Hi,

I'm looking into buying this Claud Butler, the seller said "I seem to remember a sticker that said 531 light alloy". I've tried to looked at the catalogues but couldn't find it, even in google images I couldn't find a burgundy claud Butler with a white fork. There's no decals on the bike and I'm wondering if the seller is just saying that to make me buy the bike.

The bike isn't in my town so I would need to travel a little bit (not too far) to actually see it, but I though I might ask before going there.

I've attached the photos. Any help would be much appreciate.

Cheers!

Too many sellers watching American Pickers!

+ 1. The frame appears to be a decent quality frame as it has forged drop outs and nice cut outs on the lug. That said, I'm skeptical about this frame. This looks to be a repaint which is a negative. So is the front fork which looks to be a replacement; if so, this suggests that the bike was crashed. Pass unless it is very inexpensive. Certainly pass if S wants the price of a 531 Claud Butler for an incomplete bike of doubtful provenance.

Thank you for the super quick replies!

Not sure I understand, sorry



The bike is relatively cheap but what you just said worries me a little, I did think that the frame looked repainted. I don't like the idea of the fork being a replacement.

The fork looks to be newer and of lower quality than the frame in general. It looks like someone just put a bunch of semi random stuff on the frame none of it looks like it goes well with the frame. So I would look at it like your basically buying a somewhat nice frame of unknown origin with no fork so the price would need to be pretty low for it to make sense.

Thank you all,

I think I'm going to pass on that one then.

Thanks again for all the quick replies. I'm new to using a forum for bikes and everyone here knows so much. So much knowledge.

Cheers

As others have said, it's had a repaint and the fork isn't original - or matches the quality of the rest of the frame. The frame could be 531, or might not be but looks to be well built. However I don't think it is a Holdsworth built Claud Butler from the style of windowed lugs and cable guides. If it is a Claud, it could be a "Fraud Claud" built when the marque was owned by Townsend in the late 1980's - still legitimately carrying the name but not of the same quality or value as earlier models. Unless it was really cheap, I wouldn't buy it.

Moved from Appraisals to Classic & Vintage.