First off; this might not be what you'd call a proper 'freestyle' bike. However, in the early 80's a cheap bike like this would've been an all-rounder; I'm just focusing it a bit more!
Now, the purists are going to HATE THIS but the important thing to know is this project is being built on three foundations. It has to be CHEAP, FUN TO BUILD and FUN TO RIDE!
But most importantly, CHEAP!!!
It started off when I had a lot of parts left over from the Badlander build and I thought 'Ooh, all I need is a frame and forks and I can build another bike (almost!)'.
Nothing was coming my way, meaning nothing was cheap enough for me!
Then rakas17 put one of his Falcon Pro's on eBay and I thought I'd have a cheeky bid not expecting to win this fine piece of British engineering but lo and behold a few days later I'm looking at a quality example of a Falcon Pro Aero Flyer sitting at my feet!
For those of you who have seen my frame restoration thread you'll know how rusty it was when I got it. However, it cleaned up nicely with Coke and foil and a bit of polish and Del did a first class job of replicating the tatty remains of decals I gave him!
I used the cheapy stem I originally had on the Badlander and gave it a polish up and it turned out pretty good!
Next I turned to the wheels. I was always going to use the wheels my Badlander had rolled on for many years but didn't know what I was going to use them on. I decided to use them on this build and I know they're not correct for the period (1983) but as I said at the beginning, this is a cheap build and as I already had them, I used them!
They were pretty manky but if you've seen my wheel resto thread you'd have seen they turned out pretty well. I got the GT hubs chromed and powdered by Dan and rubbed the Sun Mistral rims down and had Dan powder them too.
I picked up sme tyres off ed209 but when I fitted them I wasn't sure if they suited the colourful wheels. This seems to be echoed by several other people too.
However, when I loose fitted them to the chrome frame, they looked a hundred times better!
I've got some black with whitewall tyres coming so I'll try those too and see what people think.
I'm still waiting for the bars, seat post and seat to turn up but my Tioga stationary rotor cup turned up yesterday so I could finally start to put the bike together!
This is my favourite part (aside from riding it!) but isn't it frustrating when your nice, shiney chrome frame gets covered in greasy fingerprints! A good polish after it's built I think!
Hopefully it'll be finished within a week once I get the bars, seatpost and seat (I'm expecting to have to do some work on the bars and seat!
The final touch is going to be a set of custom pads from Firebird Steve and from his artwork he sent me; I can't wait!
The spec so far is:
1983 Falcon Pro Aero Flyer f&f
NOS Pro Landar hollow crank
NOS Tioga sealed BB
NOS KKT AMX pedals
Tioga Beartrap 2 headset
NOS SR 44T chainring
YBN chain
NOS Raleigh Burner brakes
NOS Vans brake shoe pads
Belvin pegs
Cheap stem which was on my Badlander from new!
NOS Odyssey stem bolt
NOS AME round grips
NOS Dia Compe Tech 4 levers
NOS Sharp lever grips
Early 80's GT Pro bars (apparently)
NOS Meng Jing layback seatpost
Kashimax Aero copy seat
NOS 1984 seat clamp
NOS 1987 ACS Rotor
NOS Dia Compe cable guides
Blue and green brake cables
Custom decals By Del
Powdercoating by Dan
GT hubs from my Badlander, chromed and powdered by Dan with new decals by Del
Sun Mistral rims (early ones) from my Badlander, prepared by me, powdered by Dan
NOS Shimano 16T freewheel
Custom Falcon Pro dustcaps
Comp ST copy tyres by Duro (Sheng Shin white walls on their way)
I think that's all!
I'm sure she's not everyone's cup of tea but I hope you like how she's coming along?
Cheers,
Giles
