1965 Falcon Olympic

[Mrs M]

Here are some pictures of how it looks built up with some borrowed wheels. The original wheels are steel chromed with some rust. I did another 3 miles on it today. I was basically doing errands. Riding along in 1st and 2nd gear feels about right, normally I ride in 3rd or 4th. The chain only jumped a couple of times. I will look at it another day.
This afternoon I did a bit more cleaning and polishing. Most of the rust has come off the chromed bits, the frame is another matter. This received some clay bar treatment and polishing. It now shines in places. I managed to get some more of the paper sticker from the Reynolds transfer. What a place to put one!
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Looks stunning 🤩

 

[Illaveago]

Looks stunning 🤩

Thanks . It is cleaning up. The pictures of it on the bay looked pretty good and I wasn't sure if I was going to be out bid.

 

[Paulus]

That's a lovely looking bike you have there. I do like Falcon bikes, especially in red.
Are you going to keep the chromed wheels, or swap them for alloys?

 

[Illaveago]

That's a lovely looking bike you have there. I do like Falcon bikes, especially in red.
Are you going to keep the chromed wheels, or swap them for alloys?

I think I will keep them as they have large flange hubs . They look really nice when polished up. They won't be going on just yet as the axles don't rotate very well. Dried grease probably . I think it will be the weekend before I can get round to doing them .

 

[Illaveago]

Well that is weird! I've assumed that it was a 23 inch frame all this time . I just measured it and it is a 24! So when I ride other 24 inch frames I have to have the saddle right down almost touching the frame, yet this one I have several inches of post sticking out. I compared the top tube lengths with my 22 inch Orbit Italia and there is only a 3/8" difference.

 

[Illaveago]

I did a bit more cleaning and polishing this afternoon. These pictures show some of the rust scabs and what they look like after going over them with a fine file. The Bottom bracket has a grease nipple fitted and the lugs show signs that they were once gold lined.

 

[biggs682]

Keep up the good work

 

[Illaveago]

Here is my rear wheel for the bike.
I went for a long test ride this morning. It is a route I regularly use so it will give me some indication of how it performs. I had to contend with a headwind for most of my ride to this point. The ride back was much better.

 

[Illaveago]

I had a go at cleaning up the wheels. They are chromed steel rims on large flange Normandy hubs. I wanted to see how bad they were and if they would clean up. The axles were very stiff but I discovered that all they needed was a good clean and regreasing. The rims needed a bit of a clean with some aluminium foil and white spirit. It looks as though one of them has been replaced as it is a German make, the other being a Rigida which could be an original. One of the rims has a few nasty rust scabs. I may just rub aluminium foil into it like I did on another steel rim of mine which came up looking a lot better. I gave one of the hubs a polish but it was only a quick one as I was starting to get cold working outside.

 

[Mandobob]

I had a go at cleaning up the wheels. They are chromed steel rims on large flange Normandy hubs. I wanted to see how bad they were and if they would clean up. The axles were very stiff but I discovered that all they needed was a good clean and regreasing. The rims needed a bit of a clean with some aluminium foil and white spirit. It looks as though one of them has been replaced as it is a German make, the other being a Rigida which could be an original. One of the rims has a few nasty rust scabs. I may just rub aluminium foil into it like I did on another steel rim of mine which came up looking a lot better. I gave one of the hubs a polish but it was only a quick one as I was starting to get cold working outside.

I can't help thinking that the high spec of the frame doesn't match the fact it has steel rims. As the rims don't match, there has been some change to them. However the large flange Normandy hubs, could be contemporary with the frame. They should have their date of manufacture on the outside of the centre barrel with the first pair of numbers being the numerical week of the year (01 to 520) and the second two numbers are the year of manufacture (e.g. 71 for 1971). I love this detective work!

 

[Illaveago]

I can't help thinking that the high spec of the frame doesn't match the fact it has steel rims. As the rims don't match, there has been some change to them. However the large flange Normandy hubs, could be contemporary with the frame. They should have their date of manufacture on the outside of the centre barrel with the first pair of numbers being the numerical week of the year (01 to 520) and the second two numbers are the year of manufacture (e.g. 71 for 1971). I love this detective work!

I have just been out and had a look for a date but couldn't see anything. Mind you I have a bad cold! I did however notice that the front wheel spokes are thinner so I measured them . They are butted! 1.9 mm to 1.5 mm in the centre. That wheel has the Regina rim with the worst rust so I imagine that is the original. The rear wheel has a German rim with a Korean 5 speed. The bike also came with an old mileometer which used to flip round as the wheel turned. It is the later plastic type not the metal version . It has 4,003 miles on it .

 

[Illaveago]

I think the frame number is S 49290.

 

[Gunk]

I restored a very similar age and spec CB Courier a few years ago.

https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/claud-butler-olympic-super-coureur-project.262938/

 

[Illaveago]

My pedals have come up well after treatment.

 

[Illaveago]

This afternoon I had a go at cleaning up and treating a rusty area on the top of the crossbar. I removed the central cable clamp and scraped off the outer scab

and brushed on some rust removing gel. I worked at it with a flat bladed screwdriver to loosen the rust, I also worked at it applying more gel from time to time. I managed to clean off quite a bit of rust this way. I found 2 grooves where the cable clamp had been , the rust had been attacking the area next to the clamp. I washed the treated area off with water which revealed bright shiny steel with some pock marked areas with rust. I will treat those areas again. I noticed a strange faint copper sheen to the steel in places, a bit like an oil on water film. At first I thought it might have been from the frame paint but I discounted that as I had scraped the paint off before treating the steel. You may be able to see a slight copper colour in the centre of the picture. I think it may be from the bonderizing coating. I think I might have caught the corrosion before it had caused too much damage.