Search found 292 matches

by Bendo
31 Mar 2014, 10:34am
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Viscount bicycles!!
Replies: 2796
Views: 443946

Re: Viscount bicycles!!

Whippet wrote:Entered the Sport into a Club Time Trial today. She did held her own despite being surrounded by youngsters:


What a great shot! All you need is a strong crosswind and your man on the Sepcialized is toast. hehe!

But seriously, kudos to you Whippet, that takes some balls turning up to a serious TT with your VA Sport. In my experience there are an awful lot of knobs in the road-racing fraternity who would (and do) happily criticise any bike older than 5 years old. Hope your club's not like that.

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by Bendo
6 Mar 2014, 1:54pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Viscount bicycles!!
Replies: 2796
Views: 443946

Re: Viscount bicycles!!

Bicycler wrote:How do you find anything? So many pages...

We've given up trying to find stuff. Instead we're slowly migrating the knowledge over to here.

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by Bendo
6 Mar 2014, 1:00pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Viscount bicycles!!
Replies: 2796
Views: 443946

Re: Viscount bicycles!!

I often wonder the same thing. This thread is far-and-away the biggest thread on the forum, and it's not like Viscounts are the only decent English bike! Weird.

The Viscount jersey looks fantastic on you Stell. Good to see the floods have receded enough to allow riding to recommence.

As for you Yanks suffering minus temperatures still, I highly recommend finding the nearest open-cut coal mine and setting fire to it. Warms the whole house, if not the whole state! Slight problem with carbon monoxide fumes, but at least you'll be warm. b :lol:

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by Bendo
28 Feb 2014, 11:20am
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Viscount bicycles!!
Replies: 2796
Views: 443946

Re: Viscount bicycles!!

AN IMPORTANT TIP FOR REMOVING FREEWHEELS!

Some freewheels have quite shallow indentations into which the removal tool is supposed to fit (yes I'm looking at you Dura Ace!). If you put the tool in a vice and sit the wheel on top of it and try to turn it, you won't get enough purchase and at best the exercise will be pointless. At worst you'll damage the freewheel and make it impossible to remove next time. The answer however is devilishly simple!

Use a long quick release skewer to clamp the removal tool into place. As you loosen the freewheel you'll have to also loosen the skewer, but make sure you keep it tight enough not to allow it to slip and burr the freewheel.

Standard two and four prong (Suntour style) removal tools don't have this issue so much, although I do it this way with any freewheel these days. Especially if it's a hard to find freewheel like the aforementioned skip-tooth, or a Suntour Pro Compe Ultra-spaced 6 speed 13-32!

But it's the only way to do it with a Dura Ace freewheel, where the tool's protuberances are less "prongs" and more "nubs". :) b

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by Bendo
8 Feb 2014, 1:38am
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Viscount bicycles!!
Replies: 2796
Views: 443946

Re: Viscount bicycles!!

Cusqueno wrote:Oh dear! One less Viscount I'm afraid. The seat tube on my Aerospace Pro came unbrazed, where it meets the bottom bracket shell, on the way to work this morning. Unless there's a good brazer out there, the frame's heading for the trophy wall (actually my garden fence). If there's a 23" / 60 cm fillet brazed Aerospace frame out there in search of a good home ...


What a pity! I'd definitely hang onto the frame though, because, as Tony Soprano once said, "God ain't makin' any more of 'em." I have a guy who does beautiful fillet brazing. He might be a bit far away from you though...

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by Bendo
6 Feb 2014, 11:40am
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Viscount bicycles!!
Replies: 2796
Views: 443946

Re: Viscount bicycles!!

Utedeej should get them for the one-and-only Supabike. They looked like they were in better condition than his.

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by Bendo
24 Jan 2014, 10:51am
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Viscount bicycles!!
Replies: 2796
Views: 443946

Re: Viscount bicycles!!

Whippet wrote:That Suntour mech is indeed a work of art:

Total agreement with you there. And that's in spite of my Dura Ace fetish. Such a sensible and functional design. The V-GT and V-GT Luxe aren't too hard to find, but the Cyclone GT is a rarer than hen's teeth, perhaps because Mr Benjamin Disraeligears rates it so highly on his site.

