Old british bikes

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Goldie

Über Member
When I was younger, I had a pair of fantastic junior racing bikes. The first was a Viscount, in pearl white ith anodised blue mudguards and KP Crisps advertising decals; the second was a Viking in dark metallic blue with a lovely engraved "v" pattern around the rim of the wheel. About the same time, my dad had an immense bronze Carlton touring bike that had, if I remember rightly, a decal of a bloke on a bike circled by a laurelon the front of the headstock.

I've recently got back into riding, and I'm literally having dreams about these bikes. Can anyone fill me in on the companies, what happened to them and if possible, the models that these might have been? :becool:
 

wafflycat

New Member
Hilldodger's yer man for cycling history.

No, let me re-phrase that: Hilldodger is THE Man for cycling history.
 

Vikeonabike

CC Neighbourhood Police Constable
I think Viking did a kids racer called the Warlord in the 70's missed out on one on e-bay last month for my boy.
 

XmisterIS

Purveyor of fine nonsense
I bought an old clonker as a commuter (some Raleigh thing from the 1960's). It weighed a ton and all the parts were funny sizes that didn't match anything on Wiggle, Chainreaction, etc. It didn't even have an Aheadset or a sealed bottom bracket!

So I stuck it in the back of the garage and bought myself a proper commuter! :laugh:

(I'll get me coat).
 
When I was about 16 I had a Granby with beautiful CL chainset and round cranks. God I must be old!

Later, I had my Dad's road racing bike he bought from Pete Matthews, the one he won a Merseyside Champs RR on. It is a Soensport. It is still at the back of my garage but was resprayed & has no decals. Shame!

My Mum (89) has a metallic green Carlton in her garage, unused for around 2 years and also there is my Dad's old Harry Quinn which is a gold metallic. She gave his hand built one (can't remember name but was built in Northwich) to her brother in law. He will probably ride it with his arches on the pedals etc!
 
OP
OP
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Goldie

Über Member
Norm - my viking was a ringer for yours, only it had teeny tiny vestigial wheel arches and was a five speed rather than 10...

Longers -no photos of the viking and viscount I'm afraid - I was interrogating my old man on the subject just this morning.

I see a bloke riding to work on a carlton that looks a lot like my dad's - it kind of has metallic brown on the heasdstock, , top and bottom of seat post and rear of frame fading to bronze everywhere else. I've considered trying to flag him down and make him an offer for it but I feel like that would register quite high on the loony scale.

That viscount aerospace is lovely - mine wasn't anything like as high tech as that - it had (I think) a 16" frame and again, was only five speed. But it was a lovely looking thing. If I could find it, I'd buy kit now just to hang above the fireplace.

Keep those photos coming, they are great.
 
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