I found and purchased a Falcon with the "good" Reynolds decal, the one that says the entire frame and fork are butted 531 tubes. It had some ugly, heavy, sloppy, unlabeled and now removed cottered cranks. One question I have is what would be the most appropriate cranks to put on this bike?
I would also like to get information to place a date on it. It has an NR front deraileur, a Velox rear deraileur, some great mud guards, and the nicest headbadge I have ever had in my garage. There is very little chrome on the bike, just the fork tips. The head badge and the chain stay say "designed by Ernie Clement." I looked at the Cycles d'Oro page on Falcons, which has some good information, and some nice photos. The Velox rear rig was introduced in '71, according to the Campy time line, but it may not be original equipment. There were some cheap Suntour stem shifters on the bike that I doubt would have come new on a quality frame. I also had to remove a nasty set of wheels with heavy Rigida steel rims. So my expectation is it might be early '70s but with the good parts for the most part removed and replaced by lesser. How did the Falcon line run-- did they use good tubing to build a nice frame and then put cheap parts on them for their lower cost bikes? Or was this a stripped down mid to high range bike? How can I tell? Would a high quality Falcon have all NR parts?
It is now set up with an embarassing mix of componentry just to get it on the road. And it rides fine, really fine. I took it out for a ride in the summer rain yesterday and it was comfortable and feels good while climbing. Today I get to test it out in the sunshine.
Keven Ruf, Seattle, Wa