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by Bendo
16 Jan 2014, 10:00pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Viscount bicycles!!
Replies: 2796
Views: 443946

Re: Viscount bicycles!!

Thanks Stella. No chance of that though. My car's thermometer registered the ambient temperature in the shade at 48 degrees a couple of days ago. And after 5 days of (officially) 43+ degrees the road is radiating almost as much heat as the sun! I reckon out there the temperature is north of 60 degrees. I'd be taking the "death" part of Death Fork Rally literally if I went for a ride today. b
by Bendo
15 Jan 2014, 11:33pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Viscount bicycles!!
Replies: 2796
Views: 443946

Re: Viscount bicycles!!

Apropos nothing at all, just wanted to point out that my hometown is suffering its fourth consecutive day over 40 degrees Celsius. Today's forecast is for 44. Yesterday reached 42 (it only got down to a low of 30 degrees overnight and was 37 degrees by 10am). The forecast for tomorrow is 40+ again, then a stormy change. It's bonkers!

I often think how lucky we are in Aus that we have such mild winters we can ride all year round. But this weather reminds me that it's our summers that can prevent us from going out on our bikes. The Metropolitan Ambulance Service has put out an official warning against any strenuous exercise outdoors: a Canadian player in the Aus Open was hallucinating on court before he had to retire...

Only prob is, it's too hot to even do tinkering! :( b
by Bendo
11 Jan 2014, 10:42pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Viscount bicycles!!
Replies: 2796
Views: 443946

Re: Viscount bicycles!!

Happy New Year all and welcome back Busaste!

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by Bendo
29 Dec 2013, 11:13am
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Need advice - cracked rim at the eyelets
Replies: 29
Views: 2489

Re: Need advice - cracked rim at the eyelets

Fantastic responses. Thanks everyone! I wasn't sure how much to worry. At least now I can do those rides.

Thanks again.
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by Bendo
29 Dec 2013, 10:48am
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Need advice - cracked rim at the eyelets
Replies: 29
Views: 2489

Need advice - cracked rim at the eyelets

Hi all

Hoping to get some input from the brains trust on this. Was cleaning my wheels this evening and came across what look like stress fractures, radiating from both sides of three eyelets on the rear wheel. It was getting dark so couldn't take a pic of the third, but two of them are below. The rim is a Synergy 650B off-centre. The wheel is only two years old, with about 5000km on it. It doesn't do a lot of off-road, it's on a randonneur, not an MTB. 90% of its use is urban commuting and touring on sealed roads. And I'm a pretty lightweight rider.

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Obviously the rim needs to be replaced asap, but with shops closed over the holidays I was considering doing some three or four 20—50km rides on it in the meantime. Is that a dumb idea? How quickly will these cracks spread? Anyone have similar experience? With the same wheel? Must say it seems like a manufacturing (or wheel-building) issue, not a wear-and-tear one. b
by Bendo
29 Dec 2013, 10:37am
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Viscount bicycles!!
Replies: 2796
Views: 443946

Re: Viscount bicycles!!

That baby V is mighty cute! Rims are definitely steel. The textured rim walls are a dead giveaway. They do (did?) that to give some degree of stopping power in the rain. As most of you prob already know, steel rims are crap at stopping when they get a little wet. b
by Bendo
19 Nov 2013, 12:10pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Viscount bicycles!!
Replies: 2796
Views: 443946

Re: Viscount bicycles!!

@ Lewis: You'll probably be able to ride on it for a while, but eventually the tube will start to bulge out. Do you know how it happened? I once wore a hole in my sidewall from a misaligned cantilever brake block. It was much further along that your by the time I noticed it and it meant an immediate replacement. Is it a decent brand of tyre? Or a cheap Thai brand like Duro?

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by Bendo
27 Oct 2013, 7:59pm
Forum: Does anyone know … ?
Topic: Viscount bicycles!!
Replies: 2796
Views: 443946

Re: Viscount bicycles!!

BTW, anyone seen Busaste lately? Hopefully he's flat out writing the Viscount Book!

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