I just can’t help myself…

[enigma]

I’ve been waiting to have something to post up on Retrobike for quite some while and rejoin the world on old school mountain-bikery but somehow life just gets in the way.

A while back I suggested to my long suffering wife that I was done with buying, selling and swapping bikes but here I am having only 2 months ago shed an ‘87 Dawes Ranger and I seem to have acquired this, a virtually unused 1986 Falcon K2.

They were never on trend even back when they were in the showroom, Falcon might still have been slugging it out with their road team back then but with new, hip brands up and coming and the US leading the way, they didn’t fly out the door.

Nevertheless, they were and still are, a decent machine.

Double butted steel frame, a mix of Suntour Mountech II mechs, Shimano brakes, levers and thumb shifters, the ubiquitous Sakae chainset and that lovely stem. All the bits we all hankered after in the mid 1980’s.

Some work to do on set-up - lose the rack and get some new tyres but I am amazed at the condition its in and it ride perfectly ‘period’.

For the amount it would have cost to buy a 1 decent, modern MTB tyre, I can’t complain.

View attachment 829604
Next up, I might finally get the Overburys up and restored.

80’s MTB’s are the future I tell you…

I like that, its looks so comfy! I had them down as a budget catalogue nasty brand, they certainly featured in all the awful get your mum in debt catalogues in the early nineties.. but that must of been dying days or something as that looks really decent. I fancy an early uk mtb, but dont tell my other half . I think thats ace, I have fitted some budget sub £30 a pair off ebay tan walls to friends bikes, and I would say for this they are good, as yet proving good tyres but compared to normal ritchey etc mtb tyres heavy yes.. but smell like rubber still and they have so far given good service on less serious friends bikes.

 

[David Reeve]

I like that, its looks so comfy! I had them down as a budget catalogue nasty brand, they certainly featured in all the awful get your mum in debt catalogues in the early nineties.. but that must of been dying days or something as that looks really decent. I fancy an early uk mtb, but dont tell my other half . I think thats ace, I have fitted some budget sub £30 a pair off ebay tan walls to friends bikes, and I would say for this they are good, as yet proving good tyres but compared to normal ritchey etc mtb tyres heavy yes.. but smell like rubber still and they have so far given good service on less serious friends bikes.

I started riding MTBs the year this bike was made. I lived in Sheffield and at the time there were, as far as myself and my friends Rob and Paul knew, only 3 mountain bike riders in the whole city.

We rode the Peaks week in week out in combat trousers and hiking boots, we didn’t really know much about cycling per se. I went through 3 fifteen speed Raleigh Mavericks, a Saracen Conquest and a Ridgeback 702 in the 4 years to 1990, by which time I’d started racing.

You’re absolutely right, they are comfy and I have
never have migrated to suspension of any sort although as I started racing the bikes got more ‘roadie’. I still like to ride over and around things rather than through them. The rigid back I wish I’d never got rid of was my 1990 Kona Hei Hei with a Justin Burls Ti fork.

 

[enigma]

I started riding MTBs the year this bike was made. I lived in Sheffield and at the time there were, as far as myself and my friends Rob and Paul knew, only 3 mountain bike riders in the whole city.

We rode the Peaks week in week out in combat trousers and hiking boots, we didn’t really know much about cycling per se. I went through 3 fifteen speed Raleigh Mavericks, a Saracen Conquest and a Ridgeback 702 in the 4 years to 1990, by which time I’d started racing.

You’re absolutely right, they are comfy and I have
never have migrated to suspension of any sort although as I started racing the bikes got more ‘roadie’. I still like to ride over and around things rather than through them. The rigid back I wish I’d never got rid of was my 1990 Kona Hei Hei with a Justin Burls Ti fork.

they say better to have loved and lost, but not sure about that with a Hei Hei..! I am 26 years into Kona rigid ownership with my Kileaua and I would never sell that never mind a Hei Hei! Ive an Explosif too, and a Lava Dome singlespeed in build. A titanium frame of very similar geometry must be a phenomonal thing. The money such things command then and now, are way out of my reach, unless I sell the whole colelction.. the trouble is not just the frame is it.. everything to rightfully go on it has to be high end too, second mortage job.
This Falcon will put a huge smile on you, and its a lot like my first atb an old Peugot ranger in appearance.
That had 24" wheels, I am 6'1" now so if see suitably sized one of nostalgia will probably do all the thinking! Ive looked at Specialized and Breezer etc of this general period and riding position and its not justifiable, this is perhaps more of an affordable bit of fun. Another retrobike post that has me looking at marketplace.. !

 

[Russell]

My first ATB was a Falcon Cheetah. Rode the wheels off it, literally. I will always have soft spot for old Falcons.

Lovely.

 

[Markybeau]

I have to say that my preconceived opinion of Falcon has been shattered by that K2. What a great looking bike. My previous experience with them has been of energy sapping god awful boat anchors and tarted up scrap. I did a double take when I saw the 4130 sticker. Falcon actually made a real bike once. Wow. Most unexpected.

 

[Ren Rawbor]

They did make some OK stuff, my first "proper" (as in not TI Raleigh gas pipe and pig iron) new road bike was a Falcon Proline in about 1996/7. Not exactly high end, 501 maintubes, mix of Exage 300EX/unbranded stuff & riveted Stronglight CS etc but that bike took me many thousands of miles over the next 5 years, had a hard life being ridden year round, some of the time with rack/luggage. Was rebuilt pretty comprehensively after being knocked off around '99 (pretty much frame/fork/headset/seatpost were all that remained, wasn't that badly damaged but our LBS "took care" of me with their repair quote). The fork cracked a month or so later so that was replaced too.

It's final death came in summer 2001, the downtube cracked at the shifter bosses (whilst doing clipped-in endo 180s outside Green St cycles in Sandbach, no less. Did I mention it had a hard life?). So they were making reasonable kit well into the late '90s, even if a shadow of their former glory by then.

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

I have to say that my preconceived opinion of Falcon has been shattered by that K2. What a great looking bike. My previous experience with them has been of energy sapping god awful boat anchors and tarted up scrap. I did a double take when I saw the 4130 sticker. Falcon actually made a real bike once. Wow. Most unexpected.

Falcon have made some really good high end road bikes, San Remo and the Professional off the top of my head. An under rated brand imo.

 

[vtwinvince]

Very cool, but what's with all the pride stickers?

 

[David Reeve]

Anyone had any experience of Baldy tan walls?

 

[kingoffootball]

I really like that! I don't love the colour, to be honest, but that stem more than makes up for it.