claud butler

stueyc

why so 'unfashionable?'

willbevan

far as i know they arn't

stueyc

i ride a claud butler and love it...just never seem to get much of a mention in magazines,forums etc....

Smokin Joe

The name has been owned by various people over the years and has latterly become associated with budget bikes. When I started riding in the sixties it was a brand treated with reverence by non-cyclists for some reason, everyone seemed to have heard of it and regarded it as the Rolls Royce of the cycle world. No cyclists did, however, which was all rather strange.This was long after Claud (whoever he was) had anything to do with the brand, even if he was still around then.

My first race frame was an aluminium lugless CB that I rescued from somebody's back garden and had resprayed. I also bought a new steel CB frame a few years later and used it for quite a while. I don't know who owns the name now, possibly Dawes?

stueyc

dont agree on budget bike and everyone thinks rolls royce apart from cyclists...little harsh!campag throughout,proven 7005 alu frame...lot of talk of halfords/decathlon/dawes bikes at the £200-£400 mark but never a mention of Claud.......this a sport for everyman or a little snobbery at play here??

Gavin Gilbert

Clauds full story can be found here: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/nkilgariff/

Select 'Claud Butler' from the menu option on the left.

The early Clauds were very good indeed. I have a 1947 welded model and it is nicely built. However Butlers main achievement was in marketing - through his self-promotion his name became linked in the public eye with quality machines. Think of him as the Evans Cycles of his day; selling good entry bikes to the masses.

For a period after he lost control of the company (due to tax debts) the name was still held in high regard by the public but the product was pretty much entry-level. From the mid to late 80's the whole bike industry suffered and some truely nasty machines bore the name.