Dura Ace Pro Ebay

Very nice.
What do you plan to do about the spokes Jem, clean up, swap, ride-as-is?

Rubbing down spokes isn't my favourite job either.

2% (wt/volume)citric acid is a very good de-rusting agent: probably more effective than the aluminium foil method. Quite large bags of citric acid are available quite cheaply online. It's a weak acid and it'll also get most of those rust marks off the frame. Try soaking some green nylon scouring pad (Scotch-Brite) in this for the spokes, and for the frame just wrap the rusted parts in a kitchen towel soaked with citric acid and held in place with clingfilm.

The other thing that takes some of the pain out of rubbing down spokes is to hold your abrasive (Scotch-Brit..... or fine steel wool - no acid needed) around the spoke in a clothes peg. It's easier to then rub the spoke up and down by keeping a hold of the peg(and avoid the occupational hazard of getting bits of steel wool embedded in your fingertips). The difficult bit is where the spokes cross over.

Like dracco said, I also find rubbing down spokes a tedious job, I’ve done loads through lockdown with all the old bikes I bought and sold. Tried a dremmel fitted with a brass brush, wire wool, wire wool and penetrating fluid, scotchbrite pad... The dremmel method was the quickest and brass is soft metal so shouldn’t damage the steel spoke in theory. 
Most came up acceptable.

Oddly enough I’ve got some high flange wheels and those spokes aren’t great either. Same dilemma as you, rebuilding them is out of my depth and getting them done professionally would probably cost more than they are worth.

I can’t get on with black tyres on vintage racing bikes. Had some fitted on the 400 model and had to take them off and put gum wall on, it’s a compromise with puncture protection though. I quite like white wall tyres as well and might eventually try them on one of the Viscounts. 

Looks great though mate, I’m pleased you got it and they didn’t break it down.

Rebuilding wheels is not that bad if you take your time and follow the instructions on Sheldon Brown's website. As long as the rim is pretty good to start with, you should be able to go from a bare hub to a fully built wheel in a couple of evenings. Probably quicker and more effective than polishing spokes. Use a set of forks or the bike frame itself as a truing stand. If you're using the original hub and rim combination, measuring the spoke lengths should get the 'dish' on the rear correct as well. Building to spec or using a mix of components is a different kettle of fish, requiring spoke lengths to be calculated, but it's extremely satisfying once done.

Jim

My blue unknown model Viscount had the original bb which I left more or less intact with the original model sealed bearings and a bb axle from a modern sealed unit that I documented in an earlier post as "Bottom Bracket Hack" or something like that.

For my silver/black Viscount Aerospace, I tapped it out to Italian threads and used a titanium bb cups and axle I found on eBay from a Canadian seller. Those were supposedly Russian made.

For my chrome pseudo-Supa, which has the original non-tapered bb axle, I will probably repeat the BB Hack in order to fit the black Dura Ace crankset.

The pseudo-Supa (brushed chrome but with Viscount rear dropouts, no water bottle braze-ons, and no separate seat mast clamp) has a serial number of 011214 <K so who knows what model this actually is. Since it's brushed chrome and came with a black Viscount headset and black Viscount hubs that were originally built to sewup rims, I'm calling it a pseudo-Supa or the black sheep of the Supa family!

Best,
John "wheelson"

John - many thanks for that offer, very kind of you.
Jem

One last thing about this bike that I forgot to mention.

It came with what I think might have been the original pump. Milremo which the bar stem and saddle are too
And the silver and black finish are very much in keeping with it.

If the saddle has seen so little action, and the original pump is still with it, then my thoughts are that the hubs/wheels that aren't part of the original spec of the bike, were still most likely on it from new. Just a hunch, but that's my take on it

IMG_3864 by
IMG_3862 by

It looks identical doesn't it?

Thanks Kev, and as you can imagine, it was quite a negotiation , because I am really not one for spending a lot of money on my bikes. So, it was the best haggling I'd done since I was last in Marrakesh in the street markets.

So, lot's of back and forth. At one point I had the image of a heartless bike dealer Svengali type looking at it, with eyes on parting it out and selling all the Dura-Ace and then throwing the frame away because 'it wasn't even painted!'

In the end, the seller said she was holding it for me because she knew I would look after it and was a bike person( she'd had a higher offer the day I went up). I sent her the link to this forum and told her that there's lot's of love for Viscount and that we needed to keep it complete.
But it still made me laugh when I drove up to Sheffield to get it , that she casually said "yeah.you will probably take those decals off straight away then?"
She also said, 'the original saddle is some horrible ratty looking thing, you really don't want it!?'. She couldn't locate it but has since found it and is posting it on to me.

And I feel better knowing that my old Semi-Supabike frame will help Cusqueno finish his Supabike project too. Result!