Cycling UK Forum

I got my Gran Sports back from the shop and it is riding tight and smooth once again like a new bike...

The Velo Orange rear hub has a nice crisp ratcheting sound...

It is refreshing to be able to fully crank and get exercise once again without the chain popping off...

I'll try to get a photo of the new hub...

The shop put the new Velo Orange rear hub on and it looks great...

He then took a special device and showed me my chain was shot and had too much stretch and that was why it was popping off the chain wheel...It was offscale...My back sprocket was grinded to shark teeth points so he's going to replace that too...

Hopefully I'll have that tight smooth ride back soon and be able to crank on my Viscount...It hums when it is brought back in to shape...

The rear 126mm wide-flange hub arrived yesterday in the post...I did a quick Windex and paper towel cleaning of the bike and got it over to my bike shop before closing...They took it in no problem and I gave them the Velo Orange hub with instructions...I told them to fix the chain popping off problem too and told them you guys said it was the free wheel that was causing it...I'll replace the front hub too when Velo Orange does a production run in the fall...Be careful when ordering because there is a 32 spoke and 36 spoke version...I counted spokes and mine was the 36 spoke version...It is a fine-looking high quality hub that was recently milled...

When I cleaned my pedal set it reminded me it was Campagnolo...I had a serious bike rider friend who had a shop in New York replace the original in the 1980's...My friend Matt Doran was an iron-legged monster who would get up early and ride before work...When he changed my pedal set in the 80's he told me he was getting in to Velodrome racing...He grew up in my suburban New York neighborhood as a child...Bike riding was his thing...On a recent trip to New York I found out he died from cancer in 2018...

Hopefully my Viscount will be back in shape on Monday...

My 1977 Viscount Gran Sports...It is still a worthy rig...I just ordered a 126mm Velo Orange rear hub (front hubs are temporarily out of stock)...

I find the 1 1/8th rear tires (1 inch front) I use here in south Florida better for the sandy environment with more options yet still road worthy:

Interesting video discussing the history of Viscount bikes...

I believe I have the "Fillet Brazed" frame he mentions...

I'm pretty sure he has the third incarnation of the aluminum "death fork" and likes it...

My fork is steel and is painted red with chrome out the bottom half...

Mine is definitely the "AGS" model...I wonder what that means as to which grade bike I bought?:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRfbDqOR-5s

I just measured using an inch scale tape measure...It eyed out to just about 5 inches exactly from the inside of the drop out to the one on the other side...I went to the inches to millimeter converter on the internet and it converted to 127mm...Seems Velo Orange is made to order...

I think I should just buy a new rear derailleur...(I see that is the hardest of them all to find)...

The Velo Orange link was what I was looking for...I had a feeling my mechanic was not being fully truthful about the parts no longer being available...I called another bike shop owner I know through a high end rider friend and he told me to search the internet...I don't really blame them but I guess the message they are sending me is don't ask me for help if you are going to undermine our present bloated price market by preserving an antique...I realize I am missing some serious technology upgrades that have occurred over the past 43 years but the last time I had my Viscount refurbished with cheap spares the mechanic remarked that the Viscount was remarkably smooth and tight for an old bike...I got a taste of that new carbon fiber era technology when I borrowed my brother's Specialized hybrid mountain bike...

I rang up Velo Orange just now in Maryland and they said my Viscount hubs were almost certainly 126mm, which gives me the information I needed...That solves the majority of my problem with what appear to be the worthy hubs I sought...I told him I now have a chain popping off problem as well and he said it was probably the free wheels on my Campagnolo rear shifter not being compatible with the new chain...I told him yes, they did appear to be pretty shot...I think the tensioner on that rear shifter is shot and not tensioning the chain...OK - good advice from this forum that solves my problem...I probably need a new rear shifter and I'll be set so my next task is finding a good replacement...

I had scanned some new bikes...The Trek Emonda SL 6 Disc was US$2500 and very tempting...There's a $3200 model that looks seriously tempting...The only problem being the Viscount more than adequately serves my riding needs and I get a thrill giving some of these young hot shots a ride for their money on my old clunker...The Viscount has paid for itself many times over and I have probably ridden it around the world and then some in mileage...

Cheerio -

An American here...My dear grandmother bought me a Viscount Aerospace Gran Prix Gran Sport road bike in 1977 at Jim Skelly's shop in Nyack, New York...Think we paid US$175...It had the non-aluminum fork when I bought it so I was OK...In post-war Britain they were manufacturing things to last and this bike was no exception...I am now almost 60 and have never used or needed any other bike...

The problem is I have ridden it so much I have worn the parts down and my bike shop man says he can't get replacement hubs...He told me that he only stocked certain parts at his store for me and pretty much gave me the hint that those parts were becoming unavailable...I'm a bike dummy so I don't know the sizes or makes etc...I'm pretty sure the hubs I had for years were Weinmann (sp?)...Maybe they were Shimano...The cheap chinese hubs my bike mechanic tried to replace them with have now developed an annoying play from left to right and made the bike barely ride-able...The chain is also now popping off with any cranking...I think that is because the Campy rear shifter my mechanic installed has quit and is no longer tensioning...

Any advice?...

This bike is still remarkably tight when repaired to fitness...

It is the fire engine red model...