Where does this bike stand!?

Hello all (this is my first post so bare with me)

I recently purchased a Falcon Black Diamond for £40
It has 543 Reynolds tubing and is in great condition, for the price I thought it was a steal and an easy profit or relationship could be made.

I then heard that only early black models were of any value as Falcon later demoted the Black Diamond in their range and released it in a variety of colours.

The one I have is black but to me looks 80's which would suggest its a later model.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated, I just need to know what I've bought really haha.

Hi

Welcome to the site the Falcon Black Diamond you have is one of the later models, it does have a Reynolds 453 frame I believe, and with the parts fitted it is well worth what you paid for it.

The earlier Black Diamonds were made from Reynolds 531 and had forged dropouts rather than the pressed steel that I believe this one has, I can't quite remember if it had a Shimano 600 arabesque groupset on of if it was Altus LT.

All in all though yours is a nice bike and as I said well worth what you paid for it

Hope this helps

Just as an aside, we sold Black Diamonds in the 70's...........despite the name the most popular colours were blue and red

Shaun

Thanks for the replies this really helps me out. Hopefully I can make a few quid on it with a few adjustments haha thanks again!

I've decided to give the bike a new life and just was just wondering what the best way would be to go about this. I would like to put drops on it but does it matter which or would other branded parts reduce the value. If this is the case does anybody know where I can buy vintage bike parts other than the usual (ebay etc). Also, does anyone know where I can buy replacement decals.

Any help would be great!

Drop bars means new brake levers and then you have the issue of having to transfer over to downtube shifters, those parts should be readily available via the "wanted" section on here, though ebay can be very good for such things.

Try and match the shifters to whatever manufacturer the derailleur is would be my advice just to match things up.

Decals can most likely be sought from Nick at http://www.hlloydcycles.com/

One note of caution given you've mentioned making a profit - there won't be too much room for that if your parts swap get's too much - replacement bars, brakes & shifters could take you close to a realistic value of the bike on top of the purchase price & decals etc...

I'd try and suss out how much the bike would sell for with the changes you've highlighted. One quick search on ebay and the most expensive price for a Falcon from this era is £120 so i'd just watch the purse-strings. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Road-Racing-B ... 3cd57c3ce9

Hope this helps...

Nice bike, no heart stopper but I'm sure it will be lovely to ride. I'd keep it as it is personally, but it's your call of course! The hubs may have a date stamp on them (typically MM/YY)