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

[Rich34]

That is beautiful. Every time I think my wishlist is complete I read a thread like this... Can you email my wife and tell her it's your fault please?

Ewan McGregor said that every time he goes off on a motorbike trip he gets home and finds he has 300 pictures of his bike... with a different background. Amen to that.

 

[Goldie]

Rich34: Thanks very much! I've just been looking at your Galaxy - it looks smashing. I love the gold and metallic brown colour scheme. I'd guess it's about ages with my Viscount? I fell in love with Aerospace Pro's more or less instantly upon seeing the original early '70's catalogue picture:

It's just great to ride: light, responsive steering, comfortable and intrinsically fast.

Multey: please post some pictures of your Aerospace! It's always good to see another one. I'm with Bendo regarding the fork - I run mine with the original aluminium forks, which are the reputedly stronger Mark 3 version. But I'd completely understand if you wanted to change yours... I'm sure I've seen a pretty good replacement somewhere, which doesn't look a million miles from the original fork - I'll post it if I can find it.

There's a cracking thread on the CTC forum http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=21010 and a good Flickr group http://www.flickr.com/groups/1119963@N21/ which includes an extremely bling golden Lambert...

And here's a link to Flickr user Stronglight's pictures of the launch catalogue for the Aerospace range - the image above is the front cover:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/strongligh ... /lightbox/

 

[Rich34]

In case you haven't seen this you might be interested - a 1975 Bicycling magazine test of an Aerospace Pro:

http://www.velo-pages.com/main.php?g2_itemId=540

They seemed to like it!

velo-pages is a good website for dating bikes and particularly components, because of the amount of scanned period material on there. I'm in the process of dating a load of Mavic parts I've bought, and I'm picking up a Mercier in a few weeks' time that has Shimano 600 parts - thanks to velo-pages I'm pretty sure it's a 1976 model from the look of the 600 crankset. I'm not bothered if I'm a year or two out.

 

[B1kEnUt]

Where did you get the top tube replacement decals? I am looking for those for my aerospace pro. I can find the aerospace but not the pro. Any info would be great.

 

[Bendo]

http://www.hlloydcycles.com/

They don't have all the various Viscount decals, but they might have what you need.

Really lovely VA Pro you have there. Were the half-painted aluminium forks an original finish? They certainly look beautiful. Haven't seen that before.

Tell us more about the resto!
b

 

[Goldie]

Bendo's spot on - Lloyds sorted me out with the decals. I think Busaste on the CTC forum http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f ... &start=510 may have some originals left too.

Good luck with the restoration - your Aerospace look in great shape

 

[B1kEnUt]

Thanks for geting back to me!

Thanks for the help guys I really appreciate it! I will look into both those options. The forks were a gen III fork but before I knew that I bought an old set of steel forks stripped them and painted them in the fashion that you see in the picture I liked the look so much that when I found out that the aluminum ones that came on the bike where not the greatly exaggerated "Death Forks" I painted them the same way. I really like the look, other than the paint on the fork everything is original (except cables, housing and bar tape. I am almost done reviving the original leather saddle, so it should be ready to ride soon! Thanks again for the info guys and if you have any other questions let me know, I like talking bikes.

 

[Goldie]

The Aerospace is still enjoying its second life. A new nickel plated chain and properly cleaned freewheel block means I don't inevitably get dirty if I go near the drive side. Ebay turned up a Viscount quick release skewer for far too much money a few weeks back, which I happily stumped up for. And I've managed to get hold of an original Viscount leather saddle now too.

I wore the tread on those chunky Panaracer Paselas completely smooth, and after taking a chunk out of one the other Sunday, I've treated it to some skinnier 27 x 1 Paselas instead. Here's the old lass outside Chez Goldie after last Sunday's gorgeous run over to Alderley Edge:

I'm still trying to track down a Viscount rear hub so I can build it some sprint wheels - I've got the front and the rims...

 

[Bendo]

Hey Goldie what a stunner! I've got a dream of building a spare pair of sprints for my Sport too. In my case got the hubs but not the tubs! hehe! Oh, and no money . Keep posting pics! b

 

[daccordimark]

Glad you're still riding it and I'm still loving that chainset, will you be bringing it along to the Pendle Witches ride again next year?

Mark.