1974 Viscount Aerospace Pro - less of a rebuild...

[Goldie]

...more of a mammoth screwing all the bits on again session. It came to be from a nice chap in Walsall, and its a testament to the excellent quality of the paint on the frame that it looks as nice as it does - the rest of the bike has clearly has a hard life...

The sealed bearings in the bb and wheels feel very smooth, and there's no play. On the other hand, there are no bearings at all in the headset - I have some which fit the races from a scrap Motobecane.

Picked up some blue leather toe straps at the Manchester cycle jumble on Sunday, which has made me ridiculously happy. Father Christmas is bringing a new Brooks to make it comfy, although I've since found out that Middlemores made the original saddles for Viscount - doh!

New Panaracer Paselas have gone on. The bike should have tubular tyres but I guess at some point a previous owner must have run out of love for trying to glue them on straight.

 

[Jonny69]

Hooray! I've been waiting for this thread for ages

Can't wait to see it finished and see what a 'real' Viscount looks like. I saw another one in New York on my crazed retro bike snapping frenzy, but I haven't uploaded the pictures yet.

 

[Goldie]

Feel free to stick them on here when you do - it'll do me no harm at all to have some pictures of a good one to remind me what I'm aiming for!

Picked up some replacement decals from Busaste from the CTC forum, so I can change the bands on the seatpost - the frame itself should look minty fresh when it's done. I am looking forward to riding this so much. It all feels in great shape.

 

[legrandefromage]

are yours the infamous 'death forks'?

 

[Goldie]

It is indeed - I've been trying to get our lass more excited about cycling by mentioning this to her but to no avail. It is the least deathly of the three different sorts of death fork:

 

[Goldie]

It's getting there:

Mmmm lovely replacement decals mmmm....

Still waiting for the new Brooks saddle to arrive - stuck an old B17 on in the meantime.

It's a working bike again with the brakes and drivetrain complete. IT's up on the workstand atthe moment while I fettle the gears. My first go at doing th rear brake cable was outrageously crap - just long enough to do the job but too short to look half way sensible, inspite of me repeating "Don't cut it too short don't cut it too short..." over and over again before I took the cutters to it. Doh!

 

[malvernman]

I had one of these for years, minus the Death Forks that the previous owner had wisely weighed in at the scrappy

I raced it quite a lot with reasonable success, it was however really flexy when you accelerated hard [ start of tt or up steep hills ] ....

Makes a really nice audax or club ride machine. The best of the Viscount machines by a long way I think [ I have ridden a few ] .

 

[Goldie]

I've read there was quite a lot of flex in Aerospaces when you stomped down hard. I was hoping my general lack of muscle in the leg department might mean me and the bike are a happy match... and more sensibly, I bought the Viscount with club rides in mind.

What happened to yours, malvernman?

 

[otherself]

Cool. There as aerospace on the bay at the moment: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MENS-VISCOUNT-400 ... 20b70684b9

 

[Goldie]

It was lovely today in the Manc, so I took the Viscount out for its first proper test ride. Sorted a stiff link in the chain - which I guess must have been from where I joined it back together, although I thought I'd backed that off - tightened a brake lever up on the bars and back wheel popped out of alignment under accekeration because I'd not tightened the QR skewer up quite enough. But bloody hell it was quick after I'd sorted all that! And completely silent, bar the hum of the tyre tread on the road. It accelerates beautifully and holds speed nicely once it's up there. I found I was using higher gears than normal without thinking about it.

Stopped to take a photo of it leant against the gate to a farmers field with the lamps on and the sunset behind and... camera battery died. Doh!