Falcon Explorer 12

[Boon 51]

https://www.gumtree.com/p/bicycles/...-ladies-mixte-road-bike-52cm-frame/1328937872

At last.. don't know whats wrong with me today. doh.

 

[Boon 51]

@Boon 51 does this link work for you ? https://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=127758

That's something that I would like.

 

[biggs682]

https://www.gumtree.com/p/bicycles/...-ladies-mixte-road-bike-52cm-frame/1328937872

At last.. don't know whats wrong with me today. doh.

That's a nice looking bike

That's something that I would like.

And a very good price as well

 

[biggs682]

Just reverting back to the original topic i added another 20 miles to this machine's total this morning which must take it close to the 500 mile mark , not bad when you consider a £12 and a pr of used Marathons is all it has cost so far including purchasing

Normally i would put it up for sale but it rides so well and i actually enjoy riding it i am tempted to keep it

 

[Boon 51]

Just reverting back to the original topic i added another 20 miles to this machine's total this morning which must take it close to the 500 mile mark , not bad when you consider a £12 and a pr of used Marathons is all it has cost so far including purchasing

Normally i would put it up for sale but it rides so well and i actually enjoy riding it i am tempted to keep it

That was my fault going off onto something else..

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Normally i would put it up for sale but it rides so well and i actually enjoy riding it i am tempted to keep it

I would definitely keep it. It's obviously a good ride and it's never going to fetch big money, so why not just hang on to it? Sometimes you pick up stuff whose usefulness and enjoyment factor vastly outweighs their financial worth. My 501 Pioneer and 531 Gemini hybrids are the same. £10 and £20 to buy, plus about another £30 on each for tyres etc. If I sold them both, I could only buy a new BSO with the proceeds! Quality vintage steel or BSO? Not really a difficult choice...

 

[biggs682]

It says a lot about this bike as when I went in the garage this morning to get a bike out for my morning ride I plumped for this over at least 4 much more exotic machines .

Ended up doing another 35 miles which must take me to around the 500 mile mark not bad for a bike costing £12

 

[DCBassman]

Exactly how I feel about my Claud Butler mtb. Best £7 I've ever spent!

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Sometimes the really good rides can turn out to be ones that cost the smallest amounts of money. Someone just gave me a mistreated 80's 3-speed roadster and it's really smooth & silent now I've fixed a few faults. Rode it for a good hour yesterday and will do the same again today. I'm really spoilt for choice when it comes to worthless, but nice riding steel pub bikes!.

 

[Gabbyonpedalpower]

I was just trying to find out what year my bike was made, now think I was robbed! No not really, I've just paid £40 for mine and it's not in nearly such good Nik but proceeds have gone to stone pillow our local homeless charity, in fairness they gave me the rack and a more comfey seat.I digress, I've bought this bike to fly out to Spain for a short trip along the olive via verdes. Sadly it cannot come home with me, I'm already find of it after learning how to refurb a front bearing and generally cleaning and unseizing nuts etc, pedals are worringly still siezed and this would scupper flying it if I don't succeed. Anyway, I think it's 10 speed in a British racing green livery. It's a great ride. Looking forward to my ride tomorrow when the wind drops. If anyone has any idea what year it was built I would love to hear from you. Ha ha it's dinner time, I'd better sort out my workshop/ dining room.

 

[biggs682]

@Gabbyonpedalpower loads of you tube videos about overhauling fr wheel hubs and limited tooling required

Silly question are you trying to undo the pedals the correct way ? Sorry to ask .

Try using a spanner with a bit more leverage to see if that helps

As for age i would say a lot newer than my one was

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

I was just trying to find out what year my bike was made

Without dated components it's impossible to give an exact year, but the type of construction used in the frame does narrow it down. Firstly, the forks are unicrowns, which on a road-oriented frame suggests it will not be earlier than about 1990. Then we have a lugged & brazed main frame made from Reynolds 500 plain gauge cro-moly. Through the 1990's. frames were becoming increasingly of welded construction and brazing was very much in decline, because it is more labour intensive and cannot be automated. Butted Reynolds 501 tubing appeared around 1983, and 500 was a later and cheaper plain gauge version specified to reduce costs to compete with imports from places like Taiwan, at the expense of marginally more weight. Like 501, 500 was not recommended for welding, so such frames still had to be brazed, years after hi-tensile "gas pipe" frames became welded fabrications.. Eventually, most manufacturers went over to 4130 grade cro-moly tube, which could be welded more cheaply, and this finally killed off pretty much all the remaining lugged & brazed frame designs made in the UK. This process was pretty well complete by 1995/96, so your bike is unlikely to have been made pre-1990 and equally unlikely to be later than about 1995.