Rusty Claud Butler Restoration! 1981 Vintage Bike Rebuild!

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In todays episode we fully rebuild and restore this Claud Butler Majestic. We fitted new bottom bracket bearings, new headset bearings, new pedal bearings and new wheel bearings! We detailed the whole bike and solved some fun problems along the way…

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hi and welcome back to bikes speeds this week we’re going to service and recommission this 1981 cor Butler Majestic as you can see from these before shots this bike has sat idle for some time we actually restored another bike for this customer that was his wife’s bike but over the sounds of time these bikes had stood and they wanted to recommission them and that’s where we come in so as you can see from this bike it’s all very dirty very tired looking we’re going to really bring this bike up and recommission it so that means we’re doing all the bearings full detail of the frame all new cables and many small jobs along the way so initially I’m going to take the bike apart while I’m doing this I’m looking at all the various parts I’m taking off the bike weighing up what they going to need doing to them in the sense of cleaning and recommissioning this rear deria here had this completely seized jockey wheel it was almost impossible to turn with my finger it was really really tight but that was making the pedal stroke very very heavy it was probably like that the last time the bike was used the customer may not have noticed it but he was probably draining all his energy wi in this bike without even realizing why front deria comes off again you can see it’s very grimy has been oiled in the past that oil is dried out with the period of time where the bike has stood still so we’ll rubricate all these parts as well I’m now going to take off the chain set so off will come that you can see again there that it’s dry but it has been Lo rubricated and built up on the back of that component so in a sense that’s been well maintained but we’re just going to bring it to the next level I take all those parts off because I’m also going to take out this bottom bracket so take out both cups the bearings and in the center of this one was this cardboard tube which probably was originally to stop the bearings being flushed out but all that does is draw the water and the moisture to sit in that bottom bracket so we’re going to remove that put in new bearings sort out the cup sort out the threads and that will all be absolutely spot on when the bike goes back out I am taking all the fittings off this bike so all these cable guides and the shifters everything like that is going to come off these cables were super Rusty and not changing at all so they have to be replaced this is a good time for me to take those brake pads out because I am going to be replacing those so they’ll come off the bike and then off come the brakes off come the mud guards the mud guards again I’m going to replace those because we actually replace those on his wife’s bike so we want to even the bikes up so they look very similar and remain as a pair so I am going to replace those mudu guards on this bike as well same with the back brake I’m going to take those pads off on the bike just because it makes it a little bit easier for me I’m going to cut all the cables CU even these Bridge cables which actually are quite hard to get a hold of I’m going to replace those with new ones and then the brakes will absolutely works but on so you can see here again you can see a lot of dust and debris on this brake so we’ll make sure we clean clean that up as well these handlebar sponges they have absolutely deteriorated and have begun to perish so I’m going to replace those light for light with a sponge brake and then they will look the same as they did when the bike came in and the same as his wife’s bike as well now when I was doing this when I actually took the brake lever off of this bike I found a problem which we’ll show you a little later on it was this brake here I could feel that wasn’t quite right on the bike and I’ll show you why that was as we’re moving along the job I’m also going to replace all the brakes the inners and the outers so they’ve all gone off then the brake levers come off so that we have the Bars by themselves to clean the bars came off no problems so we’ll clean them shortly then there was quite a bit of tape on this bike as you can see here it was protecting odd little parts of the frame this one down here was the most noticeable one you can see the damage under that tape to the frame that does have a story to tell I’m sure in that there would have been something mounted on that frame that’s caused that damage and we’re just going to put a little detail on that next up I’m going to strip down all the components that I’m going to clean this deria was a rather complicated system we had to take the whole thing apart to get the jockey Wheels separated so these jockey Wheels especially that seized one we’re going to get all that debris off of the wheel to help the aonic cleaner you can see the amount there that will collects and make riding harder and we had that seized jockey wheel as well so we’ll rubricate those and that will then spin freely chain set comes apart look how grimy that is you’ll be amazed how this comes up put that into our ult Sonic Cleaner so we’ve got a water soluble Degreaser in there so we put fresh in there switch this on we’ll