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Vintage Road Bike - Please help identify

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Vintage Road Bike - Please help identify

Old 10-05-20, 09:46 PM
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jessj
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Vintage Road Bike - Please help identify

I really hope I'm posting this in the correct place? Thank you in advance for any direction. I'm fairly new to vintage road bikes but recently I've acquired a few to try my hand at restoration. I picked up this bike today because I was intrigued a bit by the crank, the leather bar grip and the seat. The seat is a Middlemore, reminiscent of a Brooks. The crank is unlike any that my novice eyes have seen. The bar grip is stitched, similarly to a car steering wheel. The brakes are Weinmann 605, the rear derailleur is Shimano Crane, the front derailleur is a Shimano Titlist and the rims are Mavic with a red label. The serial number is 009990 KB. There is a small red cap with the letter V on both the seat post tensioner and the handlebar stem bolt. The entire bike, including wheels, weighs in at ~ 21 lbs. Being new, I still struggle to identify the joints... is this fillet brazed?

Looks like I'm unable to add photos or a link to Google Drive. Guess I'll look to contribute here to the community!

Thank you again for the assist.

Last edited by jessj; 10-05-20 at 09:58 PM. Reason: Adding a detail
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Old 10-05-20, 10:15 PM
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Welcome to the forums, with regular contribution you will be able to upload photos soon. Without photos it's hard to identify the bike but the equipment you have described has me guessing that its a bike from the 70s. Are there any stickers on the bike or any other identifying factors on the frame itself?
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Old 10-05-20, 10:22 PM
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Thank you for the rapid response! No stickers at all but the frame is gray with the exception of a black stretch on the seat tube which is about 8 inches long, in about the same area that Raleigh and Trek of the same era had the contrast paint. The head tube is also painted black. I forgot to mention the front fork is fully chrome.

Thank you kindly
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Old 10-05-20, 10:33 PM
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21 lbs means this is something special.

Mavic rims, Weinmann brakes, imply decent or better.

Crane rear derailleur is really good but could easily be aftermarket.

Middlemore saddle is completely unknown to me.

The V on the bolts rings a bell. Could it be a VISCOUNT?

Viscount used to have a proprietary crank with large round holes in the chain wheels. They also used fillet brazing or some such. Most I ever saw were silver in color with blue panels.




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Old 10-05-20, 10:37 PM
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Yes!! The crank has 6 large holes! I think we may be close!!
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Old 10-05-20, 10:39 PM
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I posted pics of an example after you posted.

Does yours have a steel or aluminum fork?
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Old 10-05-20, 10:40 PM
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That is it! Boy that was quick! I love this forum!!! Thank you so much! Is this decent bike?
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Old 10-06-20, 02:10 AM
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Sounds like a Viscount. Here is a picture of my Viscount Aerospace Pro


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Old 10-06-20, 06:32 AM
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Originally Posted by jessj
That is it! Boy that was quick! I love this forum!!! Thank you so much! Is this decent bike?
Yes, Viscount bikes (also marketed as Lambert bikes) were decent, with a couple of caveats.

The bikes were originally equipped with an aluminum fork that used a failure-prone design for attaching the steerer tube to the fork crown. If your bike's fork is aluminum, it should definitely be replaced. (Yamaha Corporation bought the rights to Viscount bikes some time in the 1970s and assumed responsibility for replacing the defective forks, so if your fork is aluminum, check with Yamaha for a replacement.)

The company that manufactured the Lambert/Viscount bikes produced many of the bike's components as well, including the brakes, hubs, derailleurs, pedals, and crankset.

I can't remember all the details, since it's been a long time since I working in a shop that sold Lamberts, but I think that the hubs might have used sealed industrial bearings instead of the cup-and-cone bearings used by all other hub manufacturers at the time.

Most of the other proprietary components were of decent but not great quality, with the exception of the crankset, which used a peculiar nontapered crank/spindle interface that relied on a splined washer to hold the crank in place. Not a great design. The workaround for installing a crankset with a standard crank/spindle interface was to pull the (sealed) bearings from the bottom bracket and cut new threads in the bottom bracket shell (36 x 24 Italian threading worked, I believe).

All that said, the frame seems to have been durable enough and is very light. I remember how thrilled we were to be able to sell a 21-pound Lambert at a price about 25% lower than that of other bikes of comparable weight.
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Old 10-06-20, 06:55 AM
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Thank you very much gang! This is definitely the bike. The crank is unmistakable, it is certainly what drew me in and forced me to cough up the $20. The front fork appears to have been replaced from the "death fork" which I just read up on.

Any background on that Middlemore seat? It seems to be of comparable quality to the couple of Brooks saddles that I have.
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Old 10-06-20, 07:06 AM
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The Middlemore saddle is of similar design to a Brooks. My understanding is that the leather was a bit thinner.
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Old 10-07-20, 05:32 AM
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Thanks again for all of the help here. She's starting to clean up nicely but I did notice a dime size dent on the top tube. Bummer. But I'll still ride it I think.
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