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This story starts in Halfords in front of a vast wall of mountain bikes, don’t turn away as it gets better, I promise.
The reason myself and my son were there on a cold January morning (apart from getting out of chores) was to size my lad up for his next bike as his 11th birthday is on the horizon. It was whilst standing there that my son re-educated me on what’s “cool” in the 2-wheeled world…. Basically anything (in his opinion) that wasn’t a mountain bike! “it’s not as good at stunts as a BMX, & it gets left behind on the road by racers, & where are the mountains in East Yorkshire?”
I could see an idea was rolling around in his brain, so stood back to let him formulate his Machiavellian plan… “Dad, do you know what’s so cool about a BMX?” is his opening gambit. “what?” says I. “apart from it being great fun buzzing around the village with my mates, the really cool thing is you can’t out grow it! One size fits all..its a bike for life! Just imagine, you wouldn’t have to buy me a new bike every 2 years as I shoot up!”
Ok so I’m following this chain of thought and recognising a style his Mum uses when she wants a little more than we planned for, so I wait to hear part 2 of the plan. And this is where he surprised me, “Dad, did Claud Butler ever do a small racer?” “Erm…. yes”, I replied “well could we look on e-bay and find one like yours and restore it along with you?” To be honest I was sold when he said Claud Butler. We left Halfords at a rate of knots and we were in front of my laptop within the hour.
I’d recently bought a Majestic for my next project and had noticed a small frame Electron Super 5 only a few days before. Yes, it was still there, looking like quite a reasonable survivor with all original kit, one owner from new with all its original parts and put a £70 bid on.
A week later and we are now proud owners of 2 reasonably good condition Claud Butlers, and after a little research on http://www.nkilgariff.com/ checking paint colours and component parts, I can confidently say we have a ’69 Electron and an ’84 Majestic. All for the princely sum of £157 combined.
The reason myself and my son were there on a cold January morning (apart from getting out of chores) was to size my lad up for his next bike as his 11th birthday is on the horizon. It was whilst standing there that my son re-educated me on what’s “cool” in the 2-wheeled world…. Basically anything (in his opinion) that wasn’t a mountain bike! “it’s not as good at stunts as a BMX, & it gets left behind on the road by racers, & where are the mountains in East Yorkshire?”
I could see an idea was rolling around in his brain, so stood back to let him formulate his Machiavellian plan… “Dad, do you know what’s so cool about a BMX?” is his opening gambit. “what?” says I. “apart from it being great fun buzzing around the village with my mates, the really cool thing is you can’t out grow it! One size fits all..its a bike for life! Just imagine, you wouldn’t have to buy me a new bike every 2 years as I shoot up!”
Ok so I’m following this chain of thought and recognising a style his Mum uses when she wants a little more than we planned for, so I wait to hear part 2 of the plan. And this is where he surprised me, “Dad, did Claud Butler ever do a small racer?” “Erm…. yes”, I replied “well could we look on e-bay and find one like yours and restore it along with you?” To be honest I was sold when he said Claud Butler. We left Halfords at a rate of knots and we were in front of my laptop within the hour.
I’d recently bought a Majestic for my next project and had noticed a small frame Electron Super 5 only a few days before. Yes, it was still there, looking like quite a reasonable survivor with all original kit, one owner from new with all its original parts and put a £70 bid on.
A week later and we are now proud owners of 2 reasonably good condition Claud Butlers, and after a little research on http://www.nkilgariff.com/ checking paint colours and component parts, I can confidently say we have a ’69 Electron and an ’84 Majestic. All for the princely sum of £157 combined.
