Classic & Vintage - Viscount?

I was at a church tag sale last night (Fri.) and passed on a 10 speed Viscount, apparently made in England.

I've never heard of it before (which doesn't mean much) but it did have Shimano 600 front and rear derailleurs.

Was it something cool or just an English Huffy?

PJBAZ

Check out this link for more information.


Lambert and Viscount Bikes (http://www.sheldonbrown.com/lambert.html)

Thanks for the link...although I didn't look at it well enough to remember what else it had or to even notice the forks...I wish I had time to go back this afternoon.

My wife was with me and was less than interetsed in loking at an old bike while being crushed by bargain hunters searching for a slightly used coffee mug.

PJ

My first real "lightweight" was a Viscount, sub 20 pounds back
in late 70's early 80's.
The bike was a marvel, and a pain in the butt due to all of the
nonstandard stuff that Lambert put on it (the bottom bracket
stands out the most). I commuted daily on the death fork, and
well, never had a problem. I did get a nice chrome replacement
from Yamaha who bought the marque.
I'm kind of looking for a 21 inch aerospace pro, just cause
I liked it and well, the whole nostalgia thing.
I wouldn't pay much more than 100 bucks for one tho, very
little collector value in it.

Marty

Many people consider Viscount to be the bike that killed the road bike boom, at least here in the U.S.

I'm not sure I follow you Dave. The "Death Fork" was certainly a problem for Lambert and then Yamaha but Lambert/Viscount never had a very large market share, certainly not large enough to affect the entire industry. FWIW Viscount owners I knew loved them.

In my observation there was a change in consumer interest (for many "10 speeds" were a fad) and the huge growth of mountain bikes, even in my mountain free FLA, that did in the road bike boom.

If dep't store 10 speeds, that were both failure prone and incapable of functioning properly even when brand new, could sell in huge numbers throughout the boom I don't see the trouble with a very small % of higher line imports causing a huge problem.

I have a Viscount, which I bought in the early 80's. I modified it with new compponents, and turned it into a very sweet touring bike. It works great and will outlive me and many "modern" bicycles. The only negative is it's weight, but it is no worse than any other real tourer. That poor bike is a victim of some sort of folkloric hysteria. The "Death Fork" was overblown to beggin with, and was replaced for folks who wanted it anyway. It must have been a paradise for Americal lawyers....

Here is a link to Classic Rendezvous with a history and
write up (detailed) of Lambert/Viscount.
http://www.classicrendezvous.com/British/lambert_bikes.htm
I won't go into details concerning marketing etc. but notice
the pictures of the "death fork". Someone on CR did an
analysis of the fork and indeed it was a disaster prone design.
I'll see if I can dig up the write up.
But as I've said, I rode one and although I had the fork replaced,
it hadn't failed for the entire time I used it as a daily commuter.
Dave, I don't think Lambert/Viscount killed the boom, at least
not entirely :D

Marty