1939 Claud Butler Ultra Shortbase Tandem

Not going full Ultegra disc then?

Loving the early cantilevers!

Found this on my travels (later version)

viewtopic.php?f=47&t=335043



One still in use (later model) with a limited braking option

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Claud-Butler ... 3137508154

Re: Re:

dan73uk":1xhk8wqw said:

That looks very satisfying and a great result.

Click to expand...

Yeah nice to get them that clean - considering how bad they looked. You had any luck finding a set for the Maclean's?

Peachy!":1xhk8wqw said:

Excellent, what ratio of salt to vinegar do you need?

Click to expand...

I'm not sure what is optimum to be honest - I had a 1.1l bottle of Vinegar and added 2x tablespoons of salt to increase the conductivity. Not very scientific and not sure whether adding more makes things better/worse......but it worked which is a good start. Lots to learn!

Jonny69":1xhk8wqw said:

Your brake levers are interesting. I have a single one of those and I’m sure it’s got a curve in it, so it points a really long way forwards on drop bars. Yours look like they’ve been straightened out to bring them back a bit. Just be careful with them because they’re not the best quality alloy and yours look like they’ve got some fractures in the front face.

Need to check now. I can feel another trip to the shed coming on...

Click to expand...

Hmmm.....good spot. Done a bit of Googling this morning and it sure looks like they should be curved outwards. I agree there is some crazing on the front of the lever I've cleaned up - not sure what to make of it - doesn't look particularly deep, could be polished out if I wanted, but does it suggest the levers are fatigued as a result of being straightened out.......?

legrandefromage":1xhk8wqw said:

Not going full Ultegra disc then?

Loving the early cantilevers!

Found this on my travels (later version)

viewtopic.php?f=47&t=335043

One still in use (later model) with a limited braking option

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Claud-Butler ... 3137508154

Click to expand...

I've seen both of those in my repeated google searching for Claud tandems in the past few weeks. Nice to see one still in use, albeit upgraded with newer kit. Wonder if the older one ever sold.....?

Re:

Unfortunately I've had no response Re my wanted Resilion ad.

Re:

^ Yet more TA chainring orientation barbarism.. :facepalm:

Finished cleaning and plating the front brakes. 2 down.....2 to go.







Started making a jig for the front cable. Mainly to compress the spring loaded sections so I can get a bit of slack in the cable. Because these are quite a complicated arrangment and also set lengths the only way to make a new one is to make a jig to get the positions of everything right when it comes to soldering the new one together.





Spliced soldered join - need to get this in the right place when I make the new cable.....



Broke out the blow torch and separated out all the soldered joins and soldered nipples. Now to buy some silver solder and some replacement cable!

Impressive deconstruction... (forensic Pathology)

Love the home plating results, looks great!

Yes, lovely work with your plating experiments and the disassembly by fire! Great to see all the processes going into this project.

Really enjoying this thread. It’s what I like the most about RetroBike

Retro Spud":3tezfwcd said:

Impressive deconstruction... (forensic Pathology)

Click to expand...

Surprised at how many bits that cable broke down into. Just need to try and find some suitable replacement and then have a crack at silver soldering!

Rothchild":3tezfwcd said:

Love the home plating results, looks great!

Click to expand...

zerogravitas":3tezfwcd said:

Yes, lovely work with your plating experiments and the disassembly by fire! Great to see all the processes going into this project.

Click to expand...

Worked out quite well - and judging by the very small bits of the assemblies that have already started to go ginger (roots of the threads on the screws for example) suggests that the plating has worked well......otherwise it'd all be going rusty by now right?

Peachy!":3tezfwcd said:

Really enjoying this thread. It’s what I like the most about RetroBike

Click to expand...

Cheers Peachy - been a while since I've done a proper full on nuts and bolts rebuild thread and a good excuse to learn some new processes too. Seen a lot of inspirational builds on here over the years - some proper talented folks.