Falcon help
 

Who knows about Falcons? A friend bought this a few days ago after I told him I thought it was a good deal, based on components. Weinmann center pulls, Nuovo Record front and rear derailleurs and shifters, Campagnolo hubs. It looks to me like the original rims were replaced with much more recent cheap Weinmann rims--not the old concave ones. Would the original tires have been tubulars? Maybe--there's an old "nail puller" mounted on the front and rear brake bolts. No tubing decal, no model name, unless the one word "special" on the seat tube means something. Seatstay is a one-piece wraparound. Forged dropouts with no adjusters--not sure who made them. Has the nice enameled Ernie Clements head badge. Crankset is an obviously non-original Sugino, mismatched. Brooks saddle, chromed steel seatpost--don't know what size post.

Google has not taught me much. Any guesses as to model, date of manufacture, whatever?
JV

That Falcon looks a great deal like several that I have owned, over the years.

This Single Speed was the first one I found and then I did the conversion to Single Speed design...
http://www.mytenspeeds.com/My_TenSpe...FullTQRear.jpg

Then I found this near mint beauty for $25.00 a few years ago and it took me two years to finally buy the bike...
http://www.mytenspeeds.com/My_TenSpe...ull-Side_1.jpg


Not sure what models the bikes were, but they were not the entry level Black Diamond offering...
http://www.mytenspeeds.com/My_TenSpe...SideRight1.jpg

Each Falcon was a wonderfully vintage appearing road bicycle, but, in all honesty, I did not like the ride quality at all, but that is just me.

Looks like a slightly lower model with the derailleur claw attatchment. I've still seem ones without a derailleur hanger with 531 tubing.

That bike looks similar to mine, Olympic Model 78 , prob. late 60s early 70s , Reynolds 531. That Brooks alone is worth the price of admission , I believe. With a little lovin' , that could turn out to be a pretty nice ride.

Falcon made several models painted "racing blue," which I believe was their "team bike" color. I have a mid-70s Mondia that has the same fork crown -- a Vagner flat-top. Don't see any Reynolds stickers on the frame, and it seems to me that Falcon generally put the rectangular one on the seat tube under the seat stay cluster -- there doesn't appear to be any real estate for it there. There is an early 70s catalog at VeloBase:
http://velobase.com/Resource_Tools/CatalogScans.aspx
I have a copy of that, and there isn't a "Special" model in it. Many of the Falcon higher-end models had half-chromed rear stays; but that's something that could vary depending on the era. Top tube bare of braze-ons suggests the 70s. Whose dropouts, seatpost size, and saddle model are the things that may say the most about how fancy a model it was.

Does it have the "Ernie Clements" decal on the rear stay? If it does, then you're looking at 60's; the lack of decal doesn't necessarily not mean 60's, but probably indicates 70's. I'll look around my files. I've got a stack of odd Falcon information somewhere.

what's not to like? ... 531, clements, wraparound stays, campified.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7202/6...0e8e16e15a.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7118/7...07c16239_z.jpg

and now to rebuild the grand record to be as dashing...