No idea how I managed that, but

Joe's got the bug. He's the one who approached me after buying a Viscount frame and, according to him, is reasonably glad he's found me. The reason being is that he went to a bike shop to find out what to do with the bottom bracket and they simply did what bike shops with no idea about this 'weird' assembly do: they knocked it out and damaged the spindle irreparably in the process! Makes me a tad sad to hear that. Not that Joe brought it to a bike shop, but that those people he trusted to fix his frame, actually did quite the contrary. Those spindles are very, very difficult to find and suitable replacements are expensive. 

Yes, you can knock the BB out, but in order to do that, you need to screw the bolt into the spindle (completely) and the washer underneath it. It can still do a lot of damage, particularly when there's corrosion thrown into the mix. It's also not the most elegant solution either. And the bolt will possibly be yesterday's news as well.

However, we met up for a coffee so I could hand over the--still bottom bracketless--frame in order for him to recreate the white/red colour scheme of the Lambert G.P, while my tool's in surgery. It had taken a knock when it got bent and didn't survive the 'dry run' I'd done before turning to Joe's frame. Good thing, methinks; I'd rather it breaks with bits sticking in the spindle of my frame than breaking when working on a customer's frame. 

A bit of a bummer, nonetheless, as I'd planned to fit three BBs, and they're all spindles with a 5/16 thread. Well done, Stella! *sigh*

Lambert anyone? Joe's so strong, he can hold up two!

Anyway, I brought my Lambert frame along to the cafe to show Joe how it should look like and he got all excited--finally he is able to do something himself, get his hands dirty. He's already mirror polishing the death fork (mark III, the safe one) and can't wait to ride the bike when it's ready. 

To give him an idea, I literally made him ride all my Viscounts (the three that are complete), and he's rather much in love with the red flash. The blue one's gears need to be set up correctly, although I did a 2-hour ride on it today with hardly any problems or rub.

Colourmatching or what?

To be honest, since I've swapped the stem and put on new handlebar tape, I feel really good and comfortable on that blue Sport. The brakes are super sharp, even though I had to adjust the rear before I left for the ride. I find the skip-tooth freewheel makes for much easier pedalling than the normal 14 to 28 ratio. Pure joy if you just air for a light exercise.

No, I will not be defeated! Unlike a certain hex key ...

When you're new to bicycles, everyone will tell you that old bikes always come with problems. I never objected to such commentary, but it also never put me off. Most of mine are almost 40 years old and given that age, they've actually all been quite all right to work on, bar one, which is now a case for an expensive repair job, but that can wait.
Shawn had been my biggest challenge, but mostly because I didn't know what I was doing. Now, several Viscounts and one Lambert later, plus much better equipped with tools, most of the little hurdles are easily overcome.
As reported in my previous post, the bottom bracket was so shot, it disintegrated when I knocked it out. I assume even if I'd used the puller tool, it would have come apart, leaving one of the outer bearing races stuck in the drive side--a rather annoying thing to happen if you don't have a fully working hammer. The one I have can safely be called vintage with its wooden handle, but that's not really the issue; the head flying off as soon as I use that tool, however, is.

8 Oz hammer, look how shiny it is! And a centre punch

Time for a new, modern, hammer; I needed to get some Emery paper anyway to prepare the spindles, and while I was there I also got a centre punch and circlip pliers, something every Viscount & Lambert mechanic needs. Unfortunately I can't recommend using the centre punch during an operation 'free the bottom bracket shell from unwanted metal ring'--at least not if you're keen on not hurting yourself. Tried to do that for about two minutes by not wacking it hard enough, which resulted in my fingers being safe, but also in the bearing race staying where it was. Dammit! I needed a bigger tool. A screw driver was perfect, and the combination of that (with my fingers out of the way) and the new hammer doing a fine job, the bearing race was out soon. I then checked the frame and can report that it's not damaged! Hallelujah!

Gotcha!

Lambert bottom bracket shell still intact!

Now all I needed to do is part that stem from the fork.
After sweating over the stem bolt which refused to turn, leaving me with some unwanted Tool Art, I bought another set of imperial-sized hex keys and got cracking. Literally. My biggest worry was that it wouldn't come loose and that I'd have to saw through the stem; something you don't want to think about since it's the original Lambert stem which takes the L- or V-branded bolts. With that new hex key in place and an old steel seat post with seat still attached (don't ask!), I gave it some welly and with a mighty crack it came loose. Phew! I guess the repeated spraying with rust dissolver played a big part in that, too.

