CriticalThought

On my walk to work downtown yesterday I saw a sadly typical San Francisco sight, a bicycle locked but pillaged and something about it caught my eye. Today I was able to stop for a moment and identify the remains. It's a Viscount. Does anyone think it worth a salvage attempt? Can anyone identify the fork? It looks original to my untrained eye, but I'm curious if it's one of the infamous "aluminium death forks". I was able to snap a few photos and it doesn't seem identical to those here ClassicRendezvous.com Lambert fork info.

Cheers & Happy Friday.

-Sean

CuttersRidge

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CuttersRidge

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CuttersRidge

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noobinsf 

I once wrote into the "Ethicist" column at the NYTimes asking whether taking the abandoned bike I found was more akin to remediating a blight or "completing" the theft. I never saw the topic covered, and the bike disappeared a few days later, but not at my hands.

CriticalThought

Thanks @noobinsf and @CuttersRidge

I appreciate the info.

You know I find it ironic, or at least darkly appropriate that the fork recall was issued by Yamaha (I'm assuming they were the importers/distributors?) because Yamaha (a company near a dear to my heart because of their instruments and their motorcycles, both of which I love) kept the tuning forks as their corporate logo even for non-musical divisions.

So to see the three superimposed Yamaha tuning forks at the bottom of a fork recall notice made me chuckle.

Yamaha : The history of our logo


PS I also find it cool that Yamaha are still there, at the same address in Buena Park that issued that recall 40 or so years ago... and they still have those tuning forks on (albeit) new signage out front.






1916 Yamaha Logo with forks



Modern Yamaha Logo with forks

FBinNY 

There are two generations of the original fork.

The first was all aluminum, and prone to fatigue at the top of the crown (under the crown race). The initial fix led to the 2nd generation which had a steel pin extending a bit over 2" upward from the crown to reinforce the critical stress point, and/or act as a safety net it cracked.

The pin is visible at the bottom, and yours has it. Be aware, that while this fork fared much better, they still had failures, and ultimately gave up on the aluminum forks.

CriticalThought

Thanks for the caveat and additional clarification @FBinNY !

ironwood

Yamaha bought Viscount Lambert . I don't believe they were the original importer. Somewhere on this forum there is a Lambert Viscount thread.

The bike in the photo doesn't look as if it was abandoned; it was locked with a pretty good lock; but it looks as if someone tried to steal some parts, and may have been stopped or gave up.

unworthy1

I also walk past that bike (nearly) everyday on my way to work and I put the blue tape on the fork blade that calls out "DEATH FORK" so that anybody who winds up with this frame has some warning, but yes it is the 2nd Gen so maybe a little "less deathly". I noticed it months back when it was a complete bicycle, watched it slowly get picked over to this half-carcass state...pretty soon the cops will come by with an angle grinder and take it to their warehouse. If you want to be a Proper Citizen you can try to claim it at one of the Police sell-offs that are talked of but I've never seen a notice for one. Be aware there MIGHT be a small crack at the seat tube top, I have not examined this frame carefully (usually hurrying to get to work) but something there caught my eye.
These frames CAN be pretty fine riders if you replace the fork and can get a workable (and TAPERED) BB into the un-threaded shell.

top506

Cut the lock and PM me. We'll get it back up and running. I LOVE my Viscount, 'death fork' and all.

Top

cb400bill

Actually, there are 3 versions of the Death Fork.

Chombi1 

The SF bike street vultures will have that thing picked clean in less than a week!
I've seen bikes go through that sad process in the City so many times when I walk from the Bart station to my office, almost every week. In the end there usually will just be a rear rim and tire locked to a post left, as the thrives even cut off the spokes to get at the rear hub and FW......

unworthy1

there seems to be a "thriving" business among several of the semi-permanent homeless encampments around town to run bicycle chop-shops out of the tents and lean-tos. I see dozens of half beaten frames and even more wheels littered around and usually some greasy guy pounding on something with a rock...life in the big city.
But in the case of this Viscount, the owner locked it (intact and with 2 wheels and saddle) to that post about 3 months ago and hasn't moved it since. Kind of a too-tempting of a lure for the vultures...surprised it's taken them THIS long to reduce it to the state that it's in.

unworthy1

Update (because so many care) this frame hung onto life for much longer than I'd have bet, it had been reduced to only the bare frame (some unlucky vulture actually stole the death fork and HS!) plus the crappy rear wheel and was being shifted around on the bike rack but nobody succeeded in breaking the Kryptonite U-lock. Until this week when a concrete contractor who poured some fresh patches on the sidewalk in this block removed that rack, poured and surfaced fresh cement and re-installed the rack...sans the frame. Probably went into a dumpster and not the Police warehouse.

Kaminokaze

Oh, So Sad ending. I walked past it a few months back when this Thread was started. I guess it is like a good book. I now know the ending.

billytwosheds 

Interesting story, and funny that @unworthy1 and @CriticalThought both walk by the same bikes in SF.

In case you hadn't seen, there's a big warehouse where stolen bikes SFPD recovers are stored.

Inside San Francisco's stolen bike warehouse - SFGate



I only reported one of my three bikes stolen in SF -- that all happened in one year. SFPD didn't care much, and made it seem like I was wasting their time filling out the paperwork. It was a waste of time.

noglider 

I once got a call from someone saying I should meet him at the train station, as he and others were scavenging from an abandoned bike. I didn't go, and I didn't appreciate the invitation. I am sometimes attempted to do it, but I never do. Even though the owner may not know or care, it would still be taking something that's not mine and is therefore wrong. There is an abandoned bike a block from where I live with a Shimano dynamo hub collecting rust. I'd like the hub, but I'm not going to steal it.