leave this running for quarter of an hour you can see that Blackness on that cloud that’s all the old oils and things beginning to thin out and come off of the components and as you can see here when I wash them down they come out of that ultronic cleaner absolutely spotless it’s almost hard to believe that these have come off this bike and that these are the original components to this bike look how beautiful that component looks there look how those chain rings come up and the reflection that we’ve got on those already and this is before we’ve even cleaned them down dried them down and got them all relubricated all Sonic Cleaner is absolutely joyous for doing this kind of bike and these older components always come up absolutely brilliantly when we do them so you can see now I’m beginning the lubrication process I’m just going to use a little bit of General purpose grease on the star fittings of this chain set before I put the chain rings on that will stop those bonding to that fitting in the center so that they’ll come apart again for future servicing I am talking these up on the bench because it makes my job a little bit easier when I’m adjusting the front derer if everything’s in its final position and then I’m using our premium grease there on the jockey Wheels especially that seized one that grease is absolutely perfect for those and a little bit lock tight on the center points pivots for the jockey Wheels to make sure they don’t come undone and with this one we actually also took out the spring and lubricated that and cleaned it all off and you can see again our premium grease on the spring and we’ll pop that back into the cage before we put the actual jockey wheel mount back onto the derer and put it all into one piece that was a little bit seized when it came off the bike which is why I actually took that all apart on this one to absolutely clean this one thoroughly and lubricate it even things like these thumb adjusters a little bit of copper grease on the thread that will help the actuation of that and then I put a little bit of general purpose grease in there where the cable will sit so that I can actually adjust that and moving down the line as the bike’s used it won’t sees into there again same on the front deria thin oil on the pivot Points you can see there our greases in the background we sell those on our website so you can always buy those if you want to buy them the link is in the description for them we’re putting new brake pads onto these brakes because obviously the old rubbers would have perished and would have gone hard so this will give a much more positive brake feel to the bike and even the quick release skewers we’re lubricating in the same way as we do the other components thin grease on the pivot Points general purpose grease on the shaft copper grease on the threads and that will be absolutely spot on as well now this is that front brake the hood rubber deteriorated off so we’re actually going to replace that we were able to get a set of those so we were quite pleased to get those but this was the problem I noticed when I was undoing the break the actual Center pivot point there was snapped in the center either through overtightening or just through shock to the handlebars and the break here itself but we’re going to remove that and replace that so this is the Pivot Point here you can see it’s in half that’s one half there we get the other half out and that snapped completely in half so we discard that fortunately we had an old stock one there that we could fit into this brake so that we can reuse that brake and then I’ll pop that in the ultronic cleaner and wash that down as well that’ll get right in those little drilled holes to make that really nice lubricate that the same you can see there what a huge difference to the before and after we left the one on the left hand side there as it came off the bike the one on the right has been done so we’ll pop the other one back into the AL Sonic cleaner and get that cleaned up too and they’ll both be identical next up pedals we put new bearings in into these and cleaning the cage as well so that’s the center there that all goes in the Ultrasonic Cleaner just the same as any of the other components I use some wire wool here to clean that up it gets off some of that surface rust and brings the shine to the metal and you can see how great that’s come up wash down the shaft itself and now we’re going to use our premium grease which we use for all our bearing work in go brand new bearings little bit of grease on the top just to hold and support those bearings same on the other side before we’ll put the center back into the pedal so pedal goes onto the center on goes the little cone itself we’ll lock that off and then that pedal will be like a new pedal in fact they had far less movement you can see again we did one to show you the difference between the two before we’ll then do the left hand pedal and that will come up exactly the same as the one on the left there and you can see what a massive difference that makes again with the handle bars I’m using wire wall just to clean those down to make sure that everything is as it should be and that there’s no damage to them handlebars and they’re nice and clean and once they are clean I’m going to put new rubbers on there so I’m using a hair lacer there just help me slide that onto the handlebar itself also once that dries because of the nature of hair lacer it will then bond that to The Handlebar