GrumpyOldMan
Devout Dirtbag
Hello all,
Thought I'd post some pictures of a Viking Ian Steel Model which I recently liberated from my Father in Law's garage. I think it's a 1954 model but have yet to confirm that. My Father in Law had it since the late 1950's and it was second (or third) hand to him.
To my own great shame, in the mid 1980's I did the modernisation that you can see now. Though in my defence I do still have most of the original parts stored away in the garage which I will one day put back on. The new parts were to make it easier to ride as originally it had a four speed block and a single front chainset
The paint job is obviously not original. It was done in the mid 80's by Terry Dolan at Cougar cycles, maybe by him personally as a friend of mine at the time knew him very well and had it done for me. It was quite an expensive respray, somewhere around £80 if I remember rightly, but has lasted very well other than a few knocks and dings.
Since getting it I have done nothing to it other than treat the badly dried out saddle. It's a Mansfield saddle which I had never heard of so some research needed there. I treated it with Lord Sheraton Leather Balsam from Asda, £1.75. It has worked very nicely, the photo shows it after only two treatments but I have since done another treatment.
The first thing I want to do is respoke the wheels and I have found a supplier for some rustless spokes as I do not want to use stainless. the original spokes are quite rusty but I will try cleaning them up first as I am a great believer of keeping things as original as possible.
Hope you like the bike. I will try to add more pictures as I go along.
Cheers,
Ian.
Thought I'd post some pictures of a Viking Ian Steel Model which I recently liberated from my Father in Law's garage. I think it's a 1954 model but have yet to confirm that. My Father in Law had it since the late 1950's and it was second (or third) hand to him.
To my own great shame, in the mid 1980's I did the modernisation that you can see now. Though in my defence I do still have most of the original parts stored away in the garage which I will one day put back on. The new parts were to make it easier to ride as originally it had a four speed block and a single front chainset
The paint job is obviously not original. It was done in the mid 80's by Terry Dolan at Cougar cycles, maybe by him personally as a friend of mine at the time knew him very well and had it done for me. It was quite an expensive respray, somewhere around £80 if I remember rightly, but has lasted very well other than a few knocks and dings.
Since getting it I have done nothing to it other than treat the badly dried out saddle. It's a Mansfield saddle which I had never heard of so some research needed there. I treated it with Lord Sheraton Leather Balsam from Asda, £1.75. It has worked very nicely, the photo shows it after only two treatments but I have since done another treatment.
The first thing I want to do is respoke the wheels and I have found a supplier for some rustless spokes as I do not want to use stainless. the original spokes are quite rusty but I will try cleaning them up first as I am a great believer of keeping things as original as possible.
Hope you like the bike. I will try to add more pictures as I go along.
Cheers,
Ian.
