bikeneggs

After riding cross country on my too-small 21" Jeunet Captivante I switched my components over to a lugged 23" Falcon Black Diamond obtained from the dump in 1985 for $7. I spent 3 months riding that Falcon around the Hawaiian Islands and New Zealand and have always wanted to know when the bike was built. The frame was originally black with "Black Diamond" in white letters on the top tube near the front. Hardly any of the components are original. I've added braze-ons over the years to meet my needs. Now it hangs in the garage.
An old thread suggested it might be from 1962 based on components I remember it came with from the dump. It has a wrap-around seat stay and had the fork light mount on the right side (since removed). I doubt the tubing is anything special. Lower half of fork is chromed and has a long rake which was unresponsive but great for touring. It may have originally had brazed on pump hooks under the top tube which I would have removed right away.
Another thread suggested that its writer had a spec sheet for his '62 Falcon originally purchased with blue chip stamps. I'd sure like to make contact with him.
Serial number above left BB cup - K24539
My pictures may not help much due to so many modifications over the years...

Serrotta style paint scheme. Didn't realize colors would represent the Mexican flag.

Stem may not be original. Fork bearing assemblies are original. Why not add Titanium?!

Wrap around seat stay. I like highlighting lugs with gold.

BB lugs have some frill.

Hand painted - made stencil from original decal before first repaint in 1985.

rhm

What were the original components, that you can remember? Do you know the seat post size?

I have a Falcon, model unknown, of similar vintage. It is made of straight gauge 531 And takes a 26.2 mm. I'm not sure how this might help you. In fact I'm not sure what you're question was.

bikeneggs

I would like to know what year my Falcon was made, original specifications including type of tubing used, original selling price and which country it was originally sold in. I saw many Falcons in NZ in the mid-80's.
I can measure the seat post dia. It came with Huret shifters/derailleurs. I lost track of the original crank which may have been a Williams but I recall chain rings having only a few teeth difference. It may have come with Weinman 99 brakes. The 27" rims were most likely steel Rigida's. I think it came with large wing nuts on axles.
Interestingly, the frame was nearly identical to our family's early '60's British made gold Huffy Super Mark X also having the wrap around seat stay and fork light mount.

eschlwc

you may try emailing falcon with the serial number. it might lead to something.

my '73 sr model is a 531 frame with campy drops, wraparound stays, and a 27.2 sp.

eschlwc

this page has some catalogs: https://www.velo-pages.com/main.php?g2_itemId=26656

Fahrenheit531 

Whatever the details turn out to be, that is one cool looking bike!

evwxxx

I am the ghost from the past with the 1962 falcon black diamond spec sheet. There is also a similar spec sheet at this site Picture Display - Full Resolution That being said, the specs are different between these 2 sources, and I suspect this link is for a later period than my other sheet, based on differences between the same model bike (Falcon Black Diamond). Looks to me like the posters bike more closely matches the one in this link than the spec sheet I have, with the exception of the chrome lugs, which is pretty interesting for the black diamond model!!

juvela

thanks for posting this!

brings back memories. purchased my first tenspeed about 1965-66 in southern california. looked at bikes at two shops; one had falcon and the other was a peugeot stockist. decided to go with the uo-8. the falcon bicycles i looked at would have been imported by west coast cycle, like your catalogue sheet.

recall the black diamond model as being the bottom of their drop bar tenspeed range.

interesting to note that on the machine pictured in the catalogue page the lamp boss is on the left blade, so it was made expressly for the export market.

in the early '70's managed a rooming house for university students and one of the tenants had a black falcon black diamond which they had purchased new ~1971.

thanks again for updating this thread.

evwxxx

No problem, been away from the forums for a long time, trying to get back into the flow. That catalog is a cool one, too bad fellow passed away so no longer available for purchase....From what I can gather, the Black Diamond line from Falcon underwent some major changes between about 1962 and say 1965. The very early ones were made of Reynolds 531 main frames with some of the higher end (for the times) components such as Williams cranks, Huret Alvit deraillers, Wright saddles, Dunlop "superlight" steel rims, fancy looking lugs, fully sloping fork crown, built-in oiler hole for the bottom bracket,,,,,etc. They still were probably "bottom of the lineup" for Falcon, but even the bottom of the lineup was pretty good stuff, my early 1962 Black Diamond rang in at $89 at the local Western Auto store, of all places, and that was a bit of change for a bike in 1962! I have only ever seen one other one that exactly matched the one I have, and that was in the same small town in S. Calif where I grew up (Hemet). Another point, the lamp holder on my 1962 Black Diamond is on the righthand side. Wierd. Anyway from there they seem to have gone down somewhat in quality at least from the standpoint of frame material and components, but still pretty fair bikes.

juvela

inox!


[/QUOTE]fancy looking lugs, fully sloping fork crown, built-in oiler hole for the bottom bracket,,,,,etc. They still were probably "bottom of the lineup" for Falcon, but even the bottom of the lineup was pretty good stuff, my early 1962 Black Diamond rang in at $89 at the local Western Auto store, of all places, and that was a bit of change for a bike in 1962! [/QUOTE]



recall that at that time a new Schwinn Continental was the same price. the Schwinn Varsity was $78. Campag Record equipped bikes with all 531 frames were as little as $160-180. when i bought my U08 for $80 the same shop had some all 531/Campag Record Carltons they were closing out for this $160-180 figure. young fellow that i was working for $1.65/hr could not imagine a bicycle costing that much. ~100 hours of gross earnings.




[/QUOTE] I have only ever seen one other one that exactly matched the one I have, and that was in the same small town in S. Calif where I grew up (Hemet). [/QUOTE]

mondo piccolo! me dad taught flying there at an army air corps field during the second world war.

[/QUOTE]Another point, the lamp holder on my 1962 Black Diamond is on the righthand side. Wierd. Anyway from there they seem to have gone down somewhat in quality at least from the standpoint of frame material and components, but still pretty fair bikes.[/QUOTE]

did your example have the ernie clements transfer on the chainstay? was she showing a san remo transfer as well?

evwxxx

No Ernie Clements transfer on the chainstay, nor were there any san remo transfers. "Black Diamond" was located on the forward part of the top tube. At the schwinn shop next to the Western Auto where the Falcon was they had the schwinn varsity for $62 bucks, not sure what the continentals were going for. I do remember that in the early 70's when pres Nixon instated price controls to tame inflation you could snag a schwinn Paramount for around $219 bucks! Yes, the airfield in Hemet was (is) called Ryan Field. Lots of history there!

baykoman

I'm no cycle guru, but came across the forum when nostalgically googling Falcon Black Diamond.

This won't help you at all, but I was bought a second hand FBD for my 13th birthday in 1963. It was an excellent ride, but went back into the second hand market in 1971 [I think] for a £5 profit!

satkin55

I have a 1978 Falcon Black Diamond I'm currently restoring. I've had it since a teenager, so it's mostly original. I've put a spec list on my blog at https://falconrestorebike.wordpress.com.

satkin55

I've purchased some old Falcon catalogues and added copies to my website https://falconrestorebike.wordpress.com/ephemera/

Hope thses are of interest and/or use.