Classic & Vintage - What kind of bike is this?

Check out this cool old bike someone gave me.

Now that's unusual for sure! Assembled in Montana. Kinda reminds me of the "Arctic Cat" 10sp I had that was assembled and then sold to the AC company for distribution back in the late 70s.

Interesting find. Any full side-on pics to post?



Olds

I couldn't get this puicture to load earlier

Someone must recognize this bike

Wow, FX... I can barely see the first one, and the second one.... whew! I thought maybe I might know perhaps, but I have no clue myself. :(

Koffee

Sure wish I could help. I assume you've punched a few entries into google to see what comes up? Are those alloy forks or have they been stipped of paint? Looks like there are some alloy components......looks like a lightweight.

Can you share some data with us?

Cool looking bike!




Olds

It's supposed to be a titanium bike.

Let me get some better pictures of that crest area tonight.

Has original pump in old weird swivel holder too

A hint:

2004 Braxton Bike Shop Award (http://pedalmag.com/index.php?module=Section&action=viewdetail&item_id=2946)

July 22, 2004 - Adventure Cycling Association, the nation's premier bicycle touring organization, has announced that Shirley Elin Braxton of Missoula will be awarded the 2004 Braxton Bike Shop Award. Braxton is slated to receive a framed certificate honoring her, her late husband Sam, and their long-running bicycle business in a July 24 ceremony held at Big Sky High School during the kick-off barbeque for the Cycle Montana event tour.

"Adventure Cycling Association has created this award to honor bike shops throughout the nation that go out of their way to provide unique services to bicycle tourists," said Larry Diskin, outreach and education coordinator. "The Braxton Bike Shop was a perfect example of a shop that went above and beyond the normal call of duty. That's why this award is, and will be in the future, known as the 'Braxton Bike Shop Award.'"

Adventure Cycling art director Greg Siple, a co-founder of Bikecentennial-the organization that evolved into Adventure Cycling-recalls that the Braxton Bike Shop's slogan was "An Oasis for the Cycletourist."

"It was an apt description," he says. "In the summer of 1976, thousands of bicycle tourists were streaming through Missoula on the new TransAm Trail, with every manner of mechanical failure. The Braxtons earned their reputation by fixing things right now, and getting riders back on the road on schedule." This, Siple says, is how the shop earned its shining reputation.

With Sam working full time for the Northern Pacific and Burlington Northern railroads, he and Shirley still managed to maintain the family's bike shop on South Avenue in Missoula. In addition to servicing the repair needs of hundreds of long-distance riders, Sam hand-built beautiful custom touring and expedition bikes, and wheels designed for the rigors of loaded touring." [my emphasis]

You can read the whole article at the URL noted above, but it would appear you have a pretty damn nice bike.

It would appear Sam Braxton is quite the legend in bike building. The website http://www.classicrendezvous.com/USA/USA.htm has a heading for him, but no information as of yet. Perhaps the website owner would be willing to let you know what info he already has, or perhaps he would like to see photos of your bike. Either way, it looks like you have a very nice vintage bike that you might want to thoughtfully restore.

Dave

Hey, I was one of those guys who utilized Braxton's quick repair services during the summer of '76 Bikecentennial. Good folks and timely service. They built a set of wheels for me overnight after I blew a bunch of spokes during the first 1/3 of our tour. Unfortunately, the wheels fell apart by the time we reached Aspen, CO, and I had to rebuilt them...this time I did it myself, and 28 years later, wheels are still in tact and true, tho the spokes aren't quite as shiny as they used to be.
Fun to hear the name again!

With that saddle, pump and rack, looks like it's built up as a rugged touring bike. Lots of dirt roads in Braxton's country in Montana!

If you look closely at the picture with the crest (mvc-008) it says


Handcrafted


Lambert

of

England

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/lambert.html

Could it be?


All in all, the Lambert/Viscount bikes were a very interesting chapter of cycling history. In it's original condition it should be a display bike.

Braxton was a fine, but smlal scale builder in Montana. In all my cycling years, have only seen one.
Viscount/Lambert were, if I recall correctly, swallowed up by a Japanese company. Again, if my recollection is correct, has a sort of different bottom bracket. Have seen a couple Viscounts/Lamberts.

Here's some more pictures.

It seems to be a Braxton/Lambert?

There's a bike registration sticker for 1975 on it

here's some more

last ones

That's a great looking bike. I see some nice Simplex deraillers on there. Clean that baby up and you will have a nice ride there!

BUMP

Hello all,

I just put close to 70 dollars worth of 28mm Specialized Nimbus Armadillo tires (they're awesome tires, I have them on a couple other bikes!) and new tubes on bike shown above...


