Vintage Falcon road bike in almost original condition

[DutchIron]

Hi, this is my first ever post. I recently bought this Falcon in a shop in Rotterdam but apparently it was originally sold in Ipswich. It is certainly no lightweight at more than 15kg, having steel Rigida wheels and no Reyolds tubing. However it is in almost perfect original state and reminds me of a Falcon bike I bought new in 1980. Even the tyres with Falcon name-stamp seem to be original. There is a very nice working dynamo set, although I'm sure that's not original. Does anyone have any idea exactly how old this bike is? How might I find out? Some details: frame number M8J18427 , Shimano Tourney centre-pull brakes, Shimano Thunderbird II front derailleur, Shimano Eagle II rear derailleur. The head badge is different from the two other Falcons I have owned (see photo).

 

[jim haseltine]

Late 1970s-early 1980s. You're unlikely to learn much from the frame number as the frame is Taiwanese and Falcon didn't record them. You might have better luck if you can find the bike in a catalogue from the period but that'll be difficult as at the time the company was losing it's way and producing short runs of many almost identical models. It looks similar to the Black Diamond but likely isn't as one thing they were hot on was fitting the top tube decals to those bikes. The mudguards are original and again were used on a lot of their bikes. The dynamo lighting will probably have been added at point of sale.

 

[satkin55]

@Mandobob is a Falcon expert and may be able to assist.

 

[biggs682]

Any dates on the hubs or other components as they all look pretty original

 

[satkin55]

Any dates on the hubs or other components as they all look pretty original

Thats a good point, the brake callipers may have dates on the back, the ones on my Falcon Black Diamond do.

 

[Mandobob]

Hi, this is my first ever post. I recently bought this Falcon in a shop in Rotterdam but apparently it was originally sold in Ipswich. It is certainly no lightweight at more than 15kg, having steel Rigida wheels and no Reyolds tubing. However it is in almost perfect original state and reminds me of a Falcon bike I bought new in 1980. Even the tyres with Falcon name-stamp seem to be original. There is a very nice working dynamo set, although I'm sure that's not original. Does anyone have any idea exactly how old this bike is? How might I find out? Some details: frame number M8J18427 , Shimano Tourney centre-pull brakes, Shimano Thunderbird II front derailleur, Shimano Eagle II rear derailleur. The head badge is different from the two other Falcons I have owned (see photo).View attachment 822427View attachment 822428View attachment 822429View attachment 822430

That's an incredible buy. It is like a timewarp with almost cetainly most of its original equipment - even the tyres which I have never seen before! As Simon says, the dynamo was not a standard fitting.

It is a Falcon Panther. Falcon made two almost identical models at the time, the Tempo and the Panther, the difference being that the Rempo was 5-speed and the Panther 10-speed. The frame was outsourced to Miki in Japan and was made in September 1978 - I suspect that is why the head badge is different from the UK made frames. I am attaching a picture from the 1978 catalogue, which would have come out in very late 1977 for the 1978 season. Black seems to be a very popular colour for this model - the alternative being pearl pink, which was not very popular. The catalogue shows it is not Reynolds tubing, but so to not look too inferior they branded their non Reynolds tubing "Special ST Tubing".

 

[DutchIron]

Any dates on the hubs or other components as they all look pretty original

Can't see anything on the brakes or derailleur. On the front hub, underneath ATOM MADE IN FRANCE, there are two numbers, 26 78. On the rear hub it says 39 78. Could the 78 be a year?

 

[DutchIron]

Thanks ever so much, Mandobob, that's more info than I ever hoped to get when I joined this forum! Interesting, I think my first Falcon, bought in 1980,

 

[DutchIron]

(continued) was a Tempo. I called the colour gold, but it could have been pearl yellow. Unfortunately that bike no longer exists, having been destroyed in a road accident in 1984

 

[jim haseltine]

Yes, on the hubs that's week number and year. By the time I worked for Falcon (1980 or 81, so long ago that I can't remember) I don't think the model existed - I certainly never saw that head badge and the tyres are new to me too, never saw them in the factory or on the bikes that passed through the shops I worked in either before or after my ill-considered stint in the manufacturing side of the business.