Vox T

I'm 6' so probably the full size one 56cm I think? Or maybe one size down from that?

gazman22

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Sactown_Albert 

A friend sold an intact, but neglected Viscount to me for $20. My interest in it was its tiny size so that I could have a vintage bike for my (equally tiny) wife to participate in the monthly Camellia City vintage rides that occur in Sacramento, California.

I knew next to nothing about this British bike manufacturer that started under the Lambert marquee, but it seemed like a well put together bike, so off I went down the rabbit hole of this Lambert/Viscount/Trusty/Yamaha project. Luckily, this particular bike benefitted from the later interventions of Trusty and Yamaha. It was equipped with many conventional parts from Shimano and Suntour, plus, the infamous Lambert Death Fork had been replaced with a conventional Tange chrome fork as a result of the massive recall Yamaha initiated to address the regularly failing Lambert forks. It does still have the sealed bearing hubs and bottom bracket, but they seem to be functioning well after a good cleaning and greasing.

Many of the parts were made in-house or special made for Lambert/Viscount in the early days of the company, and many of the parts still bear the Viscount labeling. The brake levers are still even labeled Lambert! The pedals were a chore to service because the needle bearings had seized together from not being greased in decades. Used a sonic cleaner to ungunk and clean away the rust and they actually functioned well after reassembly.

All components were deep cleaned and reassembled. Some touch up paint and new decals helped it come together as a pretty sharp looking and well functioning bike. Nothing particularly special, but a small part of vintage cycling history and now my wife has an authentic 10 speed drop bar bike to go along with her 1971 Peugeot mixte. It actually rides very nicely and is very light for the era. Only things that are new are the bar tape, cables and housings, chain and decals. I also used some 1k automotive white spray paint to do some touch ups where the paint was in rough shape. Found a set of tires, a pump, a bottle cage, and mounts in my stash that were a good match. I actually spent less than the allowed budget for the Clunker Challenge on this bike. Not too shabby!

To those interested in the very interesting history of Lambert/Viscount, here are a couple of blogs with more details.
Lambert & Viscount bikes
Lambert bikes

triitout

Great find and great restoration! It's not everyday you find one with the half brake hoods still intact or pedals with the "V" dust cap. You might find our www.viscountandlambert.boards.net site full of good info as well. Your wife will enjoy the ride.

Sactown_Albert 

I am amazed how big a fan club these bikes have. They are nicely put together but very quirky. I kept having fit issues with some of my wrenches until it dawned on me that some of the bolts were Imperial, not metric. Glad I had the needed sizes in my toolset!

Velo Mule

This has been my most ridden bike recently. It has been easy to just put a few drops of oil into the AW hub (once in a while), pump up the tires (if needed) and take off. It has come a long way from Post #310 above. It is a true Frankenbike. I don't think there is an original component on the the bike and there is no special organization to the type of parts used.

Frame: England
Fork: Japan
Seat: England
Crank Japan
Pedals: I don't know
Rear derailleur: Japan
Rear hub: England
Rims: France
Brake calipers: EU
Brake pads: USA
Handlebars: France
Spokes: probably Germany, they are most likely Union galvanized spokes
Fenders: Designed in USA (presumably), made in China

The one common theme on the bike is all the parts are vintage.

The latest addition has been the chainring guard. It started life as an Sugino 52t chainring that I cut the teeth off to turn it into a guard. Pictures of this process are posted on "What have you been wrenching on lately" thread, post #6223. I didn't get my pants or shoelace caught in the chainring before, but I thought that this would be a nice addition. I am pleased with the way it turned out. The one negative with this, is that this bike is a Hybrid drive (IGH + derailleur) and with the new chainring guard, you'd have to be pretty astute to pick that up. It looks more like a bike boom 10 speed.



Next step on this build is to braze on cable guides and an end stop for the rear hub cable run now that I am satisfied with the run of it. Originally, I had it going down the down tube to the bottom bracket and then to the rear hub along the chainstay. I had problems with my shoe hitting the cable. This top mount run works better for this application. I am in no rush to get the braze-on's done since this setup with cable ties and a Sturmey-Archer fulcrum clip work perfectly well. There is always the possibility that the fulcrum clip (end stop) could slide down the seat stay since the seat stay has a backwards taper. That is the top of the seat tube, by the seat cluster, is thicker than it is near the rear dropout. It is a feature on the Lamberts that I like. But I broke a tail light as a result of this type of slippage. I thought it was plenty tight. Riding dirt trails, as I tend to do with this bike, causes lots of vibration.

For now, I am just enjoying it. And it is not too precious to get dirty.