branko_76 

Last summer I spent a week in London, first time there and hope to return someday. While walking around this magnificent metropolis, I spotted no less than three Claud Butler bikes locked up in different areas of the city. I know nothing about them, are they that common?

juvela

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the three examples shown all produced by Holdsworthy

Claude BUTLER King of the Lightweights

https://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/claudbutler.html


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eeuuugh

I know a mechanic here in New Orleans who's from England. We were talking about internally geared hubs a few days ago, and she told me about a wheel she built at the first shop she worked on in Nottingham, an old SA 3-speed hub laced to a deep V with aero spokes, which she rode on a Claud Butler. I was very impressed she'd owned a Claud Butler, but she said they're extremely common in the area. For whatever that's worth...

Kilroy1988 

They're very common indeed. As Juvela mentions, those late models were all made by Holdsworth and aren't "true" Claud Butlers, since the company was sold in 1958. If you look on eBay UK they are mostly a dime a dozen. They're an English equivalent of the bike-boom era makes we had here in the states.

It's the early Claud Butlers from the 1930s-1950s that are unique and many of them (especially the bilaminated frames) are quite rare and appreciated among collectors.

-Gregory

unworthy1

I only can see two examples, but yep, these are Holdsworthy products as juvela says.

branko_76 

I didn't have my camera with me for all 3

scarlson 

Standard bike-boom rules apply to these Holdsworth CBs. There are some higher-end ones that are pretty good - anything made of butted 531 with forged dropouts. The one I have is such, but sadly the brazing is subpar so the frame's broken twice. Lately it's held together though, and it does ride nicer than most bikes I've been through. Like an old Trek from the same era.

branko_76 

I wasn't aware that CB's were made by Holdsworth. How do the Claud Butler frames compare to the "Holdsworth" branded frames of the same era, 1980's or so?

Johno59

Claud Butler is now a Taiwanese owned Al bike maker.
The Claud Butler pre-1960s were considered to be pretty good if made from Reynolds 531; but a lot of British made bikes from then were just as good if not better.
After WW2 Tube Investments (an engineering holding company) began buying out most of the remaining bike makers and proceeded to destroy the dozen or so brands that had a well-deserved first class reputation - CB and later Holdsworth were victims. If you work on the 1970s -80s bikes there is a tremendous difference in the steel quality and workmanship compared to the 1940-50s bikes. The TI era bikes are still good bikes but you need time and patience to bring them up to spec. Mind you this makes them a LBS no-no, so they are cheap and occasionally a real one comes up unnoticed/neglected.
Bob Jackson, Mercian, Woodrup and Thorn (I think) still make their own steel frames the old - fashioned way ( the others import their frames) but they are expensive both new and second-hand.

This 1984s Woodrup cost the original purchaser US$1500 for a complete refurb (it had no wheels and stuck solid everything) - and most of the labor cost was donated.

unworthy1

Reminder that "Holdsworth the shop" and "Holdsworthy the factory" became two very distinct operations. Nick Kilgariff (RIP) was a "library" of infomation includng a huge collection of catalogue and advert scans. You can dig around and see how during the Holdsworthy ownership of CB there was almost a full overlap of certain models with Holdsworth that only differed in the names given.
https://www.nkilgariff.com/Models.htm

branko_76 

Thanks for the link. This helps with info regarding my Holdsworth Special. I bought it in 1991 or so but it had been hanging in the shop since the mid 1980's. I lived a few blocks from the shop and was always intrigued by the collection of Holdsworth bikes hanging on the ceiling. When my Miyata 912 was stolen, I went straight to that shop (Roberts Cycle) and bought the last Holdsworth he had. It was fitted with full Campy Victory (or Athena, can't remember) but I hated the styling of those components so I gradually replaced them with Nuovo Record.