Cycling UK Forum

Hmmm, did your kid reverse the photo or are you running it as a 'Leftie' ?

Hello,
I'm new to the group. Bicycles are a hobby of mine. I live in cyclingcountry The Netherlands and every now and than I like to restore a race bike, as I did with a Raleigh Ti Raleigh Pro and a Kirk Precision.

Yesterday I archieved a black/silvergrey Viscount Aerospace Pro which requires (a lot of) work, what I will and can do myself. It also needs the following list of parts:
- the original handlebars (now: flat bars)
- the original brakelevers (now: mtb ones)
- the original replacement fork (now: the even more original death fork!)
- the tt decals Aerospace Pro (now: very worn; Lloyds?)
For this parts I'll need your help (to get them),

Thanks,
Ben

Hey Ben, I can't help with the forks, handlebars or decals but I may well still have the original levers from my Viscount? I will check later, if I have got them still you are welcome to them.

What a wonderful thread, and great to see all these Viscount machines.

As a kid, I had a red Viscount Sebring International complete with 5 speed Simlpex gear mech and those silly little miniature mudguards! It lasted a good five years before I managed to bend the forks to the point of fracturing by bumping up kirbs trying to follow my mates on their Choppers and Grifters! Looking back, it was a very good quality bike for the money, aluminium centre pull calipers, ally bars and a strange cast stem with a T shaped cross section.

My brother was a keen cyclist and I inherited his Aerospace Pro when he moved up to a hand-built frame. I must have had to the only Aerospace Pro in Hampshire with cow horn handlebars and knobbly mud tyres

Hey Quicksilver

Didn't you know thats the way we ride them on the other side of the pond! Actually no kidding the picture is flipped but still inspiring to those whose Viscounts are more battered and are trying to restore. I rode it outside Sunday and boy the reality doesn't match the old memories but it was still awesome after 20 years to see it working.

GrahamNR17 wrote:What a wonderful thread, and great to see all these Viscount machines.

As a kid, I had a red Viscount Sebring International complete with 5 speed Simlpex gear mech and those silly little miniature mudguards! It lasted a good five years before I managed to bend the forks to the point of fracturing by bumping up kirbs trying to follow my mates on their Choppers and Grifters! Looking back, it was a very good quality bike for the money, aluminium centre pull calipers, ally bars and a strange cast stem with a T shaped cross section.

My brother was a keen cyclist and I inherited his Aerospace Pro when he moved up to a hand-built frame. I must have had to the only Aerospace Pro in Hampshire with cow horn handlebars and knobbly mud tyres

You were lucky mate, my parents would only let me have a Tomahawk when I really wanted a Chopper.

Quite a few nice Viscount bikes posted in this thread. I picked mine a year ago after the original owner allowed it to sit in a barn for about 20 years. After a bunch of new parts, including a new fork, and much cleaning and lubrication, this Aerospace Pro is back on the road.

Does this one get Busaste's seal of approval?

Here's a smashing one on ebay, might need a bit of elbow grease. Chrome tipped fork.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... Track=true

or item 260572172539 in Tennessee! I think it looks really nice, the handlebar tape obviously needs to be replace but other than that. I'll bet Busaste has seen that colour but I haven't...it looks abit like the blue Viscount on the previous page even. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=21010&start=75 , maybe they are the same colour in fact.

Over the last few months I have seen a number of Viscount track frames for sale. Does anyone have any info on these? Numbers made, quality etc?

I had one for a little while (it had been hanging up for years in a garage about 20 yards away!). Changed the fork, but it was still IMO pretty much rubbish!

I have one with the aluminum fork. My Dad had a bike shop near San Diego, CA (USA) in '70's. I believe I got my first Lambert or Viscount in 1974. I probably road it 26 miles a day for a year and a half to get to college and back. I can still remember breaking the spindle; it hurt when my foot went hard down to the ground as I tried to accelerate away from a stop sign. My present Viscount was probably given to me in late '70s, and probably has the upgraded Viscount aluminum fork. I rode it off and on in '80s, then bought a mountain bike. Just pulled the Viscount back out of the rain for the first time in 15 years or so. After replacing tires and seat (probably with original Viscount seat), I road it today. The fork didn't break. At some point in time I replaced the brakes with sidepulls, installed Suntour derailleurs and downtube shifters and put on high pressure clincher tires (no more sewups!). I was surprised to learn my 27" tires were antiques, but I was able to buy replacements (1 1/8) cheaply. I like the way it looks. I think it's a nice paint scheme, and the fork is unique. I'm looking forward to riding it to work to show off to the commuters riding their modern carbon bikes.

