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Post by Sylvie on Aug 20, 2016 20:25:12 GMT
Hello everyone from a former lurker ! I'm Sylvie and I ride a 1978 Grand Sport, which is considerably younger than I am. I've added it to the database under No51 although I've changed a few of the components in recent years, like the brakes, saddle and seat post, from the originals which I still have. I bought the bike new in 1979 from my local bike shop, rode it regularly for a year or two and then with some life changing events having taken place it began to be ridden rather less with my changed responsibilities and lack of leisure time. Happily it's now regularly back on the road thanks to a friend who encouraged me to join her local bike group, and although no spring chicken, I'm not being left so far behind on the hills any more. I had to have the headset changed recently as the original one suffered a failure on the upper head tube race after riding several times on a notorious cobbled street in my home city, it was supposed to be a 'shakedown' ride to test the adjustment of the new saddle ! The race surface was OK, but a small piece of the race had broken out from what looked like a crack originating in coarse machining on the internal bore some time before. My local bike shop fitted an Acor alloy one having hoped that a Stronglight A9 they had in stock would fit, which it didn't, as the stack height was not suitable, 37.5mm compared with 38mm, close I'd say ! I found what I presume to be the forerunner of this forum a few years ago on what was then the CTC forum and posted an intro' and picture of the bike in it's almost original condition, but at the moment can't find that picture. If anyone's interested it's on page 22 of the Viscount Bicycles !! thread on the Cycling UK forum. Here's a picture of it in it's almost current form, the saddle is now a Specialized 'Lithia', which is rather more comfortable than the previous one.
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Post by triitout on Aug 21, 2016 2:08:44 GMT
Welcome aboard! Great to see another former rider rediscover their original Viscount. Nice to see some of the non-USA models like yours. It looks great nearly all white! You sound like you've got a handle on some mechanic knowledge so you may give Stella a run as forum mechanic. Happy riding!
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Post by oldroadietehachapi on Aug 21, 2016 8:26:05 GMT
Welcome to the forum! This is a great group coming from a variety of locations and perspectives. As for me, I am an ancient roadie located in California.
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Post by Sylvie on Aug 21, 2016 21:38:20 GMT
Thanks for the welcome guys. Mechanical knowledge I have a little of as I spent 42+ years as an aero-engine design engineer for a well known UK manufacturer. Practical ability is another thing though! Another member of the bike group I've started riding with mentioned today that he had also owned a Viscount in the 1970's but had it stolen in York. He was heartbroken at the time as it had been locked to a cast iron seat. The bike has certainly caused some interest in the last few months.
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Post by sprockit on Aug 22, 2016 10:50:02 GMT
Welcome along Sylvie!
That Grand Sport looks to be quite an eye-catcher.
Stack height on the steerer tube is important for fit, as the steerer tube needs to protrude through the adjustable race, but not be long enough to bind on the locknut above. The locknut's internal diameter is only marginally greater than the steerer tube, but the locknut's internal threads have to engage in the very top of the steerer tube, and in a locknut height of only a few millimetres, this becomes quite a critical dimension.
Glad you've found a more comfortable saddle. Have you ever tried the Brooks Vitesse 200, 300 or 400? I have a 200 on one of my bikes. It's like riding along on a piece of stair bannister!!!
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Post by Sylvie on Aug 22, 2016 14:08:18 GMT
I get the picture sprockit. I guess it might have been possible to have a standard dimension for the steerer tube protrusion, but that's all history now and if asked to design that arrangement in my former life it would probably have required a set of adjusting washers in ,010" increments that each cost an order of magnitude greater than the cost of the complete bike !
Once I got the 'Lithia' saddle position and angle right it's been a joy to sit on, some of us like to treat our tender bits with kindness.
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robt
Viscount
Posts: 558
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Post by robt on Aug 22, 2016 18:55:31 GMT
Hi, Sylvie, and welcome. Female Engineers are still a rare breed and so greatly treasured (though not in a patronising way, obviously!).
Has your professional background given you an expertise in the metallurgy of steels? If so, it sounds as though you could be our new in-house expert on the merits of Phoenix Aerospace tubing vs. Reynolds 531, fillet brazed vs lugged frames and what risks we might be taking if we discover or try to attach new braze-ons to an Aerospace frame. I have had a few extra bits brazed onto my 1976 Sebring's hi-tensile frame, but I'm not sure what the heat would do to the Aerospace tubing's microstructure and strength.
