Help with identification and history - Witcomb and Claud Butler

[Mike_]

Hi, this is my first foray into the road side of the forum and I will admit to knowing nothing about road bikes
I’ve just been given a few old bikes and two seem quite interesting, one is a Witcomb road bike, 531 frame, shimano 500 mech, I think tubular wheels and tyres, the other is frame only, again 531, Claud Butler head badge, fixed/track dropouts, biplane fork.
Both have beautiful lugs and have been sat in the back of a garage for at least 25-30 years I believe.
I’ve also been given half a dozen additional tubular wheels, one pair fit the Claud Butler, and one pair has lovely drilled large flange Campag hubs.
Can anyone shed some light on age/quality/what to do with them?
I’ve thrown my leg over the Witcomb and it appears to be about my size so I might do a light restoration and see how I feel about riding it a bit

 

[Nob]

Your Holdsworth is a track frame with a fork thst has a drilled hole for mounting a brake caliper so it can be ridden on the road as a fixed or single speed bike.

 

[hamster]

Give the Witcomb a good clean and then ride it - I absolutely love mine. It's fast - especially as it has the clearances for modern fatter tyres and has all-day comfort. I rode the 113mile Dunwich Dynamo all-nighter last summer with no aches at all.

 

[Midlife]

Nice

There's a thread on here about CB frame numbers that should nail it for you if you post up the number.

The Whitcomb with Haden lugs, over BB guides and the drilled chainset is probably 1977 (the last 2 digits of the number), the 531 sticker on it looks older though ?

 

[Mike_]

Thanks all, I’ve spent a couple of hours last night diving down a vintage road bike rabbit hole and think the Claud Butler is probably a 1952 Olympic Sprint from looking on the nkillgarrif website.
I was a bit confused by the 531 decals as well as, according to the timeline on the H Lloyd website, the CB has a post 1973 sticker and the later Witcomb has a pre 73 sticker - I’m assuming that Witcomb had a stock of stickers and they lasted until at least ‘77 and the CB has been resprayed some time after 1973 and got new stock.
If I’m going to ride either of them more than round the block I’ll need to change the tyres - as they’re tubs I’m properly out of my depth, is there any reason a budget pair of modern ones won’t fit the old rims? I can’t see any sizes on tyres or rims and I’ve got a choice of Mavic or Fiamme across the 8 wheels I was given. Any tricks to removing the old ones as I’d guess whatever glue was used will be very well stuck by now?

 

[paton]

 

[paton]