My Latest Claud Butler

[WyvernRH]

I just thought I’d show off the latest addition to the Claud Butler tribe in my collection. It is a 1967/68 Super Courier, they only used this black/white logo paint scheme for two years and I like it very much.
I got this after a bit of bartering from a dealer at the Sydney Classic Bicycle meet at Dulwich velodrome. (sorry I should know the guy's name but I forgot)


I think we met at a valid price point for although the paintwork was pretty good the bike had been ‘modernised’ in the 70’s by removing the brake cable stops and pump pegs and all the equipment updated, ie centre pull brakes swapped for Weinmann 730 sidepulls off of a Carlton (the brake hoods had ‘Carlton’ embossed on them), a Stronglight 99 double 52/40 chainset instead of the Williams steel single 48t chainset, a Campag headset and some really odd alloy rimmed wheels which had a fixed/fixed rear hub which led me to suspect the bike had maybe made it thru the ‘modernization’ craze of the 70’s/80’s only to have bits hacked off by some Hip Oik in the 2000’s. However the bike still retained it’s 1960’s Campagnolo Gran Sport derailleur and had acquired a set of double Campag gear levers so maybe not… No front derailleur or saddle tho.
Now if anyone recognizes the pattern on the rim face I would love to know the manufacturer! Given the way the rim join is welded my best bet is some Italian maker…



So… I decided to go with the 70’s ‘modernization’ theme and so I…
- added a Gipiemme front changer with the period ‘outer cable under the bracket conversion (it was a 5-speed originally so only one brazed on cable guide,)
- tossed the Campag Grans Sport and fitted a 70’s Galli rear changer
- rebuilt the40h rear rim onto a 60’s Normandy fixed/free at 5-speed spacing, 14-28 free wheel
- swapped out the ‘Carlton’ brake levers for some early Dia Compe levers with a quick release and new Cane Creek hoods
- fitted a Wrights saddle from the spares box
- added green pedals and toeclips and red cable guides (couldn’t resist)


Which all ended up with a very rideable bike. The paint had some blemishes which were hidden as best as possible. A previous owner seemed to have been a bit of a sticker freak and I had to remove the remains of several 60’s Campag stickers leaving the best one on the top tube for history’s sake.

The Holdsworth transfers on the top tube are interesting. Clauds were built by Holdsworth by this time but they tried to keep the brands separate marketing-wise. The only time I have seen that sort of decoration is on a show bike at Earls Court bike show so it may be the owner was trying to reproduce this or he bought the show bike off the stand?
Very pleased with the result, it rides really well and the Galli/Gipiemme gear combination changes like a dream (unlike the Campag Gran Sport ). Although the bike is from the lower end of the range it is made of seamless tubing (Reynolds Chrome Moly?) while the down tube at least appears to be butted.
And of course it is sparkly green which is a big plus!
I’m Interested in any comments folk might have about my assumptions on the bike’s life history.

Cheers
Richard

[HappyHumber]

Always enjoy your builds and your descriptive detail, Richard....
Your knowledge & presentation is a valuable resource for these forums.

[ldrcycles]

Always enjoy your builds and your descriptive detail, Richard....
Your knowledge & presentation is a valuable resource for these forums.

+1 . I particularly like the wing nuts.

[silverlight]

Hi Richard,
Great bike and excellent choice of parts.
I particularly love the decals in the two tones on the down-tube
I think the brand of rim could be Nisi, Italian make. I have a very similar on one of my own bikes.
Great pickup.

[HappyHumber]

I particularly like the wing nuts.

This kind of leads me to another question.... I have on the odd occasion found the odd loose or pair of vintage bike wheel wing-nuts. I've always looked them over at the time because of asked price or whatever, not knowing the relative rarity of the threading it may have.

Of all the whacky thread standards of different countries and companies have come up with through the decades; I'd love to have a bit better idea of what may fit what.

I'd hazard a guess that you could buy wing-nut sets back in the day as after-market race upgrades, if your "slightly more budget" wheel-sets didn't come with them.

[WyvernRH]

Couple of extra photos:
The campag sticker, can anybody date it? You can also see the immaculate Prugnat transfer and the remains cut off pump peg base on the top tube (peh! yuk! why do people do that...)


