Hi, firstly please forgive me diving right in with a mit full of questions! I'll give a brief intro to soften the blow.
My name is Alistair, usually Ali, or Al, no preference. I ride MTBs (please no booing at the back!) time is probably equally split between a full sus and a hardtail, however.........
This winter I made a conscious decision to cut down on trips to the forest over the winter months and instead concentrated on more XC trails, railway lines and bridleways as it's easier to ride from home and i am growing tired of battling through the mud of the forest.
I must admit though that I am now starting to find myself drifting towards fancying a CX bike as I'm enjoying the feeling of getting into a nice rhythm and just covering ground. I have nothing against road biking, it's just the idea of sharing the road with cars that's not for me.
Soooooooo, finally the point of this post draws near, some time ago I was given a Viscount Sebring International by my wife's uncle who used to ride a lot back in his day. He retired from riding and sold his bike (think he said it was a Holdsworth and was apparently very nice) then after bumping into an old riding friend some time later he then bought the Viscount as he couldn't justify spending a big sum.
I'm not sure quite how much use this bike got, but he gave it to me in April 2015 and told me to sell it and keep whatever money I got.
Although I have no real interest in road bikes, there was something about it that I liked so I stored it in the spare room as I didn't want it to get damaged in the garage, and that's how it's been left.
His health has gone downhill lately to such an extent that he's been in hosp for the last 5 weeks. This has got me thinking that it may be nice if i was to get the bike back on the road and maybe take a pic or two of it somewhere nice.
Now, as my MTBs seem to consume any "spare" money that I have, my budget for doing this is pretty low, think bare minimum! I am also under no illusion that this bike is in some way special, I just think it's old, has a charm and is worth getting back in the road.
As my knowledge of anything to do with road biking is zero, please be gentle with dumb or obvious questions as I really am clueless in this area, however I don't have a problem with advice or opinions, although the wife may not agree with that.
Ok so here goes, the paint is in nice condition, and I like the colour, so was thinking of removing the Sebring and international decals (as they seem to have slipped and are in a poor state) but keeping the rest. I think this will do the bike a big favour.
After that I was thinking of cleaning up the aluminium and chrome bits as best I can. The wheels look like the biggest job, and with two kids (who both ride) an other bike build on the go, and life in general, I'm pushed for time, so was thinking of replacing them with some retro style 700c wheels (existing are 27). My logic is this, it'll save loads of time, get a lighter set of modern wheels (retro style) on there, introducing QRs and give me room for a bigger tyre due to the small increase in clearance. I've looked at the brake calipers and am pretty confident there's room for the adjustment required for the pads to reach the rims. I'm guessing I'll also need to replace the brake blocks due to age.
I am not after anything fancy, just a set of wheels that won't look too out of place, will go straight on and give me QR.
It came set up as 1X5, which should make things interesting, and has a Shimano 500 derailleur, so I'm assuming that the 500 denotes 5 speed so that's going to be set in stone.
I'll obviously need tyres and tubes as the existing are shot, was thinking of tan coloured bar tape.
As already stated, opinions and advice greatfully received, specifically what wheels would work as like I say, when it comes to road bikes, I'm a total newbie and have no idea about axle sizes and the like.
If I can work out how to reduce the size of a photo then I will post one and then I can supply pics of anything if needed.
Thanks in advance for any help.
My name is Alistair, usually Ali, or Al, no preference. I ride MTBs (please no booing at the back!) time is probably equally split between a full sus and a hardtail, however.........
This winter I made a conscious decision to cut down on trips to the forest over the winter months and instead concentrated on more XC trails, railway lines and bridleways as it's easier to ride from home and i am growing tired of battling through the mud of the forest.
I must admit though that I am now starting to find myself drifting towards fancying a CX bike as I'm enjoying the feeling of getting into a nice rhythm and just covering ground. I have nothing against road biking, it's just the idea of sharing the road with cars that's not for me.
Soooooooo, finally the point of this post draws near, some time ago I was given a Viscount Sebring International by my wife's uncle who used to ride a lot back in his day. He retired from riding and sold his bike (think he said it was a Holdsworth and was apparently very nice) then after bumping into an old riding friend some time later he then bought the Viscount as he couldn't justify spending a big sum.
I'm not sure quite how much use this bike got, but he gave it to me in April 2015 and told me to sell it and keep whatever money I got.
Although I have no real interest in road bikes, there was something about it that I liked so I stored it in the spare room as I didn't want it to get damaged in the garage, and that's how it's been left.
His health has gone downhill lately to such an extent that he's been in hosp for the last 5 weeks. This has got me thinking that it may be nice if i was to get the bike back on the road and maybe take a pic or two of it somewhere nice.
Now, as my MTBs seem to consume any "spare" money that I have, my budget for doing this is pretty low, think bare minimum! I am also under no illusion that this bike is in some way special, I just think it's old, has a charm and is worth getting back in the road.
As my knowledge of anything to do with road biking is zero, please be gentle with dumb or obvious questions as I really am clueless in this area, however I don't have a problem with advice or opinions, although the wife may not agree with that.
Ok so here goes, the paint is in nice condition, and I like the colour, so was thinking of removing the Sebring and international decals (as they seem to have slipped and are in a poor state) but keeping the rest. I think this will do the bike a big favour.
After that I was thinking of cleaning up the aluminium and chrome bits as best I can. The wheels look like the biggest job, and with two kids (who both ride) an other bike build on the go, and life in general, I'm pushed for time, so was thinking of replacing them with some retro style 700c wheels (existing are 27). My logic is this, it'll save loads of time, get a lighter set of modern wheels (retro style) on there, introducing QRs and give me room for a bigger tyre due to the small increase in clearance. I've looked at the brake calipers and am pretty confident there's room for the adjustment required for the pads to reach the rims. I'm guessing I'll also need to replace the brake blocks due to age.
I am not after anything fancy, just a set of wheels that won't look too out of place, will go straight on and give me QR.
It came set up as 1X5, which should make things interesting, and has a Shimano 500 derailleur, so I'm assuming that the 500 denotes 5 speed so that's going to be set in stone.
I'll obviously need tyres and tubes as the existing are shot, was thinking of tan coloured bar tape.
As already stated, opinions and advice greatfully received, specifically what wheels would work as like I say, when it comes to road bikes, I'm a total newbie and have no idea about axle sizes and the like.
If I can work out how to reduce the size of a photo then I will post one and then I can supply pics of anything if needed.
Thanks in advance for any help.