Can anyone help me choose a fork to replace the "Death Fork"??

Thanks,

John

uh, can we say "DEATH FORK"?
although i can't be sure from the photo's. But Lambert did
have the infamous cast aluminium fork.
I had a Viscount (lambert), and they were bought out by Yamaha.
They had a unique pressed in bottom bracket, sealed bearings
and Lambert used alot of their own custom made componentry.
I believe there is more info on Lambert in the memories thread, and
there is at least one thread about lambert here.

Nice ride. but be careful of the fork, have a reputable shop
(with some history so they know what they are looking for)
check the fork.

Marty

Edit (after reading FxJohns last post):
Ok, so I should have read more. When Yamaha owned Viscount after the
death fork debacle they sent out replacement chromed forks for the death
fork (and I wish I still had my death fork!). I'd look for a similiar fork
from someone like Kneisis (I think thats the company), I believe the
replacement fork I received was from Mizuno.
Check e-buy, there are always forks out there. I definately would stick
with a steel fork, better ride feel IMHO.

uh, can we say "DEATH FORK"?
although i can't be sure from the photo's. But Lambert did
have the infamous cast aluminium fork.
I had a Viscount (lambert), and they were bought out by Yamaha.
They had a unique pressed in bottom bracket, sealed bearings
and Lambert used alot of their own custom made componentry.
I believe there is more info on Lambert in the memories thread, and
there is at least one thread about lambert here.

Nice ride. but be careful of the fork, have a reputable shop
(with some history so they know what they are looking for)
check the fork.

Marty

It does have the death fork.
Yeah, I was just wondering what kind of fork to get, and what to expect to pay?
Never had to buy a fork before. Yamaha replaced them, but with what I do not know.
All I can find is "a steel tanged fork"

John

geez, my timing is really off today, FxJohn responded while I was editing
my post.

Wow - I never knew that shop (Braxton in Missoula) was quite that cool. There was a bookstore where the shop was last time I was in Missoula. They never were too popular with the locals, as I recal - a lot higher end stuff than anyone in town was willing to pay. But it was a University town with a lot of trustafundians coming in with really nice bikes that were promptly stolen. If you knew the right people, a really nice MTB was not hard to find. I don't think I ever saw a fix there, and very few road bikes. Touring wasn't a local thing, so we didn't go to that shop much (it was about a mile away from where I grew up, on south ave)... I rode past it all the time in middle and high school.

Weird how biking makes the world small again, isn't it?

Wow - I never knew that shop (Braxton in Missoula) was quite that cool. There was a bookstore where the shop was last time I was in Missoula. They never were too popular with the locals, as I recal - a lot higher end stuff than anyone in town was willing to pay. But it was a University town with a lot of trustafundians coming in with really nice bikes that were promptly stolen. If you knew the right people, a really nice MTB was not hard to find. I don't think I ever saw a fix there, and very few road bikes. Touring wasn't a local thing, so we didn't go to that shop much (it was about a mile away from where I grew up, on south ave)... I rode past it all the time in middle and high school.

Weird how biking makes the world small again, isn't it?

Some guy in Colorado, gave it to my brother, who gave it to me in the last two years.
Probably some pretty country to see, touring in Montana?
Supposedly Braxton was a good bike builder

It's supposed to be a titanium bike.


I doubt it. The use of Ti in frames is a fairly recent thing (although a few builders were experimenting in the 60's and 70's) and I don't believe it would've been in a lugged construction.

Early lamberts were steel bikes, then later they used
very whippy aluminium frames (areospace pro).
The only Ti frames at the time were teledyne titans
(there may have been others but I don't recall them).

Marty

Early lamberts were steel bikes, then later they used
very whippy aluminium frames (areospace pro).
The only Ti frames at the time were teledyne titans
(there may have been others but I don't recall them).

Marty

Yeah it's the lighter frame.
What do you mean by "whippy"?

I was told the simplex shifters are crappy, any opinions?

I ordered an 80 dollar steel fork for it!

"Whippy" refers to frame flex particularly around the bottom bracket during hard acceleration/climbing. If the chain grinds against the front derailleur when you stand up you're getting some of that flex.

I'm not a big fan of Simplex shifters and feel a switch to 1970s SunTour would be an improvement. Some will agree with me, some won't.

I have a question for the Lambert experts out here: Unless my eyes are fooling me that bike does not have the pressed in BB, I'm pretty sure I see a threaded lockring. I'm familiar with the marque in its Viscount form, did earlier Lamberts have conventional BBs? It's been mentioned that Braxton was a builder. Perhaps he threaded the BB shells for his customers he knew would be touring and might need a BB serviced at a shop that didn't deal with the relatively obscure Lambert?

Thoughts?

