Londonderry

Viking bicycles were made in England from the mid 1930s (the company was founded in 1908 as a cycle assembler) until their demise in 1967. The brand then went through various ownerships and manufacturing locations. During the 1970s it appears the Viking factory in Wolverhampton made Lambert / Viscount bikes and that production was later moved to Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Lambert / Viscount bikes were popular in the USA (Viscount “the aerospace bike”) and are seemingly best remembered for their aluminium “Death Fork” and various other bits snapping off. The Viking name is currently owned by a company called Avocet based in Manchester, with manufacturing taking place in the Far East.

Although the production of juvenile machines partly compensated for the loss of the lightweight club-market, it wasn’t enough to save the company and production ended in 1967. During the last two years Reg Davies worked with Frank Williams who was assembling Viking bicycles and on his retirement the company closed. The business was purchased by two Americans who started it up again in Londonderry. Viking Cycles still exists in Northern Ireland today, but as a bicycle assembler, assembling cycles from brought-in spares.