Can anyone ID the year? 71? 72?
Early Lugged version with Threaded Bottom Bracket and "Davis Components " stamped on the BB Shell

https://imgur.com/Sl0MUzP

Based only on the front brake quick release bracket, I would guess mid seventies. A better picture, or pictures, would make identifying vintage a bit easier, though. As for the bike, I love the old headbadge on mine...

Lugged frame square taper BB
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That's pre-bankruptcy, although its the first I've seen with the "Viking" badge. Now, damned if I can remember when they filed for bankruptcy. It was shortly after that year's TOSRV, because that's the first place I actually saw the bikes. The three people who rode them were mobbed with riders wanting to get a look.

Sometimes there are notes and/or stamps on the part of the fork that goes inside the headtube and sometimes there are details on the inside of the seattube.

OK i'll take a look

Have you looked at this Viking page?

It looks like it is a Reg Harris Viking from 1972/3
Now I need to find front and rear Lambert Dérailleurs

Is that an aluminum fork?

Is that gold section RIVETED on to the bars ???

Fronts are not that difficult to find, and they usually sell for $15-20. Forget the rear. It's an incredibly spindly thing made (I swear) from old paper clips. I've heard complaints from original owners of the rear derailleur failing on the first ride home from the bike shop. Replace with a SunTour V - that seems to have been the 'standard' fix; to the point that I wonder if Lambert wasn't issuing them to dealers as a replacement. If you do find an undamaged rear, put it in a glass case as a collector's item. Everybody talks about the 'death fork' nobody ever discusses the rear derailleur which was a much worse piece of kit.

Yes. That bike had all sorts of interesting ways of doing things. Keep in mind that the philosophy behind the Lambert was that you'd get the equivalent of a $450.00 531/Nuevo Record equipped bike for $150.00. So they were cutting all sorts of corners, starting with build quality (although from what I can see the original frames were excellent). Fuji tried the same thing with the Finest which sold for $275.00 - and succeeded beautifully. Obviously, you can only cheap out so much before performance starts to suffer.

I've got a Lambert, same vintage but blue, but I got it with everything but Lambert components on it (Tange fork, Sugino crank, SunTour V/Compe-V derailleurs and rachet levers, DiaCompe brakes and levers, SR stem with alloy bars, Normandy hubs with Mavic sewup rims). As I got it, it's an incredibly wonderful ride. I'm in the process of replacing all the parts with the proper Lambert stuff (have already installed bars and stem, brakes and levers, quick release skewers, shift levers; front derailleur and crankset to go). I'm noticing that the Lambert parts are definitely inferior in performance to what's already on the bike - to the point that I'm seriously considering backtracking and putting the 'original' parts back on.

I am thinking that the Campagnolo Valentino Group would be perfect on it... unless I can sort a Suntour Original Parallelgram rear dérailleur

Yes it is

Yes it is the infamous "DEATH FORK" I cant wait to ride it...

Don't do it! Replace it, or it will fail!

just keep those brake pads and you'll be dead before the fork even has a chance to break!

BTW: this seems to be a Lambert with Viking stickers, not a Viking product...correct?

Dont know why but I luv it !

The Lambert-made bicycles were sold as Lambert, Reg Harris and Viking. I've noticed that the headbadge on the OP's bike is almost exactly the same in design to the Viking badges in the link that Randyjawa provided. As the original Viking marque is listed as having gone out of production in 1967, so I'm wondering if the rights to the original company weren't bought out by the outfit that developed the Lambert. Given the latter's reputation, I can understand why an article on a classic British bicycle would be loathe to admit to the connection.

And yes, the Lambert, Reg Harris and Viking bikes were all identical. All had Lambert branded components, the same "aerospace tubing" sticker on the seat tube, etc. As to why they'd bother making the same bike under three different names, I've always assumed that this was a way to get more bikes into more dealerships without stepping on franchise territory limitations. Aka, once a dealer takes on a franchise, he's guaranteed a certain radius without a second dealer selling the same bike - legally, a Viking wasn't the same bike as a Lambert. I saw this done 40 years ago in Erie when you had Gitane, Roger Riviere, and Concorde dealers.The latter two bikes were bottom of the line Gitanes with different badging - and the lowest end Gitane you could buy was a one-step model above the bottom.

Because they are very pretty bikes. 40 years ago, if you rode one to a group ride, you invariably got a lot of attention. Lambert's were a lot more attractive than most of their competition at that time.

You may find the rear a bit stiff to shift. Fronts operate just fine. I'd suggest digging up a Campy Grand Sport for the rear if you want to keep that vintage - they function much nicer. Good luck on the original SunTour.

And for all the notoriety of the 'death fork' I've heard stories of times when a fork failed while screaming down the road. And the stories I have heard have always been of the friend of a friend of a friend variety. No first person, or direct witness at the moment accounts.

The sleve rivited to the handlebars had a lot of text to the effect that 'This bicycle especially handcrafted for ....' Once the bars bent down a bit from use, that sleeve became a real pain. I used mine for 6 years complete with the death fork and I was 200 lbs then.

It also seems that the Distributor for TA might have also been involved the bottom bracket being threaded is from what I have gathered very rare only a couple hundred bikes with that Some cognoscenti have suggested 200 and some more.

I found this on Bikelist archive
This has been a widely discussed topic

Serial number is
6263 and my friend has 6253
the bottom bracket is stamped.
The serial number and the DC are sideways and the "DAVIS COMPONENTS" is across the breadth of the bottom bracket
Run 62 size 63cm my friend has run 62 size 53cm

I got some sew ups on original Lambert Hubs

I have a Lambert crank on my Lambert and a TA crank on my Cera, and I cannot believel the rumor that the Lambert crank was made by TA. The Lambert crank is obviously copied from the TA but it is a very cheap copy and it is fundamentally different; different taper, different extractor thread, different hardware, and cheesier in every way. I'm not dissing it, though. I'm happy to have mine, and I ride it. I filed a taper into it, though, and use a TA ring.

That Viking is very cool. I don't know if I'd be reckless enough to ride the QR fork; do some research, though. The forks came in a few different versions, and the ones that are liable to fail are pretty easy to recognize if I understand what I read.

I picked up some Lambert sealed bearing hubs on Mavic Tubulars and a front Lambert Skewer anyone have a Lambert Rear Skewer laying around?