Millenium Falcon

SuperSid

Old School Hero
I have finally finished pimpin' (restoring) by 1979 Falcon.

History:
I bought the frame in 1989 and used it ever since as my commuter. The frame was metallic red and in average condition, at first the components where mainly rusty steel parts so the bike looked very undesirable to thieves. My housemates during my student years in Coventry all had their mountain bikes stolen, the only bike remaining was my trusty Falcon.

When I finally found a job (in France) in 1996 as a car designer, I upgraded the parts with some Mavic CXP 30 aero wheels and straight mountain bike bars, I resprayed it Blue, then Fluorescent orange.

Having neglected it for the last few years, I was pondering whether to convert it into a fixie since they look so cool and the frame has no cable guides etc. so would have been perfect but my ride to work includes a 180m altitude gain so I decided to keep my 12 gears. A problem I wanted to cure was the downtube shifters aren't very good when commuting next to traffic, so I decided to create a commuter that looked as cool as a fixie.

Most of my components and wheels are silver coloured so I decided that it would look cool to create a monotone silver bike. I sprayed the frame metalflake silver and applied the correct stickers apart from the 531 reynolds tubing sticker - I couldn't find anything that looked like the original Cro-Mo sticker, The frame weighs just over 2kg so it could be Reynolds judging by the frame weight of 2.1Kg.

The handlebars are Nitto RB 021s but the front radius has removed, the 2cm straight tip was recovered and used to lengthen the handles, the Dia-compe bar end shifters' expansion mechanisism holds this tip firmly connected to the handlebars.
The clamp on aero levers are by JTEK engineering, normally they are designed for aero bars so i had to modify them somewhat to get them right for use on the bull horns. I set the gears up so that the levers point forwards in my most used gear. The handlebar tape is Deda chrome tape which was difficult to fit and is slippy when wet. The riding position is very aerodynamic, my back is perfectly flat when I horizontalise my fore arms.

The bike weighs in at 10kg (22lbs).


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I love this build and such a rich personal history :D.
Superb bike sir and simply stunning looking.
 
Ian Raleigh":1zkpnj16 said:
I like the neatness of the bike but the seat clamp bolt sucks :shock:
:? Yes you are right, it really looks huge when fitted. I originally fitted the matching security skewers but removed them because they also sucked! :p
 
Just like Han Solo's Millennium Falcon space craft, I have continuously upgraded this bike since I bought the frame to suit my evolving needs.
Here is my latest evolution, aero bars and integrated lighting for extra fast commuting. I knocked off 5 minutes from my commute without increasing my effort.

I'm a designer and made use of my 3D modelling skills to 3D print an aero cycle computer support and aero tail lamp support.
 

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So convenient having integrated lighting!
 

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