All I can recall is lusting after a blue Viscount Aerospace Sport in my mum's Kays catalogue in the late 70s (76-79 period). I didn't know much about bikes then, but I did know that this was very desirable indeed. I showed the catalogue to my new roadie mate at the time and asked him what he thought of it. "Hmmm. looks OK, but the gears look a bit odd". The 5 (or six) speed block had quite a wide range, such that the biggest cog had a reduced tooth count, i.e. if it was a 32t, it only had 16 actual teeth on a 32t pcd. I'd missed this entirely.

The bike looked 110% better than the other 'racers' in the catalogue and I ordered it - I'd guess equivalent today's price of around £400. When I arrived home from uni one day and found the big box sitting in the hall, I was over the moon. I hacked it open to find ... a red Viscount Sebring . The Aerospace Sport was out of stock. Despite my relative naivity, I could easily see that this was a very poor cousin to the Aerospace Sport. I sent it back and therefore never owned a Viscount.

In the (many) years since, I have only ever owned one 'new' bike. Everything I now own is pre-owned. I wouldn't have it any other way, but I sometimes wonder what life would have been like if the Aerospace Sport had been sitting in our hallway that day in 1976 (or whenever).

Sigh ...

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I have just become a Viscount owner and am in dire need of some info.
I have an old frame but it is minus a few parts like a seat post, the press fit bottom bracket and headset. It also has the original death fork!
Would any of you know the seat post size?
And does the headset take normal inch threaded bearings and races?
Frame numbers? what years correspond to what etc.
Any information would be greatly appreciated and once again sorry for the resurrection
Sam

Try PMing Busaste who started this thread, he is a mine of information on Viscounts. I have a later model than you so am not sure I would be much help.

thispartisreqired wrote:Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I have just become a Viscount owner and am in dire need of some info.
I have an old frame but it is minus a few parts like a seat post, the press fit bottom bracket and headset. It also has the original death fork!
Would any of you know the seat post size?
And does the headset take normal inch threaded bearings and races?
Frame numbers? what years correspond to what etc.
Any information would be greatly appreciated and once again sorry for the resurrection
Sam

Hi Sam
Glad to see this thread, which I started, is still being used!
The seat post size on 'Aerospace' frames is 26.8mm although you can get a 27mm one to go in okay. Early Aerospace bikes (pre '78) used the Lambert micro adjust seat post or a basic non adjustable one made by Birmalux (on the cheaper models e.g. 'GP', 'Sport'). Post '78 Aerospace bikes used really nice forged 27mm SR seat posts: e.g. 'Laprade'. All posts were alloy NOT steel.
The headset is a 1" one. Tange make some pretty good 1" chromed Campy style headsets. Try their 'Passage' or 'Levin' models. In looks they are quite similar to the original Viscount headsets. By the way, Viscount made some of their own headsets at the Bilston factory for quite a while.
Be careful of course to get the headset stack height correct!
Cannot help with frame numbers. I have asked numerous former Viscount employees about the numbering system but no-one seems to know what the numbers represented. Due to my Viscount 'nerdiness' I can ID the age of a Viscount from the components, frame, etc. If that is what you need to know, please send me some pictures.
Regarding the BB please see my earlier post. There are plenty of options to choose from.
Now, the 'death fork'. The Viscount ally fork was the 'third generation' model of the design and, contrary to the urban legend, is actually very robust. Shock horror...I have said this on the net! Yes, there were limited numbers of fork failures but NOTHING like the numbers necessary to create the reputation. The Coventry Olympic Viscount team raced extensively on death forks in the 1970's. This racing included plenty of cyclocross too. Having spoken to the former team manager there were no breakages. I know of some death forks that have covered over 60,000 miles without problems. I have 2 death forks and they are absolutely solid. I know of one owner who had his forks x-rayed. No damage was found.
In my time I have seen broken frames made from, for example, Reynolds 531 tubes. There was no crash damage to explain the breakages. The tubes appeared to break for no obvious reason. Ditto for other frame materials such as titanium (Van Nichols). We don't like it of course but frame/fork breakages/recalls are a reality of cycling. Still, could be worse, the frames could be made from carbon fibre...
The original Lambert fork was suspect however. Check yours to make sure it is not one of theirs (I can ID one from a photograph). Having said that though, there are plenty of Lamberts in the USA with their death forks still in use after nearly 40 years!!!!!
Hope all this helps.
Steve