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Old 10-28-02, 04:55 AM
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Richard D
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Now assuming we are talking about the same company...

Falcon are still alive and kicking in the UK. They're the biggest bike manufacture in the UK (Raleigh no longer build bikes in the UK). Like most companies these days, current frames are generally made in Taiwan, but were (at least two years ago still building frames by hand for a few bikes).

The Falcon group owns a lot of the UK brands, currently the situation is roughly -

British Eagle - supermarket level bikes these days, cheap and nasty

CBR - a distinct range from those bikes labelled with the full Claud Butler name, the CBR range are cheapish and nasty full-bouncers competing with the bottom end cheap & nasty Saracens. Bikes kids 'hang out' on rather than really ride.

Falcon - Very basic, cheaply if not truly terribly made MTB's, Hybrids and Tourers

Claud Butler - Mainly entry level MTB's, Hybrids and Tourers. Not bad bikes, some are quite nice and are starting to get reasonable to good reviews, competes with the better Saracens.

Dawes - a fairly recent purchase. Traditional fairly good tourers, increasingly well respected MTB's that compete with low end Giant, Specialized, Trek etc. on build quality and value. I hired one of their hard tails a while back and was quite impressed.


Falcon also make other brands of varying quality (They built BMW's cycles for them a couple of years back). Generally they're at the low end of the market, the bulk end but some of their bikes aren't too bad.

There's a short article on the Falcon group in the current What Mountain Bike? if you can get access to UK magazines.

The web site is www.falconcycles.co.uk



Richard
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Currently riding an MTB with a split personality - commuting, touring, riding for the sake of riding, on or off road :)

Last edited by Richard D; 10-28-02 at 05:05 AM.
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