And here is the period 5 to 10 speed conversion as there is only a cable turner on the right for the rear derailleur. I always found it odd that you could buy clamps that let you add a l/h lever for a front derailleur but no-one made a clamp-on cable turner ONLY for the l/h side they were all for BOTH sides. Note we seem to have a fancy bottom bracket (possibly Nervex despite the Prugnat sticker?)


Something I omitted to mention is that the bike has an pump style oiler port in the UNDERSIDE of the bottom bracket, dead centre. Never seen that before on a Claud, not sure if it is original or a retro-fit by an previous owner,

Cheers
Richard

[hiflange]

but no-one made a clamp-on cable turner ONLY for the l/h side they were all for BOTH side

this is something that has been on my mind of late (see my Foreign Affairs thread) ... anyway Campag did make a LH only cable stop for just this purpose. Part number 628, and for what amounts to a scrap of folded tin they fetch a pretty penny on the 'bay.
I like your "cable under" conversion very much

[Clydesdale Scot]

The campag sticker, can anybody date it?

a rare beast, most of the Campagnolo globes have single constant thickness lines radiating, rather than the tapering suns rays
there is some information here on the Campagnolo branding
but it is in the panel on the classicrendezvous page
and decals are on this page (in Japanese), not dated

[WyvernRH]

but no-one made a clamp-on cable turner ONLY for the l/h side they were all for BOTH side

this is something that has been on my mind of late (see my Foreign Affairs thread) ... anyway Campag did make a LH only cable stop for just this purpose. Part number 628, and for what amounts to a scrap of folded tin they fetch a pretty penny on the 'bay.
I like your "cable under" conversion very much

That's interesting, I can't say I've ever seen one of those Campag jobs, mostly folk who wanted to use a clamp used to just cut off the r/h guide (which tended to look very messy if not done well)
I shall have to look out on e-Bay just to see what they look like.
You can make my cable version look a lot classier by using cable ends at each end of the outer.
I went from straight from test install to full cut and crimped FD cable and only then remembered I hadn't fitted cable ends

Richard

[WyvernRH]

Always enjoy your builds and your descriptive detail, Richard....
Your knowledge & presentation is a valuable resource for these forums.

Thank you for the kind thoughts! I try and detail what and why I do things and what with really so others can check my information and assumptions, especially on Oz stuff where I am woefully ignorant.
I think I was lucky being brought up in South London in the 60's and 70's where I met a lot of old clubmen who had worked at Claud's, Holdsworth's Gillott etc etc back in the day and were quite willing to trade tales and info in exchange for the odd pint of beer... Also, I visited a lot of great shops and talked to their owners who were willing to take time to chat, explain stuff and educate an ignorant young man. Roy Thame (Holdsworth Putney), Mr Carpenter (Carpenter Cycles Kingston) and Vic Lyon (Vic Lyon s London) especially come to mind. Good old Vic would have long gone o his maker by now but I still remember him taking me over the history of derailleurs and how they worked (or not) and the tuning thereof with examples from the 50's to the 80's spread over his counter.
CTC club rides in the South Downs were a constant education, often in more ways than one!

Cheers
Richard

[WyvernRH]

I particularly like the wing nuts.

This kind of leads me to another question.... I have on the odd occasion found the odd loose or pair of vintage bike wheel wing-nuts. I've always looked them over at the time because of asked price or whatever, not knowing the relative rarity of the threading it may have.

Of all the whacky thread standards of different countries and companies have come up with through the decades; I'd love to have a bit better idea of what may fit what.

I'd hazard a guess that you could buy wing-nut sets back in the day as after-market race upgrades, if your "slightly more budget" wheel-sets didn't come with them.

I went through the shed and counted at least 8 different types of wingnut! Yes, back in the day the shops used have cards like this hanging up so you could buy the wheel fastener of your choice (OK these are tracknuts...).

I refer you to this link http://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/co ... -comp.html for further info.
Not the later rear models were longer on the gear side so the wings did not interfere with the parallelogram derailleur when undoing (see picture above) Not necessary with single speed or chain pull derailleurs.
My personal fave is the 'butterfly' Gripfast model fitted to this Claud as it has a hex on it so you can give it that extra tweak to prevent wheel pull-over. Defeats the purpose somewhat but there you go...
Re threads, all wingnuts I have seem to fit all the front or rear hubs (as appropriate) that I have tried except one pair of Huret Luxe fronts which fit nothing I own, not even French hubs.
Of course the rare rear Sturmey Archer wingnuts have the fine thread needed to fit the Sturmey hub gears.

Richard