Originally Posted by
nlerner
I wrenched in a bike shop in the SF Bay Area when the Firenze bikes were given away with a stereo purchase at Matthew’s Electronics (Top of the Hill, Daly City). We didn’t refuse to work on them, but they were truly terrible, essentially impossible to make safe without switching out most components.
https://youtu.be/RsPTgYMjNcs?si=bKY279OCvt63IcJF
I was planning on getting rid of the Falcon derailleurs and shifters and replacing them with whatever low end Shimano or Suntour stuff I have hoarded after converting some other cheap bikes to singlespeeds.
When I worked at the local co op, I parted out some Firenze road bikes and worked on a Fils Tour Du Mond road bike (pretty much a Firenze, but rebranded) and those Falcon front derailleur cages were always shredded due to the thin, cheap steel