sherlylock
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Picked this up this week from a lovely old gent called John, who used to be sidecar racer (pillion!) in the 1950s/60s. Spent a while chatting to him when I picked the bike up - a fascinating chap.
He was giving away (or donation to charity) a very tired looking Claud Butler. I spied what looked like axe head bi-laminate lugs in the ad so I took a punt on it and collected the same evening.
After a bit of investigation and to and fro chat with the knowledgeable peeps on this forum it's decided that it is a Avant Coureur from 1950.....based on the frame number, the axehead lugs, continental rear dropouts, comparative frame weight (to other models of the same year) and more recently the discovery of a 531 reynolds butted sticker under the paint.
It's been painted several times in its life. Blue/Gold colourscheme over light green, over black, over the original creamy, lemony yellow (under the headbadge was the initial giveaway).
However as I was stripping the paint on the fork I found a red vertical streak on top of the yellow. As I carefully peeled the stripped paint away it was evident that it is the remains of box lining. Seeing how well the old paint was coming off and leaving the original paint I applied some paintstripper around where the 531 sticker should be and lo and behold....what looks like a Reynolds 531 butted tubing sticker. Measuring it up and referring to the Hlloyds sticker timeline it suggests its one of the rarer 19mm wide sticker (which suggests 51/52 only which doesn't tie in with the frame date).
So - a careful strip of the paint should hopefully reveal the original markings on this.......
At this point in time it's looking like a lemon yellow main colour, red box lining (and maybe lug lining) and chrome plated fork crown.
Stripping the paint on the seat tube will be interesting to see what (if any) decals lurk underneath.
Thanks to Peachy for the help in defining the model for this one.
He was giving away (or donation to charity) a very tired looking Claud Butler. I spied what looked like axe head bi-laminate lugs in the ad so I took a punt on it and collected the same evening.
After a bit of investigation and to and fro chat with the knowledgeable peeps on this forum it's decided that it is a Avant Coureur from 1950.....based on the frame number, the axehead lugs, continental rear dropouts, comparative frame weight (to other models of the same year) and more recently the discovery of a 531 reynolds butted sticker under the paint.
It's been painted several times in its life. Blue/Gold colourscheme over light green, over black, over the original creamy, lemony yellow (under the headbadge was the initial giveaway).
However as I was stripping the paint on the fork I found a red vertical streak on top of the yellow. As I carefully peeled the stripped paint away it was evident that it is the remains of box lining. Seeing how well the old paint was coming off and leaving the original paint I applied some paintstripper around where the 531 sticker should be and lo and behold....what looks like a Reynolds 531 butted tubing sticker. Measuring it up and referring to the Hlloyds sticker timeline it suggests its one of the rarer 19mm wide sticker (which suggests 51/52 only which doesn't tie in with the frame date).
So - a careful strip of the paint should hopefully reveal the original markings on this.......
At this point in time it's looking like a lemon yellow main colour, red box lining (and maybe lug lining) and chrome plated fork crown.
Stripping the paint on the seat tube will be interesting to see what (if any) decals lurk underneath.
Thanks to Peachy for the help in defining the model for this one.
