SBinNYC, I'm not sure what you mean, I've had the bracket out already now, I'm pretty sure it's just a spindle, bearings and the cups. The bearings definately don't have to be hammered in. I took everything out, gave it a good clean and new grease, and reassembled the bracket, it still snagged. The bearings look fine, the spindle and cups are very slightly pitted but i wouldn't have thought enough to cause this amount of resistance when assembled. It looks like I will have to replace the bottom bracket but i don't know if i'll find one that'll fit with the smaller bracket shell size. Your advice here is probably in relation to the Viscount Aerospace models, the Alamo is one of their later, cheaper models, more like the Indy 500 and is 5, not 10 speed, thanks very much though.

JanMM, the Alamo never had the aluminium fork of the early aerospace models, Despite being a 5-speed the Alamo (i think) came after the Aerospace, perhaps just before Yamaha took the company over.