Re: Cheap dual bikes vs Claude Butler



M

Martin Wilson

Guest
On Thu, 21 Oct 2004 00:10:05 +0100, [email protected] wrote:

>Hi, I've recently bought a Claude Butler Supermoto Mens 26ins, 24
>Speed mountain bike for about £150 from a local auction in London.
>These bikes got for £370 new.
>Shown here:
>http://www.dealtime.co.uk/xDN-Sports_and_Outdoors--14088_price_range_above_300-14068_men
>
>I'm seeing a *lot* of cheaper bikes for £70, 26ins, 24 speed that also
>have dual suspension and shimano gears. Is there much difference
>between the cheaper bikes and the hand made Claude Butlers?
>


The Claude Butler bike while a step up from the very cheap suspension
mountain bikes doesn't look particularly great and would be very poor
value at £370 I would have thought. As far as I know the process of
frame building requires hands and can not be fully automated so all
frames are handmade unless there's some sort of plastic frame
somewhere made by robots and just moulded. Its possible the Claude
Butler bike is made fully in somewhere like taiwan/china or they
actually assemble it in the uk using taiwanese/chinese parts.

At £150 I would say its pretty good value as a fun bike but it
wouldn't be competitive with a good hardtail bike around the £400
price range.