1975 Claud Butler Electron - 531

[sherlylock]

She looks spot on... if you don’t put it in RBotM I will

Ha! Yeah, why not. I've cleaned the front wheel and trued the rear, flushed and re-greased the front hub.

Will take some photos tomorrow on the way to work and add to RBoTM - if I haven't already missed the deadline?

 

[sherlylock]

Not quite finished - but close. Needs a couple of replacement top tube decals and the freewheel could do with being removed and stripped/cleaned/lubed for completeness.

Front wheel hub shenanigans......considering I couldn't turn the axle easily by hand - it was that gummed up - I feared the worse. It's actually perfect under the hardened grease......all flushed with petrol to degrease and then reassembled with fresh lube.

Initial ride - took some pics

Pleased with how this has cleaned up.......love it to bits.

 

[zerogravitas]

Lovely! Great find and good job on the refurb.

 

[Peachy!]

Excellent work.... and those beach huts take me back... it's a been a long time since I walked down there...too long.

 

[sherlylock]

Excellent work.... and those beach huts take me back... it's a been a long time since I walked down there...too long.

Were you a regular visitor to Shoebury common / Thorpe Bay at some point then Chris? Nice place to go and park up and have a cuppa and a stroll on the beach for sure (or photograph bikes....whatever takes your fancy.)

Absolutely made up to win RBoTM with this...........and I've done nothing with it since! Poor show.

I ordered a set of decals recently for another project from HLloyd and tacked on a couple of replacements for the Electron. The top tube script is knackered on both sides....and Steve at HLloyd was good enough to supply the standard Electron decal (Black/Gold lining) with the colours reversed - as it is on my year of Electron.

Nice little improvement........

 

[Peachy!]

Oh yes great memories, although probably spent more time at my Aunt’s in Leigh-on-Sea.... and arseing about on the Black water on my uncles sailing dingy... happy 70’s & 80’s half terms & bank holidays....

 

[Rapparee87]

Re:

Beautiful work. A new lease of life.

 

[John Derry]

Nice job. You might be interested to know that, whilst Claud Butler did sell frames separately, they also sold each model as a built up bike. I have both a 1970 catalogue and a late '60s Electron bike (which I plan on restoring at some point) and both point to the fact that all your components are what would have come with the bike as standard. I suspect that your previous example was either a frame bought on its own and then built up to the original owners spec., or that parts had been replaced over the years. BTW, I grew up in Shoebury.