So after the Shimano Arebesque 600 front derailleur was bolted in place, new inner and outer cables were fitted.
After removing 2 layers of sticky cloth handle-bar tape I discovered the original light blue plastic tape which was visible in the photo of mum's bike taken back in 1971! This was the fashion at the time: putting new tape over old just gives it a bit more comfort. The original Weimann red dot levers were stripped, cleaned and polished.
A set of double Campagnolo shifters were found in Dad's box and duly cleaned, polished and fitted.
The only ebay purchase was a Shimano 600 Arabesque rear derailleur. This was to replace the Simplex mech fitted to the bike and to match the rest of the gearset.
Originally when I started the rebuild I was looking for a suitable set of vintage wheels to replace the clunky steels fitted to the bike. After spending months on ebay searching I soon realised nice period wheels fetched a lot of money and thought is it really worth spending that money on a bike which will only be used occasionally? So why not use the wheels off the Nigel Dean...after all the Dean is only used on the turbo trainer....and they match the Shimano 600 era. With a Shimano 105 hub laced to a nice set of Mavic rims, they looked the part. Tyres were replaced with a pair of Michelin Classic amber-wall ones to match those on the Allin. The Lyotard pedals and GB clips were polished and fitted.
The Weimann levers were re-fitted to the bars and the original hood covers came up like new! The secret?..WD-40 ! The bars were treated to new blue Velox cloth tape...to compliment the Allin. New inner and outer brake cables were fitted along with the polished GB cable clips.
Two vintage bikes side-by-side after a ride along the High Peak Trail.
The Viking has now covered about 200 miles since the rebuild and, apparently rides beautifully! It was ridden along the Monsal Trail to L'Eroica Britannia 2015 and many people came up and chatted about the bike.
Quite a difference from when it was saved from ending up in a skip in the eleventh hour back in December 2014.