SugarPILL

I found a frame the other day in the scape pile and its a Viscount, blue and grey/blue, got some Arabic writing on it?

where are they from?

iansir

Sheldon brown has some info on Viscount bikes: https://www.sheldonbrown.com/lambert.html
Good quality frames, but the problem for me was the unthreaded bottom bracket - used some press in bearings that make running a modern bottom bracket pretty tough.

thurstonboise

If I remember correctly they have wierd bottom brackets and AL forks that are universally considered unsafe. I could be wrong though.

SugarPILL

So far its sounding like a death trap, snapping axles, Death forks...oh my!

but the frame is sort of cool. its got an interesting chainwheel...

thanks for the info

deathhare

Just get other forks if youre worried about those. Run that crank and BB and have a cheapo fixed cnversion.

jjvw

Looks like you got one with the Death Fork! If it's cast aluminum, then get rid of it before it eats you. The frame itself is quite nice.

SingleSpeeDemon

I love it.

jjvw

Ha! I love how the cranks are in the 12 and 3 position. That gives the feeling of galloping through the glenn on your English steed.

I almost bought one of these a few months back until noticed a cracked weld and evidence of a crash.

Gappy

i got a set of high flange lambert hubs that were found on viscounts and just been serviced... but i heard about the death fork... eeeek!...

SugarPILL

yep, the fork is aluminium....guess that will be the first to go...

does any one ride a strait fork, or is it a terrible idea? its the only loose fork I've got...and i was thinking about starting there. but its lugged steel and I am not sure it will look good with the fillet frame..

jjvw

I think the replacement forks from the recall were lugged. The one I almost bought had a chromed, lugged Tange fork.

eurotrash666

the arabic writing means the bike will explode as soon as you ride into a crowd. that is way scarier than the death fork... a suicide frame!

-=(8)=-

I had a Viscount just like the one in the picture.
A GREAT frame and bike ! If I could find a perfect resto
I would buy it as a daily rider.
There is some weird sizing stuff but they are waaay easier to restore than
a Peugeot.
The one in the pic has the 'life' fork....Real chrome being what to look for there....
The 'death' fork was color keyed to the bike except for about 3 inches
of shiney unpainted area on the bottom of the legs. Yamaha sent
them out to original owners as soon as they took over Lambert.
If you fix this bike I really dont think you will be disappointed !!

12XU

It took us over 5 hours to remove and replace the bearings in a customer's Viscount bottom bracket. It was ****ing hell and we probably wouldn't do it again...

bikemeister

I've got an old Lambert/Viscount that I converted to modern square tapered BB. It was a challenge but it works. If I had it to do over I would rebuild it as the classic that it was, though. The Lambert cranks were a work of art.

rcnmoon

Bearings must have been corroded in place?

I took out the BB/axle and threaded it w/ Italian threads, installed a old Campy BB and have forgotton about it for years now!

ImOnCrank

ask momentum he rides one harder than he rides yer ma.

MarkWW

I wonder if one of those cartridge bbs would work that just sorta squeeze together by threading on themselves. I think they're for bbs with stripped threads or something.

kemmer

You mean these? https://www.billys.co.uk/english/group.php?prod=bbidt8
I'm going to get one for my Peugeot.

MarkWW

yeah, that's the one.

Benton

I have been riding my Lambert to work. I got it to comute in College 15 years ago. It was old then and served me well. I just replaced the bottom bracket with a Shimano cartridge bearing. (It was available and fit) The old one was very worn. I have ridden many bikes but keep coming back to my old Lambert, it just feels right.

SFF

The frame you have has the chrome Tange fork, the BB can be rebuilt with standard machine bearings, once you remove the crank and the small C-clip snap rings that hold the spindle in place, everything comes out with a few small taps, its all pressed in. The bearings are pressed in and can be knocked out pretty easy. Check you local bearing shop for replacements. The bearings were never a problem for Viscounts, it was spindle fracture along the groove for the C-clip, if your bike has made it this far, you are probably in possession of one of the good spindles. The bike itself does ride well once all together, here is my resto of the 1977 Viscount, essentially all original except fr the wheels, which have campy hubs. I only have a the front Viscount hub, I need the rear to make it totally official. This is the start of the project and final product from that resto.

SugarPILL

Thats pretty nice, I started to disassemble mine but have run into a MAJOR problem.... some genius seems to have hammered in a seatpost that was too big, I've tried everything, so I have let it go for the time being...too bad its a cool frame. and the bb is still smooth.

RedDeMartini

Arabic? Are you sure?

frameteam2003

Here's a Viscount fixed gear road trainer I did a little mods to.