960279 that mine's a 1996. Oddly mine has older style slotted, rather than vertical dropouts, so perhaps CB were just using up whatever was in the parts bin by this stage. :?

Incidentally the frame/serial number on my bike is on a sticker, rather than stamped into the frame, so if that's gone missing, it would explain why you can't find one.

I think Claud Butler as a company were struggling a bit by the 90s and their bikes were a bit "old fashioned" compared to the competition, for example, still using 1" threaded headsets when pretty much everyone else had moved to 1 1/8" and threadless.

Here's some info on Reynolds 501: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_Cycle_Technology - pretty much a bottom of the range tube set I'm afraid, only the top, down and seat tubes are CrMo, the forks, head tube and rear triangle are plain guage hi-ten steel.
 
Their frames were 1 1/8th even in 1991.

*EDIT
I'll add that their 1990's bikes represented good value with a value for money entry into Taiwan aluminium frames and XT components. Their brand image was of old road bikes and tourers so the parents at the time had a recognizable brand name that wasnt the shite Raleigh had palmed off on people for some years.

The 1" steel frames reappeared in around 1994 with the higher ranges going Taiwan aluminium

**EDIT

Cant see owt wrong with this bike from 1995's catalog:

CB+95+P7.jpg


Quality steel frames and decent drive train.

Then the new fangled aluminium:

CB+95+P1.jpg


If anything, their main problem was to be too much like other manufacturers. Knocking out thousands of cheap bikes but without the brand success of the high end models. Trek had the Antelope with its 1" steel frame but also had a high end model that sold almost as many whereas CB sold very few of the good models.

This only my own ideas, I see the same with Saracen at the time, lots of cheap models post the e-stay era bringing their image down to that of a catalog bike.
 
Their frames were 1 1/8th even in 1991.

Interesting. Maybe their lower end stuff, like my Tourney equiped model, was using bits from the "parts bin". Much like some of the BSOs today that are still fitted with 1" threaded headsets, separate cup and cone square taper bottom brackets and 6 speed freewheels - all made of soft cheese. :shock:

I remember Claud Butler from my road riding days, back in the 80s, when they were considered a step up from Raleigh/Carlton and quite highly regarded for their tourers, perhaps not so much for racing frames. I had a Carlton, which was part of Raleigh, but made in a different factory to all the Choppers and Shoppers and the finish on my friends Claud Butler was a lot better, neater lugs, better paint, nicer decals.
 
Cheers guys, good info. Not looking too shabby now:

DSC_0149_zpsb830f4da.jpg


Just need to swap the lethal front wheel before the rim splits :-/
 
I don't think it's an Exon. I've got a '95 Exon and according to the sticker it has Reynolds Cro-Mo main tubes.
Apparently the Exon was a rebadged Enduro - Altus CT90 groupset, etc and never appeared in any of the catalogues:

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/gallery2/v/M ... 5.jpg.html

This is a (bad) pic of mine:

0bd7852d-f90b-4b49-9b56-bac7e09160ff.jpg


The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that the rear mech is not a CT90 but an Altus A10
karma'd to me by Nevada Smith for which, many thanks :D
 
That looks pretty similar in terms of probably being same year. I wonder if 501 or 'cro-mo' was higher, never seen Reynolds without a number before apart from some of the Raleigh specific ones.

I'm wondering whether mine would look better without the CB decal, it's just a sticker and peels pretty easily.
 
I would imagine 501 is higher than Cro-Mo as the Exon/Enduro was an entry level bike. That said it has proved to be a very good bike which I have been using as a work and commute machine. I rescued it from the local dump for a tenner, spent a long time cleaning it, rebuilding the wheels and so on. That was a year ago and since then I've done over 3.5K miles on it :D
 
Looking at the exon, mine has a cluster of three cable stops on each end of the top tube.

You can't really see the decal in the other pics

DSC_0151_zpsee9a6efb.jpg


I'll be looking to add a little value (such as safe wheels and tweaking it as far as it warrants) and then move it on once my other hack's back on the road. Probably just locally to someone after a commuter unless I get particular interest on here, which I'm not expecting. I'm wondering if the CB decal makes it look a bit (more) shabby.
 
Back
Top