sykerocker 

Perception is everything - I owned a Falcon (San Remo? 531DB with Campy ends), bought from what was THE exotic bicycle dealer if you lived in Erie, PA in the 70's. Can't remember the name or location of the shop, but you had to drive half way to Cleveland. This was a major undertaking, and you'd usually get a couple of the guys in the bike club together and do a field trip.

I don't even remember him carrying any of the cheaper models, then again, I went there because I wanted something more exotic than my Gitane Super Corsa. And, as far as I knew Falcon's were more exotic than any of the Italian marques. Shows what I knew, living in a bicycling backwater.

I do remember getting fitted out on a complete bike (first time I actually had a dealer worry about more than whether I could straddle the top tube), falling in love with the deep purple one, and since I was only looking for a frameset, he promptly disassembled a bike and happily sent me on my way.

Never got back to that shop again - it now exists in my mind as something almost Twilight Zone-ish, the nice but shabby bicycle shop with all the strange bikes and the owner and his wife who were very obviously foreigners, Hungarian or something like that.

Loved the bike, by the way. 31 years later and I'm still sorry I sold it. Going to have another Falcon in the garage one of these days, now that I've gotten both Raleighs and Gitanes.