Brake mods on an old tourer.

[Cadence]

This is sad:
"The Claud Butler marque continues to this day, but ever since the sale of the Claud Butler name in 1957, the marque has simply been a valuable label for the shameless re-branding of generic and characterless products by a succession of exploitative trade-mark owners. Had the marque been allowed to end with the bankruptcy, then Claud Butler would surely be celebrated today as an equal to the most sought after names within our interest. After a couple of failed attempts to return to business in the lightweight cycle trade, a chronic illness finally claimed Claud Butler’s life in 1978. (See additions by Mick Butler below which has extracts from Cycling and Mopeds showing that Claud Butler re-opened a new business in 1959 after selling the original business to Holdsworth 1958/9)"

It's worth just adding that post war Claud Butler bikes were popular with club cyclists and as such were less "racing" orientated - although Claud had many previous successes in the Olympics. Holdsworth were a quality manufacturer at least the equal of CB and after takeover marketed CB bikes as their lower market range with the same frames a Holdsworth's. They became very popular indeed and I was the envy of my schoolmates with the bottom of range Electron. It was way better than their Raleigh's, BSA's and Triumph's.
Holdsworth were taken over by Falcon and CB's became exclusively 531ST-framed touring models (mainly Dalesman and Regent). These models continued under the next owners (Townsend) from 1991, who started to diminish the brand with a wide range of Taiwan-framed bikes including MTB's. The decline continued when the steel touring bikes were dropped around 2000.

 

[Sturmey]

I cant be certain as I bought the bike second hand about 10 years ago and dont know the history. The frame has 'Hand Built in England' wrote on left chainstay as shown in photo below. Also, the brake blocks are pushed down to the extreme end of the caliper which was often the case when fitting 700c wheels (622mm) instead of 27 inch (630mm) due to the 4mm radial difference in the rim.(27 inch had larger rim).
There is also an ad on ebay with similar bike with 27 inch wheels with similar claim of 'Hand Built in England' so I dont know what the case is.
The photo's below are from my bike.

Pardon our interruption...

 

[Cadence]

"Hand Built in England" was a clever and sneaky piece of marketing. It really means "hand assembled in Brigg, England using foreign parts". No UK manufactured items.
An aluminium framed Odyssey would definitely not have been built with 27" wheels. By the 90's they were "old school" and even the steel framed Odyssey in the 1998 catalogue has 700c wheels.
For what it's worth, my Regent also has this dubious branding:-


In this case the frame was made from Reynolds 531ST tubing, but around this time frame manufacturing was moved to Taiwan, first using UK manufactured and exported Reynolds tubing and later using Reynolds tubing manufactured under licence. I've not been able to find out if my frame is UK made or not. Everything else is non-UK (Rigida rims, Shimano drivetrain etc.)
Even back in 1966, although my CB Electron had a genuine UK frame it came with many foreign parts including Weinmann brakes.
The only truly English-made bikes post war were Raleigh's as they made virtually everything "in house". Not always a good thing as it stunted development. They resisted derailleur gears for far too long (because they owned Sturmey Archer) and were slow to adopt aluminium frames. A sad reflection on British industry all round.

 

[Sturmey]

........Does seem worth trying to reduce rim wear by more than half, by replacing my rear v-brake with a disc brake, and I now have two conversion types to try.

Pardon our interruption...

Re the above bracket, I had to modify the bracket to get it to work and so the wheel could be easily removed. The simple bracket needs a strong axle to keep it in place and I am not sure if it would work with a hollow axle/skewer, but changing to a solid axle may be an option.

 

[Sturmey]

"Hand Built in England" was a clever and sneaky piece of marketing. It really means "hand assembled in Brigg, England using foreign parts". No UK manufactured items.
An aluminium framed Odyssey would definitely not have been built with 27" wheels. By the 90's they were "old school" and even the steel framed Odyssey in the 1998 catalogue has 700c wheels.
For what it's worth, my Regent also has this dubious branding:-
View attachment 58202

In this case the frame was made from Reynolds 531ST tubing, but around this time frame manufacturing was moved to Taiwan, first using UK manufactured and exported Reynolds tubing and later using Reynolds tubing manufactured under licence. I've not been able to find out if my frame is UK made or not. Everything else is non-UK (Rigida rims, Shimano drivetrain etc.)
Even back in 1966, although my CB Electron had a genuine UK frame it came with many foreign parts including Weinmann brakes.
The only truly English-made bikes post war were Raleigh's as they made virtually everything "in house". Not always a good thing as it stunted development. They resisted derailleur gears for far too long (because they owned Sturmey Archer) and were slow to adopt aluminium frames. A sad reflection on British industry all round.

Can you guess the year of my Odyssey above?

 

[Cadence]

Can you guess the year of my Odyssey above?

Without being able to find any catalogues later than 1998 online, I can only say that it is definitely after that year as the Odyssey was still steel framed.

1998 | Catalogue | Retrobike

I would suggest 2000-2010, but could be later.

I hope you haven't concluded from this that your bike is somehow inferior. It's just that those of us "of a certain age" hanker after a bike that we couldn't afford in our youth or have rose-tinted specs about how good they were. In my case I couldn't even dream of a Reynolds 531 framed bike. I'm pleased that I have one now and really enjoy riding it. It is as good as I hoped, but absolutely not for electrifying.
One of my converted bikes is a 2014 Forme aluminum framed hybrid very similar to yours and it's excellent. It was marketed as "Designed in Derby, UK" but of course is a Taiwan/Chinese machine. Ironically, Forme have recently gone bust!

 

[Wayners]

@Sturmey

Those bracket mods for discs to be fitted are said to be terrible?
You've not found that to be the case?

 

[Sturmey]

@Sturmey

Those bracket mods for discs to be fitted are said to be terrible?
You've not found that to be the case?

Works ok (over 9000Km so far and steep decents) but bracket needed a bit of modification. Would be easier if no rear rack. If I was doing it again, I would make up my own 'L' type bracket with two pieces of straight steel to provide the offset.
But I was fitting it to a freewheel hub motor with enough space on the disk side and a very strong axle and solid dropouts with plenty of room to file deeper . I also fitted a six speed freewheel (3 X 6) and reduced the wheel dish/offset.
Things would be tighter is you were say to fit a wheel with cassette (motor or non motor) as there may be very little adjustment on the axle and something like a longer solid/strong axle might be needed in the case of a hollow/skewer axle and an extra 2-3mm stretch on the frame to accommodate the bracket. Could be a bodge but can be done.