Tim,
I was interested in your post, as I have a similar vintage San Remo Equipe. I'll try to get around to posting a photo somewhere\u2026
It has the usual discerning features: flat wrapover stays, chromed lugs, forks and rear stays, and sloping crown. Paint is racing blue, flam red head tube and white bands on down tube. Stickers are red-on-white falcon vinyl stickers on down tube and top tube and foil sticker on down tube. Takes 27.0 seat post. Oddly the bottom bracket shell is 66mm across, rather than the standard British 68mm. Is yours the same?
>From what I can make out, this paint job was current from 1969
to 1971. Here's a picture of Albert
Hitchen riding the Tour de la Nouvelle France
in 1971 on an identical-looking frameset.
http://www.flickr.com/
The 1970 team bikes pictured at the following link have the same get-up (although some bikes have different down tube stickers, and these bikes appear possibly not chromed? \u2013 it's hard to make out). You can also see how from the later photo how Falcon ditched the red head tube on their team bikes by 1972.
http://www.internationalcyclesport.com/
I have seen some other photos somewhere that suggest the 1969 model was identical looking to my bike, but that the 1968 model has a slightly different paint job, at least in that it does not have the two white bands on the down tube (it has a solid white panel instead).
Thus, it seems my bike dates from 69-71. My S/N is X twenty thousand and something. I've no idea how the Falcon S/Ns work, but it seems likely mine dates slightly after yours. Thus, if yours is a 1971, I would be reasonably confident in saying mine must be too! So my question, if you don't mind me asking, is how are you so confident on dating yours as 1971?
Cheers
Nick Lynch London GB