:beer:

When I owned mine (and it as a later vintage than FxJohn's)
it had the pressed in BB. I wanted to upgrade to better components
(campy? what was I thinking?) and the only options was
to replace by having the BB shell taped out to Italian threading.
The first batch of lamberts (and I think this is one) had a standard
cup and cone bottom bracket.
As stated this one is an early one.
FxJohn, it doesn't mention Reg Harris on the bike anywhere, does it?
I'm thinking Braxton did maintenance on the bike and slapped his
sticker on it. The bike is a Lambert.
Marty

Some guy in Colorado, gave it to my brother, who gave it to me in the last two years.
Probably some pretty country to see, touring in Montana?
Supposedly Braxton was a good bike builder

I'm sure there's some great touring out there, but haven't done much of it myself. When I lived there it was mainly hiking that we did. Most of the time when we headed out of town, it was to a hot springs over in Idaho (Weyr I think... I know how to pronounce it, never did know how it was spelled - awesome spot on the side of a cliff in the middle of old growth cedar trees) I'm not sure how the highways are for bikes, but heard that they were working on getting a rails to trails thing going from Missoula out to at least CourDeLane (sp?)... I wouldn't want to tour eastern MT though - just flat farmland.

Still, it surprised me to see his name here. That bike shop never seemed busy. It must have been people in the know and touring that gave them the money they needed to stay afloat. There were a lot of other local shops that had a lot more business.

I wonder what he is doing now?

When I owned mine (and it as a later vintage than FxJohn's)
it had the pressed in BB. I wanted to upgrade to better components
(campy? what was I thinking?) and the only options was
to replace by having the BB shell taped out to Italian threading.
The first batch of lamberts (and I think this is one) had a standard
cup and cone bottom bracket.
As stated this one is an early one.
FxJohn, it doesn't mention Reg Harris on the bike anywhere, does it?
I'm thinking Braxton did maintenance on the bike and slapped his
sticker on it. The bike is a Lambert.
Marty


Lotek, I will admit i don't know a darn thing about bottom brackets.
Never needed to yet

The sticker says "Assembled by Braxton"
I assume most bike shops have to assemble a percentage of the bike?
Hopefully this will be a cool bike and I'm not wasting my money.

FxJohn,

I think it looks just like this one:
http://www.classicrendezvous.com/British/Lambert/Lambert_DBs_1.htm

There is also a set of pictures of the Reg Harris model which is the same
colour as yours, different decals though.
I think the Braxton sticker was a late addition.
Yes I think its a cool bike and not a waste of money!

Marty

I doubt it. The use of Ti in frames is a fairly recent thing (although a few builders were experimenting in the 60's and 70's) and I don't believe it would've been in a lugged construction.

OT: I have a Raleigh T-1000 that I bought "used" in '95. It has titanium tubes and steel lugs. I've never seen another one like it and have always been curious about it. Anyone know anything about it or how I might get more information about it.

Lambert update:

I've replaced the death fork with a steel fork that has chrome finish.
New Specialized armadillo tires, new headset, new clip straps, new cables.
Cleaned and lubed everything.
The only thing it needs now is a brooks saddle.
Maybe a shifter upgrade way down the road.

John

Lambert update:

I've replaced the death fork with a steel fork that has chrome finish.
New Specialized armadillo tires, new headset, new clip straps, new cables.
Cleaned and lubed everything.
The only thing it needs now is a brooks saddle.
Maybe a shifter upgrade way down the road.

John


here's a picture

Looks sweet FXjohn. You did a good job and I guess the new chrome fork is like a simulated death fork. I hope you enjoy your little piece of history. That bike has plenty of it.

Cool Lambert. I'm curious; how do you like the ride? That first generation frame was built right around '73-'74 BTW. I have one of the blue ones just like Dale's on the CR site, and the red Reg Harris version pictured there belongs to my friend Alvin.

Cool Lambert. I'm curious; how do you like the ride? That first generation frame was built right around '73-'74 BTW. I have one of the blue ones just like Dale's on the CR site, and the red Reg Harris version pictured there belongs to my friend Alvin.


Hey Other Guy...I don't know yet.
When I got the bike it needed tires, and I haven't ridden it since it was given to me.
It wouldn't shift, but I have it all in order now. Then I ordered a fork, which took awhile, the first one didn't fit.
Tomorrow will be the first time. I need to dial in the seat first...it's pointed slightly up.

Wow. Found this site looking for some info on a vintage track frame and saw this thread. Here's the straight dope on the Lambert, Braxton Bike Shop and Sam Braxton. I worked there from 1985 through 1990; more on that later.