The polished finish on your new brake calipers suits your bike, and I guess your confidence in their ability to stop you has gone up tenfold, particularly if your original brakes were centre-pulls. I assume you still have the original alloy wheel rims - Milremos? You were fortunate to have the wherewithal in 1979 to choose a model that was upgraded from the chromed steel wheel rims that were the standard fit lower down the pecking order, though I know Sprockit is a great defender of the 'all steel' machines.
If your friend is looking to replace a particular model of Viscount, some of us do hang onto a few more frames and parts than we actually need at any one time (I'm the current keeper of a working Grand Sport and a spare GS frame, having recently gifted a second working GS to my brother). Like so many of us here, you're experiencing the joy of recapturing a small part of your own times gone by. We might be able to help provide a replacement for your friend's stolen bike if you have the specifications.
Would your notorious cobbled street be the Shambles in York, or a Hovis-advert style Peak District or Pennine climb? If it is, you could be joining Dracco's campaign for us to bring our annual DFR get-together 'up North'.
Best wishes,
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Post by Sylvie on Aug 25, 2016 13:28:45 GMT
Hi robt, Thank you for that kind welcome, female engineers were even thinner on the ground in the late 1960's. Apart from my basic technical knowledge of metallurgy it was always necessary in my profession to have signed approval from a real metallurgy expert even if it wasn't intended to fly, consequently the Materials Laboratory provided the specialist personnel, mandatory standards and approval for all designs, most of us were happy not to expand our in-depth knowledge too far unless we had an ulterior motive. They were always happy to offer their knowledge on non official project related issues anyway. I therefore decline your kind offer of in-house expert !
Yes, the original brakes were Weinmann 610 centre pulls and the RX100's are a big improvement, although I doubt I get full advantage as the MilRemo rims have six small circumferential grooves in the braking surface.
I suspect from the description my friend gave when he saw my Grand Sport that his may have been an Aerospace Pro. I'll mention this forum to him as I don't know if he was looking to replace it, thanks.
The cobbled street I spoke of is called Welsh Back and is in Bristol. The City Council in their wisdom left it cobbled, as they did the adjacent Queen Square. It's certainly up to the standards of a Paris-Roubaix pave section !
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Post by Admin on Sept 13, 2016 12:38:29 GMT
Welcome to the forum! Thanks for your posts and keep them coming. And a quick word to others who may have joined or who like to just browse the posts - please post up some pics and share your knowledge and/or stories of your bikes. A mini tutorial on how to post pics is hereHappy Cycling , Vive le Viscount! PS 3 more members and we are up to 200!
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rmw
Viscount
Posts: 143
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Post by rmw on Oct 1, 2016 20:13:34 GMT
Hi Sylvie, welcome on board. By the time I was training as a civil engineer women were 33% of civil engineers in the USSR (Aas it then was), 2% of civil engineers in USA and 0.5% of civil engineers in UK. In my year at uni (1981 - 85) there were two women and 23 men, so almost 10%. I got my Viscount Aerospace Sport (ahem, my mum bought it for me) in 1978 and I still have it. Things that wore out have been replaced, so it has new bars and stem and seatpost and new rear derailleur. The orginal levers wore out and I fitted lovely silky Shimano brake levers but subsequently replaced them so I could ride Eroica Britannia. Still the original Shimano Tourney centre pull brakes. I used it for all my riding, including clattering over Edinburgh cobbles, until 1999 when the special bottom bracket gave out. I took it to Argos for a ream and sleeve, but a year later I needed a bike with a baby seat and the Viscount has no braze-ons for a rack and I did not want to carry the next generation around on p-clips. So the Viscount became my special bike and a Witcomb is now my everyday bike. If i can get the technology to work there are some flickr pictures in here, but if not, I have posted pictures elsewhere on the boards. EDIT: no, not flickr savvy. Perhaps a link will work www.flickr.com/photos/141927306@N03/?