aluminum itself and that won’t then move and rotate as the rider’s trying to ride the bike that sponge will be on there permanently snip off the end it was just a little bit long put in the original handlebar end there and now we can start to look at the headset bearings themselves and as you can see here there wasn’t a lot wrong with those but the grease that was in there had began to dry out as you can see on the shaft here so again a little bit of wire wool little bit of Degreaser clean that up clean the threads there which will make it much easier to put back together than it was when it came apart clean up everything including the cups again I’m using wire wool there to get that old Bree and LU off of there before we put in the new bearings top and bottom clean both the cups up so once that’s cleaned up you can see what huge difference that’s made there now we’re fitting the new bearings once again I’m not using races I’m using ball bearings all the way around because they will support that a little bit better and the races are just an easy way for manufacturers to put bikes together but you get less balls which means you get less support especially on headset bearing if you can use loose balls like this it will always work and last a little bit longer I put some grease on the threads of the forks this gives them some rust protection as they were rusted up before then I add all the spaces and lock off the lock rings once these were finished they felt completely free and easy to ride so now we can move our attention to the wheels front wheel was the same as this back wheel in that we removed all the components cleaned everything off got all the old bull bearings out popped the Caps off the cups and we will also clean out all the grease from those as well we can put these bits into the ultrasonic cleaner and get those all cleaned up before we put the bearings in so you can see even these look how they’re coming up it’s absolutely transforming this bike as we’re cleaning it this old grease was very dry in the wheels very congealed wouldn’t have had a lot of lubrication left in it for the bike so if it had have been used like this it wouldn’t have been long before the bearings were wearing just because the grease itself was important condition so it’s like a car when you service the oils and greases in your car exactly the same on these wheels we need to get those absolutely spot on before we put them back on the bike again I’m using wire wool here on the spokes to really bring those up and pop those out cleaning up the Rim new grease new bearings into the wheels again premium grease new bull bearings everything right and tight and as it should be and you can see that Hub there what a huge difference we’ve made to that even those spokes coming away from that Hub absolute transformation this bike I was so pleased with the way this bike came up I had a feeling it would because his W bike had also come up as good as this one so it’s very very satisfying especially when I’ve already had the experience of the previous bike to know that this bike is going to come up absolutely spot on also replace the tires because again they’re all rubber tires 1981 is a long while ago so the tires need replacing New tubes as well again rubber parishes so those tubes wouldn’t have been any good that were in the bike would have deflated very very quickly because they would have become very porous and very poor condition the original ones that were in there so Ino the new ones as well so that wheel is now absolutely sorted out and now we can turn our attention to the most satisfying part of the bike and that is the frame detailing and cleaning so I use a soapy spray initially then I detail it with the detailing brush again you can buy these on our website we do a pack of five of these so do check out our website and then we just clean down things like this bottom bracket area I mean you can already see that moving and agitating the dirt off of that frame nicely nice and tactile not too much water it’s not needed we don’t form a puddle on the floor even when we’re doing this so clean this off nicely and you can already begin to see that frame transforming just before we polish it we’re going to detail up these damage Parts on the bike so the way we’re going to do that is one of our vyl detailing stickers we do these A4 sheets here with various different sizes in loads of different colors blacks Blues Silvers Golds whites matte colors clear colors and we’re going to use one of these to put over that bit of damage to protect it a little bit from more rust forming under there but not to take away the story of the bike and there was a bit of tape around this back stay where the rack was mounted but rather than the black of that we’re going to put one of those detailing stickers on so you don’t see it we’re going to use the autog glim super resin polish to polish this Frame so what I like to do with this is to work it into the frame to draw off the road film and dirt to get back to the original lacer that’s on the bike and to polish that without taking anything away from the original paint just to really bring that bike back up and to get that shine back into the body workor of the bike itself and then I will Ceramic spray it with this rapid Ceramic spray by autog glim again you can buy that on our website it’s a lovely Ceramic spray really puts that layer on the bike will protect it from the rain and Road film and debris building up on that