In a message dated 1/9/2002 8:38:19 PM Eastern Standard Time, hilary.stone@blueyonder.co.uk writes:
<< Falcon Eddy Merckxs were a 1970s bike >>
When I first got in the bicycle trade in 1973, I worked for a large bike shop which sold multitudinous Eddy Merckx by Falcon.
The most common model was a basic one with unknown tubing and Simplex derailleurs, steel cottered cranks, Weinmann centerpulls and QR Atom hubs, ala' Raleigh Grand Prix, Peugeot UO-8, etc. Retail was about $125.00-$150.00.
Interestingly, those imported into the USA in these early days had few Japanese componentry. There were a progression of models moving upward in price with specs rather like other popular companies of the era (Gitane, Mercier, Jeunet)
One unfortunate trend that we spotted was the .. how do I say it.. "casual" use of the Reynolds decals. We discovered quite a number of bikes sporting full 531 decals that had seams in the steering tubes for instance... That was likely a result of the chaos and shortages of that early 1970s bike boom.
Dale Brown
Greensboro, North Carolina