Great website - I presume by that 'very rare Viking' you are referring to the SBU (Short Base Underslung) Tracker.... yes, if you know of an example of that frame out there, I would be really interested in buying it. It was designed by my father, with the aim of (a) improving stability when sprinting by lowering the centre of thrust and (b) shortening the wheel base to minimise whip. Only a handful of them were made - most of which were exported (and may have been raced by the South African Team at the 1956 Olympics, I believe) so your reader's example is quite likely to be unique.
I notice, by the way, that your Classic Builders section doesn't have a reference to Viking. Have a look at our entry in the Wolverhampton local history website at:
http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/
- and if you agree Viking qualifies, there should be no problem about your downloading stuff from our webpage, for use on your site.
NB: there's a side-view drawing of the SBU Tracker on that page, for your interest.
Cheers
Peter Underwood <peter.underwood@tesco.net> wrote: Hi Vic........many thanks for your quick reply. It certainly wasn't more information than I wanted. My wife and I have a website http://www.classiclightweights.co.uk so will see we are interested in anything bikes. I am hoping to get an entry in Readers' Bikes from someone with the very rare Viking with tubes extending below the BB.......................Peter ----- Original Message ----- From: Vic Davies To: Peter Underwood Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2007 11:01 PM Subject: Re: Viking - Your frame
It's not easy to be sure - but I am pretty sure it's a Mileater from the mid-60s. It certainly couldn't have been made pre-1960, because that head badge was designed by my sister in 1960. Model-wise, obviously the lugs should be the giveaway....but over time, and particularly towards the end of production, there was variable use of differing lug patterns for similarly-named frames. By way of explanation - it all seems a long time ago, but in the 1960s, on the run-up to liquidation we had steadily-increasing problems with our cash flow. Because of a steep decline in bike sales, and the general economic situation at around that time, our dealers routinely delayed paying us for many months (in fact a lot of them went bust - it was really sad) The obvious knock-on was that we, in turn, were often late paying our component suppliers. This meant that suppliers sometimes stopped OUR credit: result .... component shortages! To keep production going - we occasionally had to resort to the use of substitute (but hopefully never inferior) components - because they were either already in stock, or could be sourced elsewhere. (I was doing the purchasing at the time - talk about walking the tight-rope!)
All of which was far more than you wanted to know..... sorry!
Whatever - your frame looks in fine shape - long may it bring you pleasure.
Cheers
Peter Underwood <peter.underwood@tesco.net> wrote: Hi Vic.............I see you are an expert on Viking. I wonder if you could find the time to help me. I have attached some images of a Viking I have. Do you have any ideas which model/date it is. It has a Viking headbadge and large block Viking transfers were fitted.........Peter
Peter Underwood 56 Kingston Street Cambridge CB1 2NU peter.underwood@tesco.net Tel: 01223 565036
Vic Davies 16 Holly Grove Penn Wolverhampton WV3 7DX tel. 01902-650905 mobile 07802-973072 --------------------------------- New Yahoo! Mail is the ultimate force in competitive emailing. Find out more at the Yahoo! Mail Championships. Plus: play games and win prizes.
Vic Davies 16 Holly Grove Penn Wolverhampton WV3 7DX tel. 01902-650905 mobile 07802-973072
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