Viscount Aerospace.. but which one?

[zerogravitas]

Hi all. I was gifted this Viscount Aerospace by one of my local club riders. It was her dads, bought in the late 70s I think.



Any Viscount authorities around these parts who could date it further/name the model? I saw @Guinessisgoodforyou did a beautiful job on a Supabike recently. If I can revive this one half as competently I'll be happy.







There are obviously a few anachronistic parts on here but most of it looks original and in fairly reasonable condition.

I have spotted one potential project killer already though;



I want to think it's a scratch but the way this runs across the fillet has me worried. That and the seat collar looking like a dodgy replacement could have overstressed the junction. Will remove some paint and see.

You can see in this picture the nice cream paint, with a hint of pearl. On my initial googling I wasn't able to spot the same finish in an ad or catalogue, so if anyone knows what model it is do let me know.

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

Thanks mate
@sooper8 will know what model.

 

[zerogravitas]

Just registered with the Viscount/Lambert forum to mine their knowledge. But a lot of browsing there and on the CyclingUK mega thread found these.





My bike is looking like an Aerospace Sport, with the Shimano 600 parts, Tourney centre pull and SR Apex chainset. The pedals and brake levers are more like the Grand Sport spec though.

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

Just registered with the Viscount/Lambert forum to mine their knowledge. But a lot of browsing there and on the CyclingUK mega thread found these.

View attachment 907245

View attachment 907246

My bike is looking like an Aerospace Sport, with the Shimano 600 parts, Tourney centre pull and SR Apex chainset. The pedals and brake levers are more like the Grand Sport spec though.

I think that's the forum @sooper8 runs. Some very nice bike's there.

 

[sooper8]

I think that's the forum @sooper8 runs. Some very nice bike's there.

Yes, that's the one. Someone will be along on there who knows their stuff . It's just not a big membership , so might take a while, but eventually we generally get somewhere with queries

 

[zerogravitas]

Been working on this on and off, just stripping bits off and cleaning them when I have the time.





First I did the brakes; I also got hold of a matching Tourney centrepull to stick on the back.





Bit of degreaser, scrubbing and Autosol have them looking quite respectable.

 

[zerogravitas]

The LB-100 Almi shifters also got a good clean, along with the Weinmann levers.







Much better. I am tempted to get some 600 shifters as a minor upgrade to spec though! These are functional but a little basic.





Spider nursery!



All apart



And cleaned and polished. I gave the levers a bit of a fine file and sand to get the worst road rash off. The bodies I left as I'll get some full hoods to cover them.



All done!

 

[pigman]

That brought back some nice memories. All the componentry is exactly what I had on my late 70s viscount Sebring

 

[Jonny69]

Just registered with the Viscount/Lambert forum to mine their knowledge. But a lot of browsing there and on the CyclingUK mega thread found these.

View attachment 907245

View attachment 907246

My bike is looking like an Aerospace Sport, with the Shimano 600 parts, Tourney centre pull and SR Apex chainset. The pedals and brake levers are more like the Grand Sport spec though.

Interesting stuff. Did you happen to notice if there were catalogue pages on there for the non Aerospace models? I used to have one of the lesser models and I never did fully identify it.

 

[zerogravitas]

Yes there were a couple of others I saved;





I am more convinced than ever that mine is an Aerospace Grand Sport and from 1979. The bottom image shows a frame in the same colour and with the same fork as mine and mentions this 'new lightweight fork' coming as standard on the Grand Sport and the Pro models.
In taking parts off to clean them up I found letter codes on the 600 RD which date it to being manufactured in April 1978. So being fitted on a bike for the 1979 range seems pretty likely - these images are from the 1979 catalogue, posted here;

https://viscountandlambert.boards.net/thread/1256/1979-brochure

There are more scraps of advert and catalogue on the Lambert/Viscount board, and a few images from the 1981 catalogue here;

https://viscount-lambert-bikes.blogspot.com/2011/01/history-part-2.html