apparently 56 cm viking available w/out fork. it's
beat up, a couple cosmetic dents, fairly trashed
paint, but really very pretty. i have a friend who
might want to take it apart for fun, but i thought i
should offer it to the list first to see if anyone
wants to make something of it. it has a lot of nice
details, but the break and chain stay bridges are not
very beautiful or anything. lots of braze-ons, i
think it was designed for bar end shifters. contact
me off list if you are interested.
-devon warner
san francisco
> Hi all -
>
> Thanks to those of you who responded to my
> message on Viking - these were a delight to me - not
> least because I worked for Viking myself - and rode
> a Severn Valley, incidentally - between 1959 and
> 1966.
>
> It was good to know that the marque has so many
> fans, Stateside. The pictures you sent were great
> (very nostalgic!) .... so to everyone who
> collects/restores Vikings - thanks a lot, you are
> doing the world a favour - preserving some end-game
> examples of British engineering excellence.
>
> I think I've replied to everyone who wrote me -
> but thought more of you might like to know of a UK
> web address giving lots more detail on Viking -
>
>
>
http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/
> (NB I understand this web page may be on and off
> line for a while for maintenance & update, so if you
> can't access it at you first attempt, give it a few
> days and try again)
>
> Also, at the end of this email I've also added an
> article which underlines the seminal nature of
> Viking's contribution to post-war cycle sport (no
> point in being modest, is there?)
>
> By way of an update note - the main drivers for
> our success in those long-ago days (days of British
> manufacturing excellence which I suspect will never
> return) were Bob Thom (Sales & Team Manager) and Reg
> ('Vic') Davies (Managing Director - my father). It
> was a great partnership.... they were true friends,
> as well as being complementary personalities.
> Coincidentally both men died aged 87: Reg in 1994,
> and Bob in 2005.
>
> Cheers
>
> Vic Davies
>
>
>
> See ARTICLE below....
>
> THE BIRTH and GROWTH OF SPONSORED CYCLE SPORT IN
> BRITAIN
>
> BEWARE OF THE VIKINGS !
>
> The first trade sponsored cycle racing teams in
> Britain appeared in 1947, when the News of the World
> newspaper backed the Brighton to Glasgow 6-Day stage
> race, promoted by the British League of Racing
> Cyclists (B.L.R.C.). But team sponsorship, as such,
> only really got going in the following year, 1948,
> when the Wolverhampton cycle manufacturers, Viking
> Cycles, founded in 1908, sponsored a team of
> Independent category riders (semi-professional), as
> they were then.
>
> The team was Bob Thom, Harold Johnson, Bill Allan
> and Ben Whitmore, Success was not long coming, when
> Johnson won the Independent R. R. Championship that
> year, and Thom won it the following year. This was
> the start of one of the longest periods of cycle
> racing team sponsorship and domination by a
> cycle maker in Britain.
>
> The line up for the 1951 season was team captain
> Bob Thom, Ted Jones, Johnny Welch and Fred Nichols,
> but with the first Daily Express Tour of Britain
> being promoted later in the year, the team was
> specifically
> strengthened for the Tour. The 22 year old
> Scottish R.R. Champion, Ian Steel, and Geordie, Stan
> Blair, who in June that year had won the Butlins
> Camps 7-Day stage race, were both drafted in, with
> Bob Thom becoming the team manager. The result was a
> Viking triumph, with Ian Steel a well deserved
> winner.
>
> It was also the start of Bob Thoms long and
> successful career as a team manager, for the Viking
> Cycles squad, and Great Britain International teams.
> This Tour victory gave the firm considerable
> advertising material, which they exploited to the
> full. Their leading road models were now the Tour
> of Britain, and the Severn Valley - Bob Thom and
> Ted Jones
> having both won the well established Severn Valley
> G.P. When Bob Thom joined the firm in 1948, it was
> as both rider and a product supervisor in the
> factory. He later became a salesman, and went on to
> become the companys Sales Manager.
>
> In 1952 Ian Steel carried off his historic victory
> in the Warsaw-
> Berlin-Prague stage race. That year Steel also won
> two West Country
> classics, the Tour of the Mendips and the
> Weston-super-Mare G.P. Another Scot, Joe Chnstison
> was signed, and took fourth place in the last of the
> Daily Express Tours of Britain in 1954. Other
> outstanding riders to wear the now famous purple and
> gold jerseys in the 1950s, were Bevis Wood, Ken
> Jowett, Les Gill, Dick Bartrop, and Brian Haskell.
> In the early 196Os, Merseysiders John Geddes, George
> OBrien and Stan Brittain, plus other top names like
> Albert Hitchen, Bernard Burns, Dave Bedwell and
> Harry Reynolds were in the team at various times.
> There was no team in
> 1964, but in 1965, Viking returned with a
> co-sponsor, Trumans Steel for two years, and many
> victories were added by the team of Wes Mason, Peter
> Gordon, Dick Goodman and George Halls, plus Ron Coe
> in 1966.
>
> There is no doubt that Viking Cycles,
> appropriately based where road racing began in
> Britain, built up their trade and reputation,
> primarily from the victories gained by the racing
> team, which during these times,
> included so many of the countrys leading roadmen.
> In the 1970s, a process of rationalisation occurred
> in the U.K. cycle manufacturing
> industry, with only a few well known names
> surviving, and these under new
> ownership. This applied to the Viking name, which
> briefly returned again, but this time in red and
> white colours, with Sid Barras, Keith Lambert and
> Paul Carbutt in the team, but eventually the
> famous marque disappeared.
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> New Yahoo! Mail is the ultimate force in
> competitive emailing. Find out more at the Yahoo!
> Mail Championships. Plus: play games and win prizes.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Classicrendezvous mailing list
> Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
>
http://www.bikelist.org/
>
Devon warner San Francisco 277-2562 (w) 596-6064 (c)
____________________________________________________________________________________
Cheap talk?
Check out Yahoo! Messenger's low PC-to-Phone call rates.
http://voice.yahoo.com
_______________________________________________
Classicrendezvous mailing list
Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
http://www.bikelist.org/