frame again so it will make it much much easier to clean and wash down moving forwards and now we’re at the point where we can start to put things back on the bike so we’re putting new bearings in the bottom bracket cups and we’ll get the new bottom bracket put in first and then we can start to really get this bike back together that premium grease that we use will hold those bearings Against Gravity just to make our job a little bit easier to put that bike back together so in goes the first cup a little bit of copper grease on the threads to help everything go back in its place in goes those new bearings with the premium grease on goes that cup pop on the lock ring adjust that up and we’re all sorted we need to put this cable guide in before we put the chain set on to make our job easier with actually getting that on and not being in the way on goes that chain set we tighten that up we torque that up because as I’ve mentioned before we like that chain set to be it final set position before we put the front derailer on not so critical on a bike like this because it isn’t actuated in the same way as a modern bike it’s done with friction fit so the shifting Isn’t So precise as a modern bike but we still want that to be in the right place on goes those pedals I mean look at the difference to those pedals when we were playing this back the before and afters as I was watching it amazed me and those pedals really came up lovely now on goes the front and rear deria on go to the frame shifted for them as well in go those lovely new cables these are our stainless steel super slick cables we use these and when you put new cables on an old build like this even the cables themselves can dramatically change the look of that bike from old to restored or newer condition they’d make a huge difference the old cables were galvanized steel so they’ve gone Rusty the new cables are stainless still so they don’t rust and they’ve got that beautiful St stainless steel reflection make a huge difference to your Restorations on go the brakes we’re obviously remounting these new mud guards at the same time because they’re mounted off that on goes the rear rack you can see it just pops on over those fittings at the top where we put the stickers there and just one of the details the nut on those although we’re reusing them the nut are tarnished off and I had these lovely capped stainless steel nuts so pop one of those on each side just to add a little fresh detail even to that rack to make it look a little bit more like a new new fittings and new rack and a fully restored bike on go the handlebars now we set those to their final position back to where they were originally Ono new cable Bridges and even the thumb adjusters for the cables we’ll lubricate those and to gain a little bit of general purpose grease in the fitting itself to stop the cable sticking in there so as we can do adjustments along the riding life of the bike as well so Ono the new cables and the original Bridge there which again has been through the ult Sonic cleaner it’s cleaned up beautifully no need to replace that and the brakes will actuate and feel like a new bike with the new pads and the new cables and everything cleaned and lubricated as it is so Ino the new outers we’ve got some white outers on this one Ino the new stainless steel brake cables as well again the stainless steel super slick cables they’re all available on our website so do go over there and check that out bikes speed.com the Link’s always in the description below so you can help support our Channel by visiting our website and maybe having a little purchase there especially if you’re restoring a bike or interested in keeping your bikes in these conditions brand new chain on there this is a six-speed Hub on this bike we’ve got the new sixspeed what we call silver silver chain so it’s this lovely reflective chain it’s not like the black chains you get on a lot of bikes of of this nature which are really cheap and nasty chains we’ve got a lovely chain on this bike which again to to the restored feel of this bike really really makes this bike stand out so we check the gears we check the brakes you can see there what huge difference this bike has had the transformation is absolutely amazing couple of little fittings there to talk up most of this is done by Phil with nuts and bolts but there are a few fittings we can talk on this bike as we do it we also tip down this saddle I wouldn’t normally alter positioning of riders but this saddle was way up so I did just drop that down one notch to make that sit a little bit more where it should be and as you can see what a massive difference we have made to this bike you can see the paint work came up incredibly the biny stickers work great on this one to finish it up all the components have literally gone from black to Silver it’s incredible it really was a joy to do this bike and as a mechanic doing this kind of work when you get a bike that transforms like this it is so joyful to do a job like this so I hope you have enjoyed this video please do drop drop us a like drop us a comment about maybe your oldest bike and how you keep that maintained and I hope you’ve enjoyed this video do like do subscribe do come back next week and and visit us again and please do check out our website bikes speed.com what a wonderful job we’ve done to this bike thank you very much to my son Simon for filming and editing and getting this uploaded and we’ll see you again soon bye for now