Charliesniff
Regular
Mid 80's Challenger.
Vintage Falcon road bikes
- Thread starter southcoast
- Start date
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Craig Gardner
New Member
- Location
- Malmesbury Wiltshire
Hope this is ok to post, found the forum looking an old friend. Attached are a few pics of my old Falcon training bike form the early 80's which i still ride today over the years a few things have had to be changed but its basically the same.
At the timI i was doing a lot of training with a group in Gloucester including a guy called Doug Sollars who i believe was the Team administrator for the Falcon pro team. I bought the frame and purpose built the bike to my own spec mostly campag with the then brand new Mavic Grey Rims.
I loved riding this bike so much that I often raced it coming 3rd in the Bristol Road club 2 day, winning the Tyne Velo 25.. managed to do a short 22 min 10 and a 55 min 25 nothing by todays standards but reasonable in the day, as you can see its still in use any questions please ask
At the timI i was doing a lot of training with a group in Gloucester including a guy called Doug Sollars who i believe was the Team administrator for the Falcon pro team. I bought the frame and purpose built the bike to my own spec mostly campag with the then brand new Mavic Grey Rims.
I loved riding this bike so much that I often raced it coming 3rd in the Bristol Road club 2 day, winning the Tyne Velo 25.. managed to do a short 22 min 10 and a 55 min 25 nothing by todays standards but reasonable in the day, as you can see its still in use any questions please ask
Attachments
Illaveago
Guru
- Location
- Chippenham,Wiltshire.
.It's nice to see more Falcons . I discovered one lurking underneath a lot of paint .
SkipdiverJohn
Deplorable Brexiteer
- Location
- London
The more old steel bikes kept on the road, the merrier. The previous poster's Falcon is a nice example.
Hi Craig Gardner. That looks a bit like a Professional as it seems to have the Cr-Mo sticker on the seat tube. It is still a great bike and your own records show that.
I am interested that you mention Doug Sollars. I have a 1984 Falcon in Reynolds 531 Professional tubing, purpose built by Terry Dolan who built the pro team bikes. The guy I bought the frame lives in Cheltenham and got it built by Terry to his measurements through Doug Sollars, who he knew and rode with as a teenager. He was called Paul something (Hudson???) . You may have known him.
Craig Gardner
New Member
- Location
- Malmesbury Wiltshire
Hi Mandobob,
That's not a name I recognise, I do remember Andy Llewelyn, Phil Griffiths, Gary Crewe and certain other maniacs joining in could be a very hard run at times.
Interesting you mentioned the Cr-Mo tubing can you tell me a bit more about it never really understood ?
That's not a name I recognise, I do remember Andy Llewelyn, Phil Griffiths, Gary Crewe and certain other maniacs joining in could be a very hard run at times.
Interesting you mentioned the Cr-Mo tubing can you tell me a bit more about it never really understood ?
SkipdiverJohn
Deplorable Brexiteer
- Location
- London
I would imagine if Falcon were using one of the less well-known cro-moly tubesets it would be to keep down production costs. Anyone building a frame for maximum quality reputation would use high end Reynolds or Columbus tubing. Anything else tends to be regarded as "second division", even if the tubing is still perfectly good.
Craig Gardner
New Member
- Location
- Malmesbury Wiltshire
That's what I thought Skipdiver makes no sense why they would use it on their Professional !
I am pretty sure it was Ackles and Pollock tubing, which is British (Reynolds also made Cr-Mo tubing). The name comes from Chromium and Molybdenum which are the two primary alloying agents in the steel. It has the same ultimate strength as 531 but loses a bit of strength on brazing.
Falcon launched two models in CrMo in the late 1970s, the Professional and the SuperPro. Both were equipped with tubs, so were aimed at the club and racing fraternity - serious cyclists, and the SuperPro was fitted with Campag throughout. This was at a time when UK made bikes were about to be overwhelmed by cheaper product from south-east asia and cost competition was rife. Falcon therefore offered a range of bikes at a range of prices to suit the market.
The name Professional did not mean it was their premium bike at the time, which was still the San Remo Equipe, made from Reynolds 531 butted tubing. As a company, Falcon moved away from high-end bikes as the 1980s went on. Ernie Clements left the company im 1982 and after that BMX and mountain bikes became more the fashion. The Professional was nevertheless a well respected bike in its time
Falcon launched two models in CrMo in the late 1970s, the Professional and the SuperPro. Both were equipped with tubs, so were aimed at the club and racing fraternity - serious cyclists, and the SuperPro was fitted with Campag throughout. This was at a time when UK made bikes were about to be overwhelmed by cheaper product from south-east asia and cost competition was rife. Falcon therefore offered a range of bikes at a range of prices to suit the market.
The name Professional did not mean it was their premium bike at the time, which was still the San Remo Equipe, made from Reynolds 531 butted tubing. As a company, Falcon moved away from high-end bikes as the 1980s went on. Ernie Clements left the company im 1982 and after that BMX and mountain bikes became more the fashion. The Professional was nevertheless a well respected bike in its time
.Craig Gardner
New Member
- Location
- Malmesbury Wiltshire
Thank you Mandobob and Midlife good information, at the time I wasn't into the specs of what things were made of just if it was fast or not !
SkipdiverJohn
Deplorable Brexiteer
- Location
- London
My understanding though is that after Reynolds took over A & P, they withdrew their Kromo tubing from the cycling market so as not to compete with 531 mang-moly.
I have sometimes wondered if Reynolds 501 was largely based on the recipe for A & P Kromo, when they needed a cheaper tubeset than 531. If you read Reynolds literature, 501 was slightly stronger than generic 4130 cro-moly. It's plausible they dusted off the Kromo recipe and relaunched it either with or without some formulation tweaking.
Very little is really new, after all 753 is heat-treated 531, and Reynolds had been making a heat-treated 531 option in the 1940's!
OP
OP
southcoast
Über Member
Some time ago I asked a chap that was the workshop manager for falcon in the early eighties and he mentioned Accles and Pollock Tubing.
Also as mentioned by @midlife there is reference to the bikes being made of Phoenix tubing on a viscount chat forum, with chrome Tange fork for the Super Pro.
The generic cro mo badge is often used when companies are mix and matching tubing. which might explain why the badge was used.
Falcon often seemed to use whatever they had to hand during this period. Which might explain why some anomalies like bikes with pro spec sometimes having 27.2 seat tube?
Also as mentioned by @midlife there is reference to the bikes being made of Phoenix tubing on a viscount chat forum, with chrome Tange fork for the Super Pro.
The generic cro mo badge is often used when companies are mix and matching tubing. which might explain why the badge was used.
Falcon often seemed to use whatever they had to hand during this period. Which might explain why some anomalies like bikes with pro spec sometimes having 27.2 seat tube?
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