Bitsa from next door

[Dec66]

May I jump in and hijack this thread for a second, since there are obviously Viking experts about? My first drop-handlebar bike was a Viking, but I can't remember the model. I would have been about 12 and it was new, so made in about 1965. It won't have been anything exciting or exotic, as my parents bought it for me to replace a junior Halfords thing I grew up on. It was a 5-speed with a rear mech by Huret and a single downtube lever held on by a clamp as the frame didn't have any threaded mounts for levers, cages etc. Think it might have had pump lugs. Brakes were possibly Weinmann and side-pulls - pretty sure they were stamped-out steel, not alloy. Steel dimpled rims, 27" with 1.25 tan wall tyres. The paint job was the same layout as the Hosteller above, but in pale blue and a purple/lilac colour. I'll know the model name if anyone says it, but I can't remember it at the moment. Any remembered info or even a link to a picture would be brilliant. OK, hijack over, thank you and goodnight.

This might help?

http://classicvikingcycles.com/catalogues-etc/catalogues/1962-viking-catalogue/

Or maybe this..?

http://classicvikingcycles.com/catalogues-etc/catalogues/1967-viking-catalogue/

Both list specifications for brakes, gears, rims etc.

You've also helped me by saying that your shifter was held on by a clamp; I've been labouring under the misapprehension that, because the frame did not have a threaded hole in either the top- or down-tubes, that it must have come with a bar-end shifter. That impression was reinforced by seeing a Viking frame with such a hole in the down tube...

I suppose I could make it any model I want really as they all seem to have the same frame.

 

[Dec66]

View attachment 549766

Note the top tube pump mounting.

Will you be repainting the badge?

Yes, I was thinking of just using Humbrol Enamel for that.

 

[RichardB]

This might help?

http://classicvikingcycles.com/catalogues-etc/catalogues/1962-viking-catalogue/

Yes! It was the Conquest model, C5. Thank you so much. I have had a nostalgic 10 minutes looking at the pic and reading the spec list. I think mine must have been in the Light Blue and Plum colour combination.

"Viking Conquest", yes, it's all coming back to me ...

 

[raleighnut]

I suppose I could make it any model I want really as they all seem to have the same frame.

Similar to a lot of Raleigh and Carlton bikes, change the paintjob and fit different components and it's a different bike

 

[classic33]

Yes! It was the Conquest model, C5. Thank you so much. I have had a nostalgic 10 minutes looking at the pic and reading the spec list. I think mine must have been in the Light Blue and Plum colour combination.

"Viking Conquest", yes, it's all coming back to me ...

Another "Norman"?

 

[classic33]

Conquest pcture and specifications here
https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/bitsa-from-next-door.266754/post-6141639

 

[RichardB]

Thank you. Mucho nostalgia.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Similar to a lot of Raleigh and Carlton bikes, change the paintjob and fit different components and it's a different bike

I don't think that practice was confined to Raleigh! If you think about it, for off-the-peg road frames, you only really need relaxed wide-clearance geometry (touring/utility/commuting), sportier geometry (day rides & fitness), and quick, close-clearance geometry (wannabee racers) and that pretty much covers 99% of your market.

Offer all of the above in gas pipe, 501, and 531 options, with matching quality level components and you've got a full product range, which you can change the colour scheme of now and again. Why build a multiplicity of slightly different frames in small numbers when a handful of variants will satisfy the mass market?

 

[Dec66]

Quick update; stripped most of the ironmongery off it today, but I need to find my big spanner for the headset.

You shouldn't speak ill of the departed, but I'm cursing the old bugger for sticking not one, but two leather pads for his palms on either side of the bars, and putting them on with electrical tape. The Stanley knife has been zipping all over the shop.

Still, he kept everything greased, which is a mixed blessing; hardly anything has seized apart from the toeclips on the pedals (I'd like to rescue the toeclips, but the pedals will be binned). The downside is that everything is caked in crud.