Apparently I'm Superwoman

Freed for the first time in 40 years!

Corroded stem bolt!

As you can tell from the pictures, the stem bolt's corrosion is too heavy. Luckily I still have the bolt from the stem that broke a few weeks ago. It looks, though, as if I won't be using the stem anyway as it's 100mm, which may be a tad too long for me on the 22.5 inch frame. Need to test it. Anyway, all parts are now cleaned and ready to be mirror polished. Next picture of that Lambert will be taken when we're

out on a ride. :-)

If it hadn't been for that damn Viscount!

I'm taking a moment to reflect on my Viscount journey as it was roughly about this time last year, when I started to research more about Viscounts, reading quite a bit on the CTC Viscount bicycles thread. I knew the bottom bracket needed urgent attention, even more so after my friend was complaining about the wobble when she rode the bike for a bit. When thinking back I can still see me sitting in the garden, hammering the spindle and bearings out, then, upstairs in my living room, without any bike tools, hammering the new bearings and spindle back to a fully functioning bottom bracket. Doesn't matter that I broke a mallet and a hammer in the process. At that point I had been in touch with Steve, who'd guided me, and distrusted any bike shop with regards to Viscounts' unique bottom brackets. If someone had to break it, then at least it would have been me and not someone else. Good thing then, that I didn't do any damage.
I'm keeping that to now, being I'm a certified bike mechanic--makes so much more sense, doesn't it? Do you hear the sarcasm dripping from those words? Yes? Good, because that's exactly how I'd meant it. In all fairness, though, I've learned that every bike mechanic does mistakes--no matter how experienced; I'm in good company.
Today, I've put the Lambert frame into the stand, full of anticipation. The plan was to strip it, clean it, check it over, put it back together. A plan the bike didn't agree with and stubbornly refused to cooperate.
The first thing to go pear-shaped was the left-hand crank. While the drive side came off with no problems whatsoever, the left thread stripped and the crank extractor didn't grip. Taken the relatively fresh and large amount of grease on the bolts (what for I have no idea, to be honest), my bet is on someone wanting to fix the shot bottom bracket and quickly giving up due to not knowing what to do with it. That person must have already stripped some of the thread leaving me only little to work with.

Bent puller tool

Because I'm such a genius, I had the grandiose idea to just pull the spindle through and push the crank off on the other side. What else do I have this great tool--specially made for me--for? tThe idea was going in the right direction, the execution, however, not so. The cracking sounds was frightening, and I stopped immediately. The crank arm on the none-drive side had pushed the bearing a tiny bit inside. Okay, that wasn't working like I'd envisioned it. A brief moment of thinking and I decided to pull the spindle from the other side. Again, inventive, yet not recommended. As I've now got a crank arm with a damaged thread and some dents from the tool, which was now also bent. A sudden rush of panic spread through me; this tool is a precision tool and took ages to be made, if I'd broken it, it would've been a disaster. Needless to say that the spindle didn't move one bit and was still in the frame, plus both bearings. Hmmm.
I really needed a cuppa and a new solution.
To make matters worse, the stem bolt is royally seized up. Nothing that normally concerns me, because I've never been defeated by a seized stem, but that bugger just didn't move. Not one bit; instead the imperial-sized Allen key, made out of cheese, twisted, rendering it useless. I'd sprayed rust dissolver (similar to Plus Gas) onto and into it from all possible angles--still nothing. Guess I'll have to buy a 'proper' one and then give it another go. If anything else fails, it'll get the tool-in-vice treatment. On the other hand, it's only the bearings that need replacing, so may just do that, tighten the headset and may not need to get the stem out for now.
Anyway, back to the bottom bracket: with the tool still bent, and the left hand crank attached, I did the one thing I knew would work: screwed in the bolt into the drive side and hammered it out.
After that I had an idea of how to bend the tool back and succeeded, being finally able to push the bearing and crank off the spindle, which is a tad corroded, but nothing serious. It can easily be cleaned, polished and re-fitted. Not too bad after being 40 years in use, isn't it?

Slightly corroded spindle

Luckily, the bearings are easy to get (6003 2RS) and since yesterday night, I also know how to fit the bottom bracket using the tool. Easy, really.

Rather shot bearing.

