Hi Guys,

I am new to this forum so please bear with me. Basically I have been clearing out my Fathers storage unit and have come across his old Claud Butler, please see photos below. I wanted to know if anyone may have any information on it. My Father thinks it may be around the 1950 era but wasn’t sure. It has the decorative lugs and certainly looks old. I would like to find out the Date and the Model of the Bike? The serial number, below the bottom bracket is: 9126037





















Thanks for your help in advance.
Olly

Beautiful! The frame may be older, but the derailleur, cranks, brake levers, and Weimann Concave rims suggest late 1970's.

Thanks oddjob in that case it may be later than we thought.

Olly

Oddjob2 expressed my impression too. Can't wait to see it cleaned up!

I agree the frame itself looks older than 1970s, based on the lamp mount on the front fork. Plus the rear triangle/drop outs look like this 1947 Claud Butler Avant Coureur: Claud Butler Avant Coureur - 1947

Apparently the "real" Claud Butler frames were made up until 1956-57, according to this article: Claud Butler - King of Lightweights . I'd like to think you have a "real" one but don't know enough about them to say for sure. Reach out to "Oldpeddaller" on this forum, or maybe he has already seen this, he knows alot about UK bikes of this era!

I'm not certain I can help much. This is just an observation about the Brooks B5N, which is a favorite model of mine, and as best I know hasn't been made since the early '80s.

Notice how the top off the one on your Dad's bike is smooth. All the B5N's I have seen and owned have an embossing of a textured surface. I see no hint of texture on the top of your B5N. [MENTION=75618]tony colegrave[/MENTION] can probably provide a better date. I'm guessing mine are from the mid '70s, but I could be mistaken. That would make your B5N earlier.



Welcome to BF and C&V in particular. Beautiful old bike your Dad has. It is worthy of cleaning up and enjoying.

"Dating my father's butler, Claud"

IDK, just how I read it...

Sorry I don't have anything useful to add... lol

Thanks for the information everyone. Yes it would look nice all cleaned up. The Brooks saddle is nice and also interesting that you haven't seen one which is smooth. Yours looks immaculate by the way.

Olly

Lots of Claud Butler catalogs you can browse through here.

Very nice even in it's dusty state!

This Claud certainly has a mess of parts all along the decades highway. I see GB brake on the back which might be a courier 61. Introduced in 1961.

Does the BB have an oil port on the non drive side ?

Nice mystery there.

I think it would be an error to try to date the frame by the components, alone, since it has a cotterless crank. Like Ken said, the first give-away is the fork-mounted lamp boss. This says to me no later than late 50's. Maybe someone can identify the model of the Nervex Professional lugs. Oil, are there any more inscriptions under that paint on the B.B? (It looks like the lugs and B.B. were painted by hand by an owner). It should say Nervex and give a Nervex number that specifies the tube angles.
3spee asked if there is an oil port on the B.B. That is a good question, and the answer will help. Also, other helpful bits would be; dropout widths, seat tube and head tube angles, seat tube inner diameter, whether-or-not there are brazed-on downtube shifter bosses and any inscriptions on the steerer tube, if you care to look. The fact that it has no water bottle cage bosses on d.t. and s.t. is indicative. 1950, or there-abouts, sounds right to me at this point. If you get 95mm for the front dropout and anything less than 120mm in the rear would mean mid-50's or older.
I haven't been researching old frames for long, so some of my points might use tweaking.

Hah, me too, glad I'm not the only one.
Man nice bike, definitely worth investing in. I'm ready to see the after pics.

I usually only date Claudias, but in this case I might make an exception.

Hi there.

The serial number, 9126037, points to the 6037th frame built in 1949 (December). Could have been purchased in 1950 and so fits with your father's date! So... it is indeed a "real Claud". I agree, looks to be the Avant Coureur - either model 1 or 2 according to https://www.nkilgariff.com catalogue for that year. Those are not lugs, rather this is Claud Butler's bilaminate construction. Looks to me that besides a lot of "kit" upgrade it also has been repainted. The Avant Coureur is advertised as having chrome on fork crown and catalog pics shows chrome on lower front forks as well. Fork crown looks similar to bike in catalogue picture. You might check if indeed chrome under those areas? You have a classy frame and indeed worthy of preserving this piece of history.



Doug