old falcon 70's? 531 framed racer, any good?

[Garuf]

Hello, I've come across an old Falcon 531 tubed bike in easily repairable condition, it's got some anomolous fixtures and has obviously been well loved, were the frames actually any good as the basis of a project or is it something I should just write off.

As componentry goes, it has cinelli bar and stem, campag cranks and 10speed freewheel, the colours are red and chrome with an olympic badge on the headtube, brooks sadle-sadly very dead and 105 hubs with some very old looking mavek rims.

Worth anything, what'd be fair to pay if it's actually any good?

 

[Andy B]

It's worth whatever you want to pay for it*

It's probably worth buying if it's in as good a condition as you say it is

Probably not worth spending too much cash and time on but will make a nice daily rider that would be fairly safe locked up outside the shop whilst you buy your daily supplies of cake/beer.

I have a early 80's Falcon road bike (link in sig) and all I've done is buy a new saddle, BB, new tyres and new brakes, all in all cost £100. Tubing is just CroMo, but it does have Shimano 600 Arabesque mechs and shifters. I use it as my commuter/beer scooter.

*what does the seller want for it, or have they just said make me an offer?

 

[Garuf]

They want £50 but I reckon I can easily get it down if I say about the useless seat and lack of pedals+ manky huds.
It'd be the basis of a commumter/street whip I reckon, have it shot blasted and repainted and stick some modern rims on it, most likely open pros, possibly coldset the frame and put new componants on, the somewhat dodgy campag rear derailour and mtb front derailour being a possible issue. The frame itself is in great condition, but clearly "loved".

 

[Garuf]

Went back to measure the frame, the model is a Falcon Olympic, mean anything to anyone?

 

[OldTel]

Hi,
is this it ?

 

[Garuf]

Yeah that's the one in the red colourway, just noticed it's not 700c so it's probably a non-starter. Back to the drawing board I suppose. :?

 

[Andy B]

What's the issue with 27" wheels?

You can still get wheels, tyres and tubes in 27" flavour as well as brakes too

Or you can get deep drop brakes to make the 700c wheels work on a 27" wheel based frame...

 

[Garuf]

I've already got a set of open pro's I was planning on using and some long reach weimann brakes but it's both cantilever and meant for 27"'s. I'll go back and take another look and see just what's doable and assess from there I guess.

 

[Garuf]

Went back and talked myself out of it, back to the search, if anyone's interested as a project bike I could easily collect it, the parts really are an odd bunch which makes me think it's been a total build from scavenged parts rather than well loved.

 

[1duck]

you still hunting for a bike garuf? i thought you'd have been sorted by now!