Identify earlyish lugs

[Midlife]

As well as black diamond frames the same lugs appeared on the low end Merckx Falcon Bikes. Badge engineering at its finest lol

 

[Mandobob]

Oh well spotted! Clearly the lugs were a pretty regular component on lower spec Falcon bikes through the 70s. It was a clever way to shift a lot of basic bikes riding on the cachet of the reputation of the pro racing team and of the top end bikes. In logging all the various models there were quite a number of basically similar ones with only superficial differences. I guess the pundits would call it smart marketing.

 

[Midlife]

Regarding the lugs, they always reminded me of the Carlton Flyer style.

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/159863/

 

[satkin55]

Thanks Midlife, you have noted my preferences! I edited the photos as the head tube has an unusual badge, which I am attaching, which gives away the manufacturer. It is a metal badge, which suggests it is at least pre 1978 / pre Elswick Hopper takeover, when they seem to have switched to the adhesive type.

Any ideas about the badge? It clearly is a "real" Falcon as it has the familiar Falcon typeface and the bird is very similar to that used on the classic metal Falcon badge used until about 1978. It also says "made in Birmingham" and Falcon cycles moved to Barton-on-Humber from Birmingham in 1968. Would that make it a 1950s/60s frame?

I have no evidence that in this era Falcon were outsourcing frames from the far east.

There are plenty of Falcons of that era about still but this is only the second time I have seen this badge, once for sale on its own and now recently sold on a frame. I have a database of photos of almost a thousand Falcons and it has never turned up on any of those until now.

If anyone has any knowledge about this badge I would be very appreciative.
View attachment 578752

@Mandobob did you find out any more about this badge? I’ve just acquired one and was hoping you would know about it, but I see you’re after info too. Like you, it looks genuine because of the typeface, but it was this one I’d ever seen.

 

[satkin55]

I am not sure what you mean by the olympic rings era. They were used as early as 1956/57 as per the attached photo. I have this badge on a very early Club Special Falcon. Note how the manufacturer is shown as "RCI Ltd". Robert Cycle Industries were bought out by Coventry Eagle in 1958, so the rings were used presumably from the beginning in 1956.

View attachment 578924

@Mandobob that’s an interesting version of the badge. That makes 3 designs I’ve seen now. The other two have “Designed by Ernie Clements” on a dark blue background at the bottom, rather than the 3 lines on black like yours. The difference between those is that one has “Made in England“ on the grass below the Falcon, and the other doesn’t.
https://falconrestorebike.wordpress.com/ephemera/headbadges/
Are there any more variations? Do you know when each version was used?

 

[Mandobob]

Falcon used the classic low relief metal badges from its inception in 1956 through until about 1978/79 when Elswick Hopper bought out Ernie Clements ownership of Falcon Cycles and made him a director of EH. The new regime implemented cost savings in all areas to compete with the fierce south-east asian markets. They started to use a foil head badge which was similar in design to the metal one and had a very low relief pattern embossed into it. These lasted until about 1982 when Clements left the company and his signature at the bottom was replaced with the Falcon name in red. You will find flat simplified versions of these foil badges, supplied by H Lloyd, which are replacements and do not have the embossing so it is easy to tell an original. The flat ones are sometimes a clue to the frame having had a respray. You have one of these on your website.

The smooth finish metal badge, in gold, red, blue and black, is still a mystery. I have a frame with one on, but have not yet been able to evidencee why it exists.