Viscount on Slochd

This is Desmond's bike and it was destined for the dumpster. It was filthy and unlovely and its wheels had rotted away. It had a two ring chainset with teeth worn as sharp as a shark's. Desmond said to me 'Pick up that bike and throw it in the trash, would you?' I picked it up and discovered that this ugly duckling was as light as a feather. Now it's been rehabilitated. I acquired a second hand Dawes (good quality British tourer) and broke it for its components, many of which were incorporated into Desmond's old bike, now christened 'The Flying Desmond'. Built new wheels. Installed a fine old Brooks leather saddle. Changed the drops for magnificent sweeping handlebars. Fitted friction shifters, liberated from an abandoned bike found in the park. The paintwork is still original, but that's the main feature of my cunning anti-theft strategy. This is now a light and swift bike. It's travelled all over Scotland. The picture shows the Flying Desmond at the top of Slochd, en route from Edinburgh to Inverness.

About the Viscount: "In the 1970s an English "ærospace" company built, under the names "Lambert" and "Viscount", surprisingly inexpensive, very lightweight bikes made with "ærospace" tubing." This and more in the article about Lambert and Viscount Bicycles, from SheldonBrown. Includes reference to the (in)famous 'death fork'.