I was promised a new bicycle if I passed my eleven plus exam. The chances of me passing were pretty slim so the deal I struck with my Dad was for a Claud Butler Coureur with Campag gears. He must have known he was on to a good thing. This was an expensive bike £28.00 and I sure he knew I hadn't a snowballs in hells chance. Needless to say I failed and would never get to grammar school to learn Latin. In fact the only Latin I ever learnt was from a famous North London cycle maker and from the more interesting parts of the female anatomy. Now branded a failure like all of us eleven year old's that failed and were on our way to the secondary modern I set about to make my mark in other ways. I got myself a Saturday job on our local market selling men's clothing for this Jewish market trader, now this was an education in itself. Also I became a schoolboy puncture king for my school mates and at Playland Cycles and Boorman cycles. Back in 1960 I was earning over £3.00 a week, the same as most apprentices but I was only grafting for 14 hours. Now my Dad realised I was hell bent on getting this Butler from Playland Cycles and realised I had already negotiated a staff discount plus a trade off on puncture repairs for the shop so he said I will double anything you save towards the bike. Sure enough I soon had £12.10.0 and true to his word he made it up to the £25.00 to pay for a brand new 1961 Claud Butler Challenge. This came with an Il Prime extension married to GB engraved Ventoux bars. Brakes were Weinmann 730 QR release side pulls. Williams chainset Lyotard steel pedals, Benelux Mk7 five speed, Racelite hubs on Dunlop special steel rims shod in Dunlop Road Racing HP tyres. The saddle was a Brooks Swallow more later. Now like most other cyclists of the day any manufactures equipped machine didn't stay like that for long because we all man jack of us traded up to better "Gen" gear. The Benelux was the first to go for a Huret Allvit so much better. Next the brakes to Mafac Racers wonderful. Then the extension was changed to a Cinelli steel badged one and finally the wheels were changed for Gnutti SF QR hubs on Fiamme sprint rims clothed in the cheapest tubs which were then Jenatzy Omnium's. The only things that stayed original on that shop bought bike was the saddle clip and pin plus chainset and pedals. The majority of us did this getting better equipment when we could afford it. When we had enough we got a new frame and transferred all the kit on to it. Originality is there such thing? I think this is very rare in British clubmens bikes and this is why it virtually impossible to find an all original equipped Raleigh RRA or similar manufactures spec machine.
Thats all for now. Keep those wheels spinning, in your memories if not still on the road. Be lucky Mick Butler Huntingdon UK.