The bottom bracket still seems smooth, with no play in it. The hubs also run nice and smoothly (Maillard, I discovered when I cleaned off the crud).

The forks are chrome plated, but sadly this is well pitted. There's a place in Sutton who can replate them, so I may give them a buzz.



Rear cassette is sound.

I'm waiting on a Huret rear derailleur I picked up from eBay, the guy has thrown in the front mech as well but I don't think I'll have any use for that. Incidentally, if anyone want a Shimano Tourney derailleur from the 70s, let me know.

 

[Dec66]

BB out this morning, apart from the drive side housing which I need a bigger spanner for (cf. nut on head tube)

It's in much better shape than I dared hope for: all bearings present and correct, along with their crown housings.



All they'll need is a clean-up and regreasing. Anyone have any idea what make the BB is?

While I'm picking your brains; one of the crank arms is Japanese (obviously not original), but the other one is French and may be... But this is the only clue I have:



Any ideas?

Finally for now: there's another stamp on the frame which says "NERVEX" (the lugs), and something else which I couldn't make out:

 

[Dec66]

Oh, one other thing: I have a Huret down-tube shifter coming soon.

Oh, and one other, other thing: hub, as described yesterday:



They run so nicely that I really don't fancy taking them apart.

 

[RichardB]

Finally for now: there's another stamp on the frame which says "NERVEX" (the lugs), and something else which I couldn't make out:

View attachment 550618

Can you take another photo with a torch shining cross-ways across the letters? You get the indentations in shadow and it makes the letters clearer. A tip from my archaeology days when trying to read weather-worn inscriptions on stone

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

They run so nicely that I really don't fancy taking them apart.

What I sometimes do is a precautionary grease top-up rather than a full strip and bearing overhaul. I loosen a cone locknut then lay the wheel flat on it's side on a hard surface. I undo the cone facing skywards enough to see the ball bearings and force in some grease using my finger. Then I screw up the cone finger-tight, then give the wheel a spin before flipping it over. I loosen the cone again, usually the same one now facing downwards, ensuring the weight of the wheel stays on the lower bearings, until I can see the bearings in the upper side. More grease is forced in then the cone screwed back up again so the balls can't come out of position.
So long as you're careful this method is quick and avoids lost balls, or the need to wash everything in solvent, then dry it and reassemble. I only do this if the bearings don't feel like a handful of pebbles have been thrown in the hub, meaning the balls aren't badly pitted and there's no gritty debris in there.. If the hub is really rough it gets a full stripdown regardless, as I have found fragmented balls in them before now - which don't tend to rotate too smoothly!

 

[Dec66]

What I sometimes do is a precautionary grease top-up rather than a full strip and bearing overhaul. I loosen a cone locknut then lay the wheel flat on it's side on a hard surface. I undo the cone facing skywards enough to see the ball bearings and force in some grease using my finger. Then I screw up the cone finger-tight, then give the wheel a spin before flipping it over. I loosen the cone again, usually the same one now facing downwards, ensuring the weight of the wheel stays on the lower bearings, until I can see the bearings in the upper side. More grease is forced in then the cone screwed back up again so the balls can't come out of position.
So long as you're careful this method is quick and avoids lost balls, or the need to wash everything in solvent, then dry it and reassemble. I only do this if the bearings don't feel like a handful of pebbles have been thrown in the hub, meaning the balls aren't badly pitted and there's no gritty debris in there.. If the hub is really rough it gets a full stripdown regardless, as I have found fragmented balls in them before now - which don't tend to rotate too smoothly!

Think it's worth squirting some WD40 or GT85 in there through the straw, to break up any loose clag?

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Think it's worth squirting some WD40 or GT85 in there through the straw, to break up any loose clag?

If the bearings are stiff it might loosen them up, but neither of those products is suitable as a wheel bearing lubricant. If you dissolve any old hardened grease, you will still need to replace it with fresh stuff. It will tell you whether you have rough gritty bearings or just dry but otherwise serviceable ones though.