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Post by stevevw on May 25, 2015 10:44:27 GMT
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bendo
Viscount
Posts: 538 
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Post by bendo on May 25, 2015 12:34:36 GMT
Beautiful!!!!! b
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Post by triitout on May 25, 2015 12:51:04 GMT
Thing of beauty!
Imagine if I could pick one up just like that at my LBS. Oh oh, I'm dreaming again!
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Jem
Viscount
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Posts: 3,389
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Post by Jem on May 25, 2015 15:44:54 GMT
Superb - it looks great, and is really going to be a head-turner with the black Dura-Ace on.
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Post by stevevw on May 25, 2015 17:00:47 GMT
Thanks Guys. Did a bit of work today but had other commitments around the house so you will have to wait to see how the Dura-Ace black looks.
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Post by stevevw on May 25, 2015 17:43:09 GMT
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Post by stevevw on Jun 15, 2015 12:30:17 GMT
The Dura Ace crown race is 26.38mm id the Viscount is 26.98mm so I had to search the local bike shops for a cutter and facer for 26.4mm. No luck. After failing to get the fork cut for a 26.4mm crown race I got in touch with the great Barry Chick (of Alf Engers superbike fame) who cut and faced the fork and fitted the race for me. I picked it up Thursday night and hurriedly got home to fit it. with the bearings all greased I fitted the fork and on screwing on the top race I was horrified that the steerer only just came through the top bearing leaving nothing for the lock washer or top nut. My heart sank how could it be. Oh dear what to do now? No going back to the original as the crown race would now flop about. I had put both headsets side by side and they was close to being the same height, less than 1mm difference. What I had not noticed was the original headset went in to the frame a lot further so although the overall height was near the same the stack height was nearly 7.5mm different. I then went round measuring what I needed above the top race which worked out to between 6mm and 8mm. A quick measure of the head tube showed enough below and above the top and down tube to be able to cut the required off. So I stripped the bike down and removed the headset from the frame then masked up the head tube and top tube just in case of a slip with the saw. As it was getting late and I was tiered I thought it best to leave the cutting until the next day. So Friday evening I took a deep breath and cut 6mm from the head tube. all went well and the cut was less than .25mm out of square not bad seeing as I had cut it freehand very slowly and feeling sick and slightly sweaty. Saturday afternoon I went to the very busy Senova Cycles in Hertford where Erol did a great job of reaming and facing the head tube while I went to Boots to get some black nail varnish to give the bare metal a bit of protection. Saturday evening I spent building up the bike with no further surprises. I can recommend the waxed cotton 1mm thread sold on ebay at £1.50 for 9 meters which I used to whip the bar tape. So much nicer that a bit of electrical tape. Sunday I went on a 38 mile test ride. And what a ride the Viscount is. Smooth, quick but stable steering and almost silent. the Dura Ace hubs are a revelation they just roll and roll, the brakes work and the gears all just slip in almost silently. I have not used any mid 70's Campagnolo but they would have been hard pushed to better the Shimano offering.      |
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Post by velocipete on Jun 15, 2015 14:06:15 GMT
Very nice Steve,you brave chap! I have to admit to not being a fan of black anodised,or painted,alloy parts on bikes.
Aluminium should be natural and shiney,until its been used of course. Painted B29s and Mustangs just don't look right.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Post by stevevw on Jun 15, 2015 15:23:05 GMT
P51's are my second favorite plane of all time. Took my son to Duxford on the 23rd May and saw 3 P51's flying. they all sounded as if they had the upgrade to RR Merlin's too.
Perhaps next time polished aluminium components.
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Post by velocipete on Jun 15, 2015 18:07:48 GMT
Ah,if they were bubble canopy P51s,they were Merlin engined.The Allison engined,P51a,etc,had a framed cockpit canopy.
Not good at higher altitudes,but good low level. The earlier models were soon confined to ground attack type operations.
Still an outatanding aircraft,designed,and delivered on time,and on budget,in a very short time scale.
Seems like something has gone astray with specifying,designing,and building for the modern era!
Cheers,
Pete.
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Jem
Viscount
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Posts: 3,389
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Post by Jem on Jun 15, 2015 18:46:09 GMT
designed,and delivered on time,and on budget,in a very short time scale. Now there is a phrase you don't often hear ps bike looks great Steve - well done! |
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Post by raymondo on Jun 15, 2015 19:35:46 GMT
Nice bike Steve, Graham Williams told me you had built it up. I Have a viscount Trusty made from chrome molybdenum in England silver downtube decal if you want it. They were on the pro I think, well the one i brought recently silver like yours has got one.
Anyway Pete best plane was the Hawker Tempest v , but you wont see one of those flying. Fastest ww2 fighter apart from the jets. . That wasn't on time on budget though , the Napier Sabre engine was a bit complicated.
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Post by velocipete on Jun 15, 2015 20:11:12 GMT
I quite agree there Ray,the Sea Tempest was the best of the lot.I know it didn't make it to operational status in WW2,but it was,(is when they rebuild the one crashed last year) a
superlative bit of kit.
The Bristol Centaurous should have gone into the Typhoon,Tempest airframes from day one. Availability I suppose.I know it took a while to stop the Typhoon from losing it's tail,(not Reynolds 531 then?) and it was no great shakes at altitude,but it was the most dreaded allied ground attack aircraft in the west. I can recommend Bill Beaumont's book.
