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 (https://pedalmag.com/index.php?module...l&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 https://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

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

Could it be?

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.

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?

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 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

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!