Viscount bicycles!!

[Whippet]

Those forks look perfect. We're really lucky they turned up.

[ScubaScott8177]

Hey there, new to the forum.. Read about 40 pages of this thread before I joined but here's what I have;

1976ish Lambert Grand Prix blue with white accents original paint.
I got this from my dad a few months ago with what he says is all the original equipment. But my curiosity to this is most all of them come with mavic rims, simplex rear derailier and lambert branded front. Mine however has the original lambert hubs mounted to Milremo rims, a campagnolo Nuevo record rear derailier, and a campagnolo front. And weinmann brakes and levers, and campagnolo shifters. PLUS, get this: no serial number, not stamped and hasn't been filed off.. I'm resoring it to its original condition and having it resprayed and new decals made by a local sign company. But my question would be has anyone heard of a Grand Prix coming equipped like this?

[Bendo]

Hi Scubascott and welcome to the Viscount forum!

Two words for you: pics please!

b

[ScubaScott8177]

I currently am without Internet but I will try to get photos up soon. As for now my posts will be from my phone

[ScubaScott8177]

The only was I can show you is a third party website since I do not have permissions from a moderator to post images directly. I will post a link for a few images here:

http://i1171.photobucket.com/albums/r54 ... 685E7E.jpg

http://i1171.photobucket.com/albums/r54 ... DC882B.jpg

http://i1171.photobucket.com/albums/r54 ... BD004B.jpg

http://i1171.photobucket.com/albums/r54 ... D43A0E.jpg

http://i1171.photobucket.com/albums/r54 ... BDB1AB.jpg

http://i1171.photobucket.com/albums/r54 ... 7C28E8.jpg

No serial number:
http://i1171.photobucket.com/albums/r54 ... 69FDDC.jpg

These pics were taken after a failed attempt at paint due to a cheap primer let go of the base coat. There is a local auto paint shop that'll spray it correctly for me and match the OE color and paint scheme provided by an additional lambert I found and paid way too much for on eBay to get. This second lambert has the original color, paint scheme, and decals:

http://i1171.photobucket.com/albums/r54 ... 978B46.jpg

[Bendo]

OK, only one word for you now Scubascott: nice! Good to see a Lambert on the thread. That is going to be one lovely bike when it's done.

b

[ScubaScott8177]

Unfortunately I have two now and only have the original equipment parts to do one. So for the time being I think I'll restore one to original and have the other painted and decaled to original but put newer equipment on it till I can put it back to OE. I have a few pieces and parts to put with Lamb number 2; hubs, original lambert brakes, lambert branded front derailier, bars ( without gold tag ) but I need spindles, crank, rear derailer (simplex?) and such like that. One thing I am looking for is a version 2 ( the one with the embosed circle between the legs) fork. This one from my understanding looks like the original death fork but was of better design and quality? I dont want to get into having the half chrome half painted fork from yamaha. If anyone knows someone who might have one laying around... I'll try to get more pics up as I get a chance. If you get on youtube you can view the bike in it's original condition when I got it from my dad a few months ago.

My dad gave it to me with a few other bikes for me to sell and put the profits towards moving to Florida from Iowa. BUT, I noticed the Lambert and fell in love it. My dad and his sister both bought Lamberts in the late 70's from a dealer in Michigan that was selling off every Lambert in stock at cost after sales dropped following the issues with the fork. All the bikes were on the sales floor awaiting assembly in their respective boxes. Most all of them were red grand prix like the one my aunt bought that day with the simplex and lambert branded equipment. My dad says he looked through every box before coming across the only blue grand prix with campagnolo and weinmann equipment with MilRemo rims. He rode it for a few years before he desided to soda blast it and repaint it, though he never finished it with a repaint and reassembly, just rattle can flat black and tossed into storage with the rest of his bikes after he married my mother. If you care to see what it looked like you can find my friends Youtube video blog at; http://youtu.be/KebjcTk38mQ

[Bendo]

Well you can't ride more than one bike at a time. Not in an ergonomic manner anyway. So one working Lambert with another in the wings sounds like heaven: a rider and a project!

I have a spare cast aluminium fork—we don't call them Death Forks around here, not when every major manufacturer has fork recalls literally ALL THE TIME! BTW, you wanna see a true Death Fork? Get your hands on an ALAN tubular aluminium fork. Now that's scary!. It's type 3 but the steerer tube may be too short for you. PM me.

b

[ScubaScott8177]

Yeah, sorry I remember a while back reading the exemption of the "DF". Won't happen again

[ScubaScott8177]

Good way to clean up bare metal rims: S.O.S pads.. Same as what you use to use on pots and pans..
Before;
http://i1171.photobucket.com/albums/r54 ... 4B2776.jpg

After;
http://i1171.photobucket.com/albums/r54 ... C499A8.jpg

[Bendo]

Pretty impressive bit of cleaning there Scott.

Over on BNA forums one of the locals posted an Aussie print ad for the Viscount range. Never seen this one before. As one of the wags over there noted, $2 for a Viscount racing cap is a pretty good deal. b

[ScubaScott8177]

Called home tonight to a LBS when we got on the topic of my lamberts and he sent me this in an email;

http://i1171.photobucket.com/albums/r54 ... 35F3EB.jpg

It's earlier lambert.. It's badged as a grandprix but it has a lugged frame.. Equipped with original lambert brakes and the derailiers have been replaced with suntour.. Top tube is bent kind of good but I figure it could straighten though I would lose the original paint.

Considering the frame damage, the condition of the paint, and the fact that some of the equipment has been swapped, I'd give this bike maybe a 7 to 7.5 out of ten. He offered to sell it to me if I wanted to make an offer but this may be a bit more of a restoration than what it's worth. I haven't seen a lugged Grand Prix and for what I've seen in lugged frames I haven't seen any in red and white.. Just blue or black and white.. Not sure what I should off if I should make an offer at all.. Any help is welcome.

[Bendo]

Would be interesting to know which Suntour group it has. They made some pretty significant components. My Aerospace Sport has Dura Ace mainly because that's what it came with. But if I was doing a top end resto of a 70s or 80s steel frame bike, and I could have any groupset I would probably choose Suntour Superbe Pro.

Busaste or Cusqueno could probably tell you what it would have come with. Maybe it's early enough to have sported the original ("mythical") Lambert derailleur? http://www.flickr.com/photos/30978287@N03/5778187832

In your position I would buy it if the price were not too steep. You can always learn things from a bike, even if you don't a) cannibalise it, or b) restore it. It's a nice looking bike (+ I can't see the bend in the top tube in this photo). b

[Sooper8]

If you went out on a limb and bought it but then regretted, then you could sell parts anyway?

Make him a low offer..? What could go wrong

I'm just stating an interest here- if you don't want the wheels, I could prob make use of them on my 'Sport project

[Bendo]

...and how many complete Lamberts are there still around anyway? I've never, ever seen one.

b