1960s Falcon Track Bike - The British Italian Job

Cheers! I'll probbly get it repaired, just not sure what do with it after the repair since the chainstay will be bare metal. Also I can't get myself to send it to the framebuilder right now, since I got some other stuff to do atm and I also want to enjoy it for a couple more days/weeks before I'll have to go fixed gear cold turkey...

Excellent project - well documented - glad to see you kept paint original. - Defo get the chainstay replaced before riding much if at all as if it fails it may stress and distort other tubes or worse. Although not a serious as head tube area cracks.

Thanks for the kind words! Yeah, you're probably right. Judging from the fact that the crack developed on the top side of the chainstay I reckon that it was caused by braking/skidding so I've only used it in crusining mode lately which isn't as much fun anyway... I really like the original paint as it has faded in some spots while still being shiny. New paintjob is not an option!

I covered some Cinelli Bars in leather today. In retrospect, maybe I should have covered the Cinelli Criterium instead of the road bars but it was a bit of a test run so I used these Campione del Mondo bars from the parts bin.

3 Attachments

put the brooks and the leather bars on

1 Attachment

looking good

Cheers!

I procrastinated the repair so far since I won't be riding this in autumn/winter anyway. I'm still not sure whether I should get a basic repair or get it rechromed while I'm at it. The chrome on the rear triangle is still in pristine condition so it wouldn't spoil the overall patina of the bike I think.
In other news: I found another picture of the odd brooks b17 with the additional copper rivet in the back. The photo is from an eddy merckx exhibition and the saddle is on eddy's superia from the early days of his career. The plot thickens.

Here's the link to the full article: http://www.veloveritas.co.uk/2015/03/14/eddy-merckx-jacky-ickx-exhibition/ Interestingly, the saddle is incorrectly referred to as a Brooks Pro, while it says B17 champion standard on the side of it. When I first saw the saddle, I also thought it looked more like a pro than a B17...

According to this article, merckx became amateur world champion on this bike in 1964 which means that the saddle is more or less period correct for my late 50s/early60s falcon: http://www.i-c-c.nl/interviews/7/eddy-merckx-campagnolo-is-kwaliteit.html

2 Attachments

My winter replacement for the falcon - a Gitane Mexico. the falcon is too pwetty to get ridden in winter anyway. so the plan is to get the Falcon repaired come spring. Until then I'll slowly collect parts for the gitane.

1 Attachment

Gitane looks good, needs rear black tyre!

So did you have your Falcon repaired?

:)

Nope, got two other track frames (each for the price of a new chainstay) but the Falcon is still awaiting repair. Tbh, I'm in no hurry to fix it. 60 years of patina are at stake so I don't want to rush it :)

Resurrecting an old post - these are not Nervex Pro, but Nervex type lugs made by Agrati - appearing in the famous Bozzi parts catalogue of 1950 so many enthusiasts incorrectly refer to it as a Bozzi pattern.

Below is pic of a 1960's Falcon I picked up not long ago and got above info from a nice man across the pond :)

1 Attachment

I appreciate the bump! Thanks for solving the mistery and good luck with your project - it already looks promising with its patina and center-pull brakes!

Cheers, still got it ?

Resurrecting an old post - these are not Nervex Pro, but Nervex type lugs made by Agrati - appearing in the famous Bozzi parts catalogue of 1950 so many enthusiasts incorrectly refer to it as a Bozzi pattern.

Aaaaaahhhh, I've often wondered what those lugs were. I've seen them on a lot of bikes and they look like Nervex ones but are very big and fat in comparison. I always just assumed they were a later, cheaper iteration.