Hello all,
This is my first post outside of the introductions but I thought it would be worth jumping straight in with my query. Please bear with me!
Tomorrow I'm finally retrieving a bike I purchased on eBay that was advertised as a late 40s/early 50s Claud Butler, though the poster himself clarified that he's not entirely sure. It belonged to his father and he had spent decent time online researching its origins prior to the sale, as I have as well. I've had a very thorough scour of Norman Kilgariff's site (among others), including all of the catalogues, and the closest match I have been able to settle on is the 1949 Continental Club. I'm basing that mainly on the lugs and the rear dropouts but I'll be honest - it's difficult to make either heads or tails from the drawings, especially when the catalogues were merely a guide, even at the time! It doesn't help that I have ZERO experience with road bikes too, let alone vintage ones.
The bike has a serial number of 57748 which, again, I've been unable to correlate with any of the information online, including in this forum in the various CB serial number discussions.
Might anybody have a clue as to the bike's provenance? I've attached a series of pictures which I'm hoping might at least point someone in the right direction.
I know the paint job and a lot of the components aren't period-correct and at some stage I'd like to get it back to something resembling its original state but with tight funds at the moment, I'll have to leave it as is.
In any case, I'm in love with the bike - I just want to know more about it!
Many thanks in advance for any leads!
Tom
This is my first post outside of the introductions but I thought it would be worth jumping straight in with my query. Please bear with me!
Tomorrow I'm finally retrieving a bike I purchased on eBay that was advertised as a late 40s/early 50s Claud Butler, though the poster himself clarified that he's not entirely sure. It belonged to his father and he had spent decent time online researching its origins prior to the sale, as I have as well. I've had a very thorough scour of Norman Kilgariff's site (among others), including all of the catalogues, and the closest match I have been able to settle on is the 1949 Continental Club. I'm basing that mainly on the lugs and the rear dropouts but I'll be honest - it's difficult to make either heads or tails from the drawings, especially when the catalogues were merely a guide, even at the time! It doesn't help that I have ZERO experience with road bikes too, let alone vintage ones.
The bike has a serial number of 57748 which, again, I've been unable to correlate with any of the information online, including in this forum in the various CB serial number discussions.
Might anybody have a clue as to the bike's provenance? I've attached a series of pictures which I'm hoping might at least point someone in the right direction.
I know the paint job and a lot of the components aren't period-correct and at some stage I'd like to get it back to something resembling its original state but with tight funds at the moment, I'll have to leave it as is.
In any case, I'm in love with the bike - I just want to know more about it!
Many thanks in advance for any leads!
Tom