1982 Claud Butler 531 Majestic - Project #10

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OP
OP
Gunk

Gunk

Guru
Location
Oxford
It’s just regular 531 frame and forks
 

biggs682

Touch it up and ride it
Location
Northamptonshire
Is it plain 531 ? (i.e. not 531c or other)

(no-one ever takes pictures showing the end of the frame stickers!!!)
Some of us do ^_^
566888
 

Shreds

Well-Known Member
Matticus....look again, it includes the word competition in red below 531. In other words 531C (others were 531ST for “supertourist” and other Reynolds marketing variants). So it does indeed look like a 531c frame tube set. The transfer actually looks a bit later than 1982 though. My 1983 Reynolds 531c version is different (not on a CB though but a custom made frame from local framebuilder). Happy to be corrected though. Somewhere online is a whole site with different dates and tubesset details from Reynolds.

Shame we dont have the choice these days with Far Eastern plastic being so much in vogue. Ok it doesnt rust but how many will still be around in forty years time, especially as CF is prone to cracking damage that cannot be repaired and brazed like a steel frame.
 

SkipdiverJohn

Deplorable Brexiteer
Location
London
This one was going to be thrown in to a skip, so there is a small sense of achievement that I’ve managed to preserve it and give it a new lease of life. Hopefully the new owner will be really pleased with it, if had been smaller I would have kept it a little while and enjoyed it. Sadly all the really nice builds I’ve done have been huge frames.

I can't believe that someone would bin a classic 531 road frame like that - its criminal! 😠
The colour has come up really nice and it just works with the polished alloy bits. I wouldn't call it a huge size though, it just looks about the same as my 23 1/2" Raleigh and Dawes. 25" is huge, but frames around 23" are not out of the ordinary in the steel era. When bikes were bikes and male dismounts had to be done carefully! :laugh:

These two stickers are almost indistinguishable:
View attachment 567038
View attachment 567040

My understanding is that type of TI Reynolds sticker is pre-89 and the other style is 1989-onwards. I have two consecutive year Raleigh 531 (butted main tubes) frames, the earlier is '88 and the later '89 and the style of the stickers is different on the '89.
When did the full 531ST tubeset first appear? If the wheels that came with my Ian May touring frame are it's originals, the hubs suggest mine dates from 1987.
 

Paulus

Started young, and still going.
Location
Barnet,
The only thing I would have done differently would have been white outer cables and bar tape.
I think I prefer the black tape and cable outers.:okay:
A great job you have done there.
 

SkipdiverJohn

Deplorable Brexiteer
Location
London
The only thing I would have done differently would have been white outer cables and bar tape.

The black looks fine to me. More practical. White looked nice when a factory-fresh bike was sitting in the front window of the shop, but it only lasted until the first time the rider had a chain come off or a puncture to repair, then got back on again with grubby hands.
My Dawes Jaguar originally had white cables and they were horribly discoloured. I got some red Jagwire cables to match the frame colour and red bar tape. I'm happy with the cables but I have to be super-careful about having clean gloves so as not to mark the tape. Next time I'll probably go for black so I don't have to worry about dirt marks.
 

Shreds

Well-Known Member
Super Tourist from memory was certainly a 1980s addition to the range as it wasnt an option in 1983 but appeared soon after.

There had been 531 “Super Lightweight” which I think morphed into “Professional” but may have disappeared from the range in the late 70s / early 80s with the advent of thin walled 753 which had to be silver brazed and also appeared in 753R (road/race) and 753T (track) and later in other variants too.
Happy to be corrected if anyone can shed more light.
 

SkipdiverJohn

Deplorable Brexiteer
Location
London
Super Tourist from memory was certainly a 1980s addition to the range as it wasnt an option in 1983 but appeared soon after.

I tend to think 531ST was an early-mid 80's development myself, but there also seems to have been a 531 Special Touring product in Reynolds line up, which had a similar target audience, but I think the actual tubeset was slightly different. For some reason I'm thinking that in some sets it was mainly the down tube that was beefed up specifically for touring use, and some of the other tubes were the same as regular 531.
 

Shreds

Well-Known Member
Yep, thats the reference I had seen, so memory only slight out on dates. Thanks.

Interesting Reynolds ‘left’ the French production for export / EU in 1989, thirty years ahead of the rest of us!:giggle:
 
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