Unless this is your moms childhood bike I really wouldn’t bother.
PJ48N on
I see two little feet in some of these pictures, maybe it’s for them? Honestly, you will put a lot more time and money into resurrecting this than it would take to buy a new one. Some of the parts that need replacing could be unavailable.
It looks like it was cheap department store (Walmart) bike that are not really made to have parts replaced. If you insist, tale it apart to see if any of the bearings and bearing surfaces are even worth rebuilding. Then make your decision.
914safbmx on
viscounts were generally very low end bike boom era department store bikes. the childrens bikes were especially poorly made. it doesnt have any value, will be very difficult to source parts for, and will suck ass to ride when finished. i would just move on
4r7u9o on
People already wrote what kind of bike it is.
Just my two cents about restoring old stuff like that or rather making it work again. Headsets are often quite robust so that might be good – if not it might be 1” external cups which is easy to find. BB might be BSA (looks a bit like it) which is still by far the most common today. You would need the matching right crank arm – forget about that. Probably a new bottom bracket and a kids crankset is what you need, they are easy enough to find but are not period correct if you care about that. Front wheel “might” be ok, that rim is very rusty but the hub might be good. If the rim is dead 20” inch or so rims are used on folding bikes and can be bought. Rear wheel is missing, measure the distance between the dropouts and see if you can find something. Also tires. Steel frames can be cold set within reason if you find nothing that fits to make the rear axle spacing narrower or wider (I would not go for more than 5mm).
Total disclaimer: all that requires that you can build a wheel, have a lof of experience, have lots of tools and spare parts are often quite expensive. I see stuff like this as a hobby that is not financially viable by any means. Even the labor it would take to disassemble everything and get the rust off (not even talking about getting it back together) far outweighs any commercial value it has. If you want to get something cheap, sell that thing on facebook marketplace (and hope to find someone a bit mad) or bring it to a scrapyard for a few bucks and then get a used bike for a fraction of what the whole restoration will cost. Even consumables like grease, paint, rust remover, anti seize, sand paper, degreaser is probably more than a new bike.
Darnocpdx on
General rule on restoration. The more questions you have, the less viable the restro is.
For kid bikes, be even more skeptical. There are exceptions (stingrays, early/rare bmx, some of the 50s spacey ones). There is almost no situation in which a restoration is even a “break even” situation with kids’ bikes.
That being said, they are a great way to learn the basics of restoration with little to no investment.
Interm0dal on
If you want to teach your kids the possibilities of repairing something I think this would be a viable and fun way to do it. Expensive? Most likely. Fun to ride? Any bike in fun for a kid at that age. Will the experience stick with them and inform their views on waste and encourage them to be creative later in life? I bet five bucks it will.
You’ll need to track down some missing pieces. You can get a 100mm or so crank set on eBay, you’d do good to switch over to a square taper bottom bracket (the bit that connects the two crank arms) get a new back wheel and some fresh tires. The rust on that front wheel could be handled along with the frame and everything else that’s rusted.
Completely disassemble the bike, soak it in a Rubbermaid container full of oxalic acid solution and that rust will disappear over night.
I dunno, it’s not a valuable bike at all, but if you’ve got some funny money to throw into the project it’ll be priceless after you go through the experience of fixing it up with your kid.
Feel free to dm me if you’d like more specific advice/instruction.
8 Comments
For what purpose? There is no money to be made.
Unless this is your moms childhood bike I really wouldn’t bother.
I see two little feet in some of these pictures, maybe it’s for them? Honestly, you will put a lot more time and money into resurrecting this than it would take to buy a new one. Some of the parts that need replacing could be unavailable.
It looks like it was cheap department store (Walmart) bike that are not really made to have parts replaced. If you insist, tale it apart to see if any of the bearings and bearing surfaces are even worth rebuilding. Then make your decision.
viscounts were generally very low end bike boom era department store bikes. the childrens bikes were especially poorly made. it doesnt have any value, will be very difficult to source parts for, and will suck ass to ride when finished. i would just move on
People already wrote what kind of bike it is.
Just my two cents about restoring old stuff like that or rather making it work again. Headsets are often quite robust so that might be good – if not it might be 1” external cups which is easy to find. BB might be BSA (looks a bit like it) which is still by far the most common today. You would need the matching right crank arm – forget about that. Probably a new bottom bracket and a kids crankset is what you need, they are easy enough to find but are not period correct if you care about that. Front wheel “might” be ok, that rim is very rusty but the hub might be good. If the rim is dead 20” inch or so rims are used on folding bikes and can be bought. Rear wheel is missing, measure the distance between the dropouts and see if you can find something. Also tires. Steel frames can be cold set within reason if you find nothing that fits to make the rear axle spacing narrower or wider (I would not go for more than 5mm).
Total disclaimer: all that requires that you can build a wheel, have a lof of experience, have lots of tools and spare parts are often quite expensive. I see stuff like this as a hobby that is not financially viable by any means. Even the labor it would take to disassemble everything and get the rust off (not even talking about getting it back together) far outweighs any commercial value it has. If you want to get something cheap, sell that thing on facebook marketplace (and hope to find someone a bit mad) or bring it to a scrapyard for a few bucks and then get a used bike for a fraction of what the whole restoration will cost. Even consumables like grease, paint, rust remover, anti seize, sand paper, degreaser is probably more than a new bike.
General rule on restoration. The more questions you have, the less viable the restro is.
For kid bikes, be even more skeptical. There are exceptions (stingrays, early/rare bmx, some of the 50s spacey ones). There is almost no situation in which a restoration is even a “break even” situation with kids’ bikes.
That being said, they are a great way to learn the basics of restoration with little to no investment.
If you want to teach your kids the possibilities of repairing something I think this would be a viable and fun way to do it. Expensive? Most likely. Fun to ride? Any bike in fun for a kid at that age. Will the experience stick with them and inform their views on waste and encourage them to be creative later in life? I bet five bucks it will.
You’ll need to track down some missing pieces. You can get a 100mm or so crank set on eBay, you’d do good to switch over to a square taper bottom bracket (the bit that connects the two crank arms) get a new back wheel and some fresh tires. The rust on that front wheel could be handled along with the frame and everything else that’s rusted.
Completely disassemble the bike, soak it in a Rubbermaid container full of oxalic acid solution and that rust will disappear over night.
I dunno, it’s not a valuable bike at all, but if you’ve got some funny money to throw into the project it’ll be priceless after you go through the experience of fixing it up with your kid.
Feel free to dm me if you’d like more specific advice/instruction.
That is an 80’s ere Murray brand frame