At the end of the day yesterday a customer brought in this early 1970s Viscount fork. This was the sinister fork of death from the ten-speed era. Tim McNamara and Sheldon Brown already
wrote an article about Lambert/Viscount, so I won't go into detail. They offered a lot of value at their price point compared to the rest of the industry, until you found out about the forks that snap off. The steel steerer would separate from the aluminum crown. They were recalled in 1978 after Yamaha bought Viscount, and replaced with steel forks.
Just a few hours earlier I had phoned Shimano to get a Crank of Death recall kit. The new and the old in irresponsible design.
I remember hearing Lambert jokes about drilled-out tires and water bottles.
ReplyDeleteThey were one of those companies that had great ideas but executed them poorly.
I don't imagine Raleigh was too enthusiastic about Lambert using the "Grand Prix" name for their bike...
ReplyDeleteBack then people tended to mention the brand as part of the name or perhaps as the only designator. A Raleigh Grand Prix was a Raleigh Grand Prix. A Schwinn Varsity was a Schwinn Varsity. I only ever heard Lamberts called Lamberts until they were called Viscounts.
ReplyDeleteThey did have some wild concepts, Justine, anticipating the pressed-in bottom brackets of today (and Gary Fisher in the 1990s) among other things. But they screwed up on that fork design and used some cheap alloy in the crank sets that turned the chainrings into saw blades in just a few months. Their proprietary bottom bracket was not well thought out. People who wanted to keep their Lamberts and increase their adaptability would tap that oversize shell out to Italian so they could use third-party components.
My ankle still hurts at times from the cut it got from my Lambert's chainrings on New Year's Eve 1973. I was the emergency room's first casualty of the evening and I hadn't even been drinking.
ReplyDeleteThe fork didn't collapse until after I sold it.