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Post by Sylvie on Oct 2, 2016 12:50:20 GMT
Hi Rona and thanks for the welcome from you as well. I love the nails matching the Viscount on your Avatar by the way, and the mitts ! So your bike is the same vintage as mine, although I bought mine a year later. One rather amusing story from that occasion was that the owner of the shop I bought it from, it was a family firm established the same year I was born, wanted to keep it for himself at the time and I had a job persuading him to actually sell it to me. When I took it there recently to have a new head set fitted he was over the moon that I'd looked after it so well and kept it in good condition as he remembered his reluctance at the time. Obviously a connoisseur ! This is a picture of mine in 2010. Untitled by Sylvie N, on Flickr Having had a look at the flickr link you posted, yours certainly looks in good trim although I'm not sure I could bear the thought of breaking that great saddle in at the moment, my Specialized Lithia was good from the day I fitted it even if it's not the correct vintage. I've kept all the original parts that I've changed as well, in case I ever work up the courage to enter L'Eroica at some time. I've been careful not to ride over cobbled streets too often despite my cycling companion Andrea's enthusiasm for a cafe here in Bristol which can only be reached on that type of surface. I'm also rather familiar with clattering over the cobbles of Edinburgh streets as well, particularly the Leith area, although always on one of my cousins bikes so he can worry about bottom brackets ! It's good to know that Argos have had a hand in keeping your bike serviceable and as I live in the same city as their workshops, if mine ever has a problem I'll know where to go. Mine is in the 'special' category too now and with the increasing miles I'm doing I'll have to find something to act as a training bike, especially as it's going to be hibernated for the winter months. When I retired from my job, there were still very few female mechanical design engineers working in the Aero engine business and most of those who were seemed to be located in the Civil engine division in Derby rather than the Military one here in Bristol. I've no idea whether things have changed much since then.
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Post by velocipete on Oct 2, 2016 16:32:18 GMT
Good on you girls for being stoic enough to be engineers in the fields you chose. I,for my sins, ran materials testing laboratories in construction. I worked on a varied series of projects. A quick summary,probably missing loads. M40 High Wycombe by pass,M9 Stirling,A449 Gibraltar tunnels Monmouth, 2nd Mersey Tunnel and approach roads,M53,mid Wirral motorway,M5 Weston Super Mud,loads of small jobs,then the design of the asphalt for Port Stanley runway,as featured in Vulcan 607,best not say any more about that!!!! That takes me to the end of 1972. We'll have a good chat at DFR5,I hope! Cheers, Pete.
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Post by Sylvie on Oct 2, 2016 18:55:19 GMT
Hi Velocipete, there seem to be quite a few engineers of various disciplines on this forum and I know the M5 around W-s-M very well indeed as I seem to have spent quite a bit of time on it over the last five years or so. The Official Secrets Act prevents a lot of fascinating info' becoming public, I wonder if you had to sign that, I certainly have several times as well as the US equivalent ? DFR 5 sounds interesting, but as I haven't got a death fork I wonder if that rules me out rather than age and fitness !
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rmw
Viscount
Posts: 143
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Post by rmw on Oct 3, 2016 10:43:24 GMT
No Death Fork required to rally, as a title it just had a good ring to it and is the thing that nearly everyone says when you mention Viscount. On our DFR 4.5 yesterday we even had some non-Viscount cycles out, which was a bonus for me as the interesting alternatives included a Bates, a Hetchins, a Claud Butler, a Pat Hanlon and a Roberts, ridden by members of the local Veteran-Cycle Club section. So it was nice to see friends as well as bikes, and they were interested to ride and explore some cycle history. We visited Cranbourne Road in Potters Bar, where Trusty were based. I do not routinely wear nail polish, but at Eroica Britannia they had a nail bar and it had lots of frame-colour polishes, so I indulged. Mitts are bog-standard Altura and they look the part without breaking theh bank.
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Post by roser024 on Jul 3, 2017 8:17:32 GMT
Hii... I am new login from Australia
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Post by kickstandman on Jul 3, 2017 14:34:20 GMT
Welcome Roser, looking forward to any input.
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Post by oldroadietehachapi on Jul 3, 2017 15:19:15 GMT
Hello Roser, welcome to the forum! I am in California, a bit far from Australia. I retired from mining (Rio Tinto) and worked with many Australians. At a company party, I saw one of them (motivated by free liquor) captivate an audience with tall tales of the Austrilian bush and hilariously insisting that "down under" the sun rose in the west, and set in the east; a great character.
I look forward to your input Jim
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Post by roser024 on Jul 4, 2017 6:13:01 GMT
heyy guys thnxx for my welcome
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Jem
Viscount
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Posts: 3,380
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Post by Jem on Jul 4, 2017 7:46:20 GMT
Welcome roser024, I hope you find some useful information here on the forum. And if you don't find what you're looking for, just ask a question and eventually someone will have a pretty educated guess at an answer. But as you read more, you will find that there is nothing definite or certain about the Lambert and Viscount brand.
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Post by cusqueno on Jul 4, 2017 13:06:59 GMT
Hii... I am new login from Australia Welcome to the forum. Do you currently own any Viscounts or Lamberts? There is at least one other member from Australia - bendo.
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