Unfortunately, the remaining bearing didn't come out in one piece as I'd expected. In the absence of a collet, I normally use a long bolt with a slightly rounded head and tap the bearing out--gently! This time, though, the bearing fell apart--did I mention it was completely shot?--with bist and pieces flying everywhere; everything but the outer race, which is still sitting in the frame. This will need some careful approach as any damage to the frame could potentially mean that the new bearings might not fit snugly anymore.
A tad frustrated, I decided to give it a rest for the day and finish the job at a later point. You know me, I'm not one to give up, so this frame will be rolling on London's streets very soon. Watch this space.
And just a side note for you: I usually wear gloves and my hands don't always look as leathery. For some reason, I started on the bike without gloves getting dirty pretty quickly.

My first Lambert: An Aerospace G.P.

I'm happy to announce that I've got a new addition to my fleet: my very first, rather original Lambert. The previous owner had it sitting for ages without wheels and then decided to sell it on. He'd got it from his friend and loved it, but just didn't get round to fixing it up. He said he's really glad it's gone to a good home.
So here it is; a story in pictures. Needs a bit of work: the bearings and headset are shot but, hopefully, the spindle is fine. I'll pull out the BB tomorrow to see what going on.
I think I won't do a restoration job as it would destroy the character of this bike, but I'll clean the whole thing up to get an idea what's going on, then build new wheels and will then happily ride it.
Oh, and it's a 22.5 frame, so it's pretty spot on. I couldn't be happier even if I tried.

Viscounts all around and a little help here and there

I was finally able to take my friend's yellow flash for a test ride and went to Hackney to enquire about something for a customer. On my way I had to stop at Mamachari to show off the little beauty and Jacobo, who's been working there for a while, was more than happy to see me to look after the shop for a minute. Not a problem, and possibly fate, as the door opened and someone pushed in ... guess what? Yep, a Viscount. My eyes grew wide and I immediately told him I loved him (no kidding!). The guy laughed and I started to take a closer look, when it dawned on me that it's Carlos, who I'd stopped a few months ago, when I was on my way to work. As you're aware I am like that: I see someone on a Viscount and demand a chat. Crazy, I know. Could be worse, I guess.
He greeted me with a wide grin and said that he'd been in the shop last week to get a new seat post; the one he'd had was too short for him, and he said he'd left it with Noah with the words: Please, give it to the Viscount girl. I immediately went on a hunt for the seat post and dug it out. Upon laying my eyes on it my heart accelerated and I asked if I could give him a hug as it was exactly what I was looking for for the rally bike: an in perfect nick alloy seat post which, if I'm not mistaken, it's original, too, as it's 26.8mm, a rather unusual size--typical for Viscounts' Aerospace frames.

Imagine this one mirror polished!

26.8 "vintage" alloy seat post

The bolts need replacing, but other than that ...

You can probably imagine that I was a happy bunny, and to prove that he's happy about handing this sexy seat post over to me, here's a picture of both of us with our Viscounts and me holding the desired piece in my hands. Thank you, Carlos! I hope you're reading this.

And it doesn't end here. I wasn't sure if I should post this, but why not? In the end this all is happening because of this blog. Rewind to Monday:
I got a call from my mate and colleague at Micycle, and he informed me that, on Sunday, someone walked in, Viscount frame and crank set tugged under his arm, asking for me. I was a bit baffled, and thought about someone else who Noah had sent my way, but nope it was someone who'd read my blog (hi, Joseph :-) and was very much inspired by my enthusiasm. By the sounds of it, I was his only hope to get his Viscount project off the ground. The frame is a gorgeous fillet-brazed one with braze-on cable guides, but it's a tad tricky to find out what exactly it is. Joseph explained it came with the original alloy fork (by the sounds of it either a mark 2 or 3--therefore safe to ride) and original long-reach centre pull brakes, which would point (for me) to an Aerospace Pro as some came with 700c wheels. The curious thing is that it has a cut out at the bottom bracket (where the number normally is) and I've not seen that before, but am in contact with Steve, the expert and will send pictures to get this frame identified. Joseph and I have decided to stick with the press-fit bottom bracket (wise decision), and I'm getting the wheels (pardon the pun) in motion to source a spindle. For your information: normally the bearings would be 6003 2RS, which stands for two rubber seals. Very exciting times for me as I can make use of my wonderful Viscount bottom bracket puller and installation tool. Phil Wood, here I come! And the frame will also get a lovely powder coating and lacquer, plus transfers.
I'm deeply honoured to help with this project, not only because it's another Viscount saved from rotting, but mainly because Joseph is putting his trust in my expertise, not only as a Viscount crazy girl, but also as a mechanic. It means a lot to me. Pictures of the project will, of course, be taken and put on this very blog. If the owner agrees, that is.