Any minute Jem is going to b...ck me for of topic,AGAIN!
Cheers,
Pete.
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bendo
Viscount
Posts: 538
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Post by bendo on Jun 16, 2015 7:37:23 GMT
Beautiful job! What a lovely, lovely thing. I never thought of shortening the headtube as a way around the DA headset problem. Glad it worked out well for you. "Feeling sick and slightly sweaty", I'm right there with you! raymondo: the only prob with the tube spec sticker offer is that it has to go where Steve's got the DA sticker, and the latter are not that easy to come by! I'm usually with Pete on the silver component issue, but black 1st gen DA is different. Back then it was edgy, ahead of its time. Would have stood out like raw or silver anodised components do today. Two questions Steve: what's your BB? And what rims? Oh and what are the pedals? (Sorry that's three!) b |
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Post by 54roadie on Jun 16, 2015 8:08:17 GMT
Steve, that was an impressive bit of work with the saw - a meager 3mm slice, freehand, both top and bottom, and you finished a mere .25mm off square? I couldn't do that if I had all week and three frames to wreck practicing. Nice, and a very beautiful bike.
Frank
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SupaPro
Jun 16, 2015 12:15:15 GMT
via mobile
Post by stevevw on Jun 16, 2015 12:15:15 GMT
Two questions Steve: what's your BB? And what rims? Oh and what are the pedals? (Sorry that's three!) b At the moment it is a Prestine bb soon to be replaced by a stock version thanks to 54 roadie. The rims are weinman 27" again will be replaced with some Mavic 27" in black when I can find a pair in 32 hole. Pedals are Shimano 600's again will be replaced with Dura ace when some come along that does not need a mortgage to buy. |
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bendo
Viscount
Posts: 538
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Post by bendo on Jun 16, 2015 14:43:36 GMT
I don't think Shimano made a Dura Ace pedal at the time this bike was made. EX and AX pedals had that massive bolt that required the matching crank arms, and I think they were the first DA pedals. So you could hang onto your shekels. Those 600s are pretty nice. Or to stick with the black theme you could go with these. They're not period correct either, but they sound amazing. b  |
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bendo
Viscount
Posts: 538
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Post by bendo on Jun 17, 2015 11:41:30 GMT
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Post by cusqueno on Jun 17, 2015 15:01:31 GMT
The original Viscount bike equipped with the black first-gen Dura Ace gruppo had black anodised (painted?) Viscount pedals, as the flyer here makes clear ('one piece alloy castings with needle bearings'). The hubs were also blackened Viscount ones (although I wouldn't discourage anyone from using DA hubs!) |
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Post by Stella on Jun 17, 2015 21:50:53 GMT
Stunning job! Absolutely stunning! What a great outcome to a slightly heart-stopping build! Bet there were many occasions on which people did a double take.
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Post by stevevw on Jun 18, 2015 9:06:42 GMT
cusqueno
I know that my bike is not original. But now I am bitten by the Viscount / Lambert bug I will be trying to build a correct spec bike. I have another frame which in fact started me on this slippery path. It was sold to me as a 50's Claud Butler, I was a bit miffed to say the least when it arrived but have had my mind changed thanks to this forum and the long thread on CTC. I do not have a seat pin clamp for this frame so when I saw another frame with a built in clamp for not much money how could I resist I just had to see what all the fuss was about and it had the Death Fork too. The out come is the bike in this thread. So now research will start on the original frame to see what it should be like.
Trouble is I have just won another 1st Gen Dura-Ace chainset, may have to build a third Viscount then.
I am also interested to ride one with lower spec Shimano components to see if the ride quality is just as good as with the fantastic Dura-Ace. I must say I am a Campagnolo man and really am suprised just how good this 70's Shimano stuff is. Must be a mind set from my motorbike days with Jap Crap and British iron.
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bendo
Viscount
Posts: 538
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Post by bendo on Jun 19, 2015 9:05:01 GMT
I don't think you should be worried about being totally original. We all have different tolerances for such things. From my own Dura Ace build I learnt that being totally PC (Period Correct) is a case of constantly diminishing returns. You can chase after it, but it always remains elusive. And this is part of the fun too. Making silly decisions about where to draw the line. My "DA" Viscount (which I call the Supa Sport) has some things on it that don't fit, e.g. DA black crankarms on otherwise 'white' DA gruppo. But I like to think the black stripe is a nod to the original Lambert/Viscount crank arms. It also has a DA seat-pin, which is technically a late addition. It has an Ideale saddle, not a Middlemores one, because I love Ideale. It has MKS Sylvan quill pedals because they look like Viscount quill pedals but they are MUCH more highly finished. It has a Viscount quill stem because, again, there wasn't a DA stem until late 70s early 80s. But I suspect the DA bottom bracket which I sought out is also a later addition and not PC. And the Dura Ace grease in the BB is definitely not 35 years old! I've given up on NOS gum hoods because they all tear. But DA brake cables are fantastic. On and on it goes... Glad to hear you are a DA convert when it comes to actual riding. There's a thing I call "the Burny Prejudice" which is where Japanese knock-offs are re-discovered to be so good that, 30-40 years down the track they've developed their own following. feelofsteel.blogspot.com.au/2011/04/burny-prejudice.htmlb |
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