Claud Butler

Claud Butler was located in the historic steel town of Scunthorpe in North Lincolnshire. The company can trace its history and experience in Cycles back over 135 years. The story began in 1880 when Fred Hopper established a cycle repair business in a former blacksmith’s shop in Barton-on-Humber, just 12 miles from our current location. By 1906 F. Hopper & Co. was employing over 400 people, and by 1912 the company had developed export markets in Japan, India, South Africa and Australia. Shortly afterwards the company acquired the Elswick Cycle Company located near Newcastle, and in 1913 its name was changed to Elswick Hopper Cycle and Motor Company. In 1974 Elswick Hopper purchased Wearwell Cycles, a company so long established that reference to it could be found in the Bicycle Yearbook of 1872. In 1978 the Falcon Cycle Company was also acquired, and for some time it was operated as a subsidiary company. In 1982 Elswick-Hopper Cycles and Falcon Cycles merged, and during the following year major changes took place in products, management and in the market. Initially the merged company was known as Elswick-Falcon Cycles, which was subsequently shortened to Falcon Cycles. Falcon Cycles limited can thus trace its heritage back to four of the eldest established cycle manufacturers in Britain F. Hopper & Co, Elswick Cycles, Coventry Eagle Cycles and Wearwell Cycle Company. Following acquisition by Tandem Group plc in November 1995, the company has gone from strength to strength. The company was then restructured in 2013 and is now named after it’s flagship brand Claud Butler. From children’s to mountain, touring, city, BMX, men’s bikes, women’s bikes, sports bikes and specialist lightweight racing thoroughbreds. Claud Butler creates all these and more, and into each go the care and craftsmanship you would expect from a company with over a century of experience, a reputation for quality and an Olympic pedigree.