That is the original derailleur and probably very hard to find because it a) infringed Suntour's patents, b) was fragile and c) didn't work very well. Some early Suntours (60s I guess), were made with flat plates.
Joe
At 12:53 PM 4/21/01 -0400, Jerry & Liz Moos wrote:
>Joe, the rear derailleur on the Lambert does appear to be a slant
parallelogram
>in terms of geometry, but much cruder than any top end 70's era SunTour. The
>parallelogram is constructed of flat steel plates, like a Huret Svelto.
Perhaps
>the very first slant parallelogram SunTours were like this. I can find no
>markings on the derailleur or the jockey wheels, neither Lambert nor SunTour.
>Does this sound like the original Lambert derailleur you refer to?
>
>Regards,
>
>Jerry Moos
>
>Joseph Bender-Zanoni wrote:
>
>> Carefully measure the diameter of the axle. I may have a tapered axle for
>> you if you can live with a titanium one! The untapered axle setup will not
>> hold up to much use. We machined tapered axles at the shop I worked at to
>> solve the problems. The BB is not threaded except on the very earliest
>> Lamberts, which had a conventional BB. Another BB solution is the Edco
>> eccentric or the Mavic which do not depend on threads. I do not think
>> threading to Italian is a good idea as the shell is not very thick if I
>> remember.
>>
>> The first derailleurs I remember were steel Suntour copies which resulted
>> in a lawsuit. Suntour ferociously protected the slant pantograph until the
>> patent expired. On that issue, does anyone know if the Nivex works at a
>> slant? It looks like it might in the Data Book.
>>
>> Joe Bender-Zanoni
>> Remembering my brief experience selling Lamberts with trepidation
>>
>> At 09:17 AM 4/20/01 -0400, Moos, Jerry wrote:
>> >I just bought a Lambert Grand Prix frame and death fork from the CR
>> >classified page. It's a lugged steel one, purple and white with gold
lined
>> >lugs. The seller included many original parts from this and another
frame,
>> >so the bike is maybe 75% complete. The rear derailleur is steel,
>> >medium-long cage, simple parallelogram rather like a Huret Svelto. Is
this
>> >an original Lambert derailleur? It also appears to have the infamous
>> >Lambert BB with untapered axle. I've never owned a Lambert before, so
maybe
>> >someone can enlighten me. Is this BB threaded or is it pressed in as it
>> >appears it may be? I have only the left arm, anyone have a Lambert right
>> >arm for sale? Failing that, anyone know if a normal BB or normal axle can
>> >be installed to allow use of another crank?
>> >
>> >Regards,
>> >
>> >Jerry Moos