When the shop first started in the 70s, Sam started building frames after taking a class from Albert Eisentraut. He dealt in some of the European bikes of the time, especially Stella, Gitane and Frejus, and was dismayed at their quality. His standard procedure was to strip the frame of all of the components, tap and face all threads, HS, BB, align the dropouts, etc., then reassemble the bikes with fresh bearings and new grease, and often better quality components. Hence, the "Assembled by Braxton" sticker he had made. This continued until the late 70s, when he took on Sekai as a primary bike line, to be followed with Peugeot, Univega, and later Cannondale, Fisher, Ritchey, Giant and Muddy Fox, not to mention the boutique racing bikes we built up. Gianni Motta was one of his favorites, and there were Olmos, Ciocc, Masi, a Cinelli or two, and Vitus 979s galore. As the Japanese grew stronger in the industry and quality improved in the 80s, the reassembly became less necessary, although every single bike we sold, down to the cheapest $200 "mountain" bike, got the dropout alignment and BB repack. So, regarding your Lambert, it was probably a good quality bike for the era, carefully built to perform better than when the factory boxed it up for export to the USA.

The shop did well in a lot of segments of the marketplace. Sam was best known for his expedition touring bicycles, many of which travelled the world; I remember one in particular that we outfitted for a trans-Sahara trip. Sam was a contemporary of Angel Rodriguez in Seattle, and was also a friend of Phil Wood; the best-selling product for years was the expedition touring wheelset -- Super Champion Mod. 58 rims, 14g stainless spokes laced to Phil hubs, 40-hole front and 48 rear. The things were amazingly bulletproof; I remember replacing a pair or rims on one guy's bike where he'd actually worn through the sidewalls in several places, and yet they stayed true to the end. For a while there it seemed like we were shipping at least 6 pairs each week, and it got to the point where I actually got tired of building them.

Sam also built the Combie, an early (70s) Mountain bike of sorts, with dropped bars, low gearing and fat tires -- originally 650Bs, then 26 x 1 3/8, and finally 26 x 1.75 ATB standard as rims and tires became available. Made for bombing around the logging roads in the area. My dad still has one of the early ones, with Mafac cantis, TA Cyclotourist cranks, Simplex Super LJs and bar ends, phil hubs, Brooks saddle. Sweet ride. Can't get tires for it anymore, so it hangs in the garage. Sam also built racing bikes -- everything from flyweights with Excel tubing to a couple of "funny bike" TT frames for a local racer, and two bikes that a local couple rode in the Ironman in '88 or '89. I have two of his bikes; I own the last mountain bike frame that he built, largely a mix of Reynolds and Ishiwata tubing, pretty steep angles (at my request), prototype Phil hubs (some of the first aluminum shells Phil made). It lives in the garage now, not fully assembled at the moment. I was also given a real treasure -- Sam's personal fixed gear "work bike" -- a frame he built and assembled to run errands around town. I'll post pics and a component list in the fixie section sometime.

It was an amazing place to work, and an amazing education. I started as a junior mechanic in high school (my dad worked with Sam on the railroad) and moved up to wheelbuilding, selecting components for and assembling the custom bikes in addition to the daily assemblies and repairs. The parts room would make you cry, with literally hundreds of chainrings from TA, Stronglight, Campy, rims that spanned the range from the aforementioned Mod. 58s to a huge stack of blue annodized SSCs, Nisi Sludis and Lasers, Wolber Profil As, etc. etc. etc. The vintage Campy stuff in the shop would have probably put Sam's grandkids through college, and he was a particular fan of the funkier Italian stuff. My first road bike from the shop was a Gianni Motta, Italian tricolor with all black anodized Galli components. We built a passal of Vitus 979s with Galli in matching colors, and we used a lot of Excel, OMAS, Gipiemme and Edco bits, too. When Shimano introduced the first Dura Ace indexing group, we all sort of knew it would be the end of the more esoteric components, and Sam started hoarding it.

I don't really know what happened to all of the stuff. He passed away in the winter of 1989/90, non-Hotchkins Lymphoma. It was fast, and brutal. I was 21 at the time. I worked at the shop for another six months for Sam's son, Dalt, who had the knowledge, but not the passion. I moved to Madison, WI to finish college, ended up in a shop there, and was in Minneapolis when the shop finally closed in the early 90s.

Sam's wife, Shirl, is in her 80s now, and is still a fixture in Missoula cycling circles. She goes on the group rides and was always a fan of pink, from her custom Braxton touring bike with Assos sew-ups (!) to her later custom pink Cannondale. I've been away from Missoula for about 8 years, and haven't seen her in awhile. Perhaps my biggest regret was not buying the shop when Sam first became ill and talked of selling. Sigh.

Long post for my first one. Felt good. Enjoy your Lambert!
Derek