I remember as a kid in England riding various borrowed clunkers, but the first bike I actually owned was a Hercules I bought from a school friend who was getting his brother's Ellis Briggs. This Hercules was still a clunker, so as I got interested in lightweight bikes I bought a new Claud Butler "New Allrounder". I believe this was around 1953 or 54. The Claud was a bit up from their entry level line, made from straight gauge 531, steel rims, with a 4-speed Simplex derailleur. At the time, pencil thin seat stays were all the rage and I think these were 1/4" at the dropouts. When we emigrated to Canada in 1956 I left the Claud behind, thinking there would be nowhere to ride one like this. I was partly right, since lightweight racing bikes were very rare in Toronto at the time. I didn't get a real bike again until the seventies.