CLASSIC BIKE CLAUD BUTLER OLYMPIC ROAD

Iconic British brand's Holdsworth-era road bike

- Luke Friend

In the pantheon of classic British frame-builders, Claud Butler arguably sits front and centre. The self-proclaimed 'king of the lightweights' started making frames in South London some time in the late 1920s. By the 1930s his machines were being ridden to success at the Olympics and the Worlds, with his Olympic Sprint and Path models offered to the public throughout the '40s and '50s. However, Butler fell into debt and the receivers were eventually called in.