Hi, sorry, I think I’ve submitted this all wrong. Anyway, my dad died a few years ago and left this Claud Butler. I think he bought it in the late 70s. I’m not looking to sell it, but any information as to how to restore it and anything about the model is much appreciated. I can supply more photos if needed
Fluid-Mode-7755 on
r/vintage_bicycles
damondefault on
Lol I really honestly read this as “My dad is Claud Butler” and I wondered if I should know who Claud Butler is.
flimflam_machine on
That looks very nice. I hope that restoring and riding it will be a nice memento of your dad.
There’s a few decisions for you to make about the depth of restoration. For example would you want to have the frame resprayed or do you want to just clean, de-rust, and touch it up so you can keep its patina. Also do you want to modernise it at all at the same time? You could replace a number of components to bring it up to modern standards, but it looks like it would be perfectly rideable with what’s on there.
I’d say give it a quick check over for safety, sometimes called an M-check (start from here and search YouTube for more information: https://www.sustrans.org.uk/our-blog/get-active/mcheck/). If it’s safe to ride (you’ll probably need to oil the chain and pump up the tyres) take it for a gentle ride round the park/cycle path to see what you think of it and whether anything feels like it desperately needs upgrading whilst you restore it.
In terms of restoring it. It’s potentially a fairly thorough process depending on its condition. If it’s been sat for a few years then I’d want to pretty much completely dismantle it and check and regrease all the bearings and also have a good look inside the frame for any rust. If you’re not confident with that kind of stuff, go on YouTube and have a look for some restoration videos (RJ the bike guy seems to be popular) or there might be a local group or not-for-profit/charity workshop locally that would be happy to help you out. Better still, if you’ve got a friend who knows his/her bikes ask them round to help you out over pizza/beer/coffee/cake etc.
4 Comments
Hi, sorry, I think I’ve submitted this all wrong. Anyway, my dad died a few years ago and left this Claud Butler. I think he bought it in the late 70s. I’m not looking to sell it, but any information as to how to restore it and anything about the model is much appreciated. I can supply more photos if needed
r/vintage_bicycles
Lol I really honestly read this as “My dad is Claud Butler” and I wondered if I should know who Claud Butler is.
That looks very nice. I hope that restoring and riding it will be a nice memento of your dad.
There’s a few decisions for you to make about the depth of restoration. For example would you want to have the frame resprayed or do you want to just clean, de-rust, and touch it up so you can keep its patina. Also do you want to modernise it at all at the same time? You could replace a number of components to bring it up to modern standards, but it looks like it would be perfectly rideable with what’s on there.
I’d say give it a quick check over for safety, sometimes called an M-check (start from here and search YouTube for more information: https://www.sustrans.org.uk/our-blog/get-active/mcheck/). If it’s safe to ride (you’ll probably need to oil the chain and pump up the tyres) take it for a gentle ride round the park/cycle path to see what you think of it and whether anything feels like it desperately needs upgrading whilst you restore it.
In terms of restoring it. It’s potentially a fairly thorough process depending on its condition. If it’s been sat for a few years then I’d want to pretty much completely dismantle it and check and regrease all the bearings and also have a good look inside the frame for any rust. If you’re not confident with that kind of stuff, go on YouTube and have a look for some restoration videos (RJ the bike guy seems to be popular) or there might be a local group or not-for-profit/charity workshop locally that would be happy to help you out. Better still, if you’ve got a friend who knows his/her bikes ask them round to help you out over pizza/beer/coffee/cake etc.