Viscount Death Fork

[Guzziracer]

Hi , I’ve recently begun resurrecting an ancient Viscount racer. Absolutely beautiful piece of cycling history with a bit of a dark past. Apparently the alloy forks has an occasional propensity for snapping off just below the headset. Viscount then re-engineered them twice. Legend has it that the 2nd and especially 3rd design were “safe”. I have the 3rd design fortunately. Just wondering what peoples opinion are of the trustworthy ness, or not, of these ancient blips on cycling history and might this bike kill me.(many have tried:)

[Guzziracer]

Also, the crank axle is also quite unusual in this Viscount. The axle spins between 2 “motorcycle wheel” style bearings and is secured by circlips. Apparently there are also some recorded issues of the crank axles snapping at the circlip indent. If I need to replace this setup with a traditional threaded setup is there a specialist in sydney that can tap threads into the bottom crank retaining lug.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ahFKFgWvJGE2joz86

[warthog1]

Keep the fork.
Just put another one that wont break in, if you are to ride it.

[Guzziracer]

Apparently the Japanese Yamaha company purchased Viscount and became so horrified at the possibility of their brand being associated with the “Death Fork” legend they issued a recall of all versions of the alloy forks… wonder if Yamaha Australia would still honour this, they are possibly bound to it by Australian consumer law. Think I’d rather just fit some steel forks and as suggested, hang on to the originals.

[trailgumby]

Apparently the Japanese Yamaha company purchased Viscount and became so horrified at the possibility of their brand being associated with the “Death Fork” legend they issued a recall of all versions of the alloy forks… wonder if Yamaha Australia would still honour this, they are possibly bound to it by Australian consumer law. Think I’d rather just fit some steel forks and as suggested, hang on to the originals.

Hmm. You need to be realistic. It's unlikely they would be able to locate stock of the replacement parts now, some 30 to 40 years or more down the track, and it's unlikely that consumer law would grant you the rights now, either. When saying this, I'm assuming it's not a department store bike, meaning the use of D/T shifters dates it to no later than the early nineties.

It's going to be a stretch to make the argument the new owners should be on the hook forever, especially when the typical service life of a bicycle is considered. And if it is a department store bike, the reasonable service life expectation is even shorter.

I agree with you that your best option is the steel fork.

[Rovert]

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[ldrcycles]

I would pop some steel forks on there for riding. Not because of any concern about the aluminium forks breaking, but because the very few aluminium forks I've ridden on felt dreadful. They transmitted a whole lot of road buzz that steel or carbon forks don't.

[Rovert]

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[Rovert]

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[Guzziracer]

Here is the link to pics of the offending item
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ahFKFgWvJGE2joz86

[P!N20]

Good post on so called 'death' and 'suicide' components:

http://bikeretrogrouch.blogspot.com/201 ... cycle.html

The Viscount fork gets a mention, and probably isn't as bad as the internet would have you believe.

[Thoglette]

You can, (and for critical items, probably should) get old aluminium parts “crack tested” on a regular basis (aka NDT).

An increasing number of bike shops can do this, or know who to use (in parts of motorsport and many industries NDT is an everyday item)

[Guzziracer]

Finally up n running with new(old) Zeus seat post and Zeus derailleur .. can anyone suggest a bike shop or business in Southern Sydney that does NonDestructiveTesting?
Rode it to the corner and back to check the gears but not game to go further until front end is checked professionally.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/fJKAwzDyHej54zma8