Viking Ian Steel.

Hello all,
Thought I'd post some pictures of a Viking Ian Steel Model which I recently liberated from my Father in Law's garage. I think it's a 1954 model but have yet to confirm that. My Father in Law had it since the late 1950's and it was second (or third) hand to him.
To my own great shame, in the mid 1980's I did the modernisation that you can see now. Though in my defence I do still have most of the original parts stored away in the garage which I will one day put back on. The new parts were to make it easier to ride as originally it had a four speed block and a single front chainset
The paint job is obviously not original. It was done in the mid 80's by Terry Dolan at Cougar cycles, maybe by him personally as a friend of mine at the time knew him very well and had it done for me. It was quite an expensive respray, somewhere around £80 if I remember rightly, but has lasted very well other than a few knocks and dings.
Since getting it I have done nothing to it other than treat the badly dried out saddle. It's a Mansfield saddle which I had never heard of so some research needed there. I treated it with Lord Sheraton Leather Balsam from Asda, £1.75. It has worked very nicely, the photo shows it after only two treatments but I have since done another treatment.

The first thing I want to do is respoke the wheels and I have found a supplier for some rustless spokes as I do not want to use stainless. the original spokes are quite rusty but I will try cleaning them up first as I am a great believer of keeping things as original as possible.

Hope you like the bike. I will try to add more pictures as I go along.
Cheers,
Ian.

Saddle before doing anything.

Saddle after treating.

Head Badge.

That's a tidy looking bike. Stick a Carradice saddlebag on the Mansfield and it's all sorted for some quality Youth Hostel touring. I wouldn't be ashamed of the modernisation, as you say it makes riding the bike a more realistic prospect. I do wonder how I used to cope with only 5 gears in my early cycling days. Luckily that was in Suffollk where the hills are short and not (usually) very steep.

Oh, it's only just occurred to me that the modern Selle Italia Flite saddles owe alot to the old saddles like on your Viking.

Keep the 'photos coming,
Mark.

Thanks Mark. I have the Carradice saddlebag that was on it in the garage. I've had that for years and had forgotten it came off this bike. I also have the original aluminium pump which I also forgot to put on for the photo's.
It's a lovely bike to ride even though it is only plain tubing not butted. The 531 transfer is a 531ST which was put on when it was resprayed and I would rather it wasn't there but I can't really do anything about it!
I'm going to ask my Father in Law if he has any pics of it in it's early days. He and his wife did much of their "courting" on bike tours around the lake district in the late 1950's and this was the bike he rode.
My wife also remembers being taken for rides on the crossbar. He wrapped carpet underlay around the crossbar for her to sit on! Pre health and safety days!

Cheers,

Ian.

Great looking old machine, love it.

Id have a look at the rear mech, maybe a longer cage model or shorten the chain by a few links - should sort the chain tension.

Love the headbadge.

Spokesmann":1tdj8yo5 said:

Great looking old machine, love it.

Id have a look at the rear mech, maybe a longer cage model or shorten the chain by a few links - should sort the chain tension.

Click to expand...

Ooops. I hadn't noticed the chain tension. I'll look into that. I took it for a ride after I got it and the gearchange was smooth as anything so I'm a bit puzzled at the moment.

Ian.

nice bit of kit , lovely