Newbie with a Falcon

Hi all.
After owning mtb's for a while and breaking the odd collarbone doing silly stuff, i've decided to scratch an itch i've always wanted to do... get myself an old road bike.
Spotted a Falcon Rapier road bike quite close and going really cheap which needed tidying up and making it road worthy.
Done the bearings, brakes, gone over it all, done the cables,pedals,bar tape, etc...
Bought it as well for the nice wheels, but noticed no matter how much i tried, the chain was catching.
Turned out the last owner did the cassette but not change the chain to suit.. Changed the chain and no problems at all now, except for the last 2 high gears. The derailleur will not shift on to the last two even with the stops right out.
Dont fancy changing the derailleur so im quite happy to live with 8 on the back instead of 10... But in a way im glad as if i manually put the derailleur right at the top, it connects with the wheel.
So maybe get rid of the last two and space it ???

Got more polishing out of the rust spots, and somehow find someone who can do replica graphics for it. Took it for its first ride and wow ! Completely different to what im used to, but i love it already !

Does anyone have an idea of its age exactly as google is vague.
Also if i've made any mistakes, please let me know

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Welcome to the world of road bikes. I was where you are about four years ago having never owned a proper road bike, now I'm afraid my mtb's are gathering dust as I spend so much time road riding.

Regarding the gears. The reason you can only get eight of the ten is because the down tube lever has insufficient pull. In mtb terms you have a ten speed cassette and eight speed shifters. Those wheels are pretty modern and the rest of the bike looks much earlier, I'll let others put a date on it, as I'm not very good at that sort of thing.

Still, if it rides well and you are enjoying it then it's really no big deal.

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1985-88 I would say. Sorry can't narrow it down more than that!

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Thanks !!!

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Hi, Welcome, you have done a good job on this. It is a 70`s bike not 80`s , It has a steel chainset and cotterpins on the cranks , also there are no braze-ons for bottle cages which only appeared in the 80`s. It looks like a entry level sports bike,I would say it looks like Falcons answer to the Raleigh Arena or Olympus which sold in their billions in the 70`s. The wheels give it a fresh look, enjoy it.

Looks a lot like a Falcon Rapier my granddad had in the 80s. His had mudguards, I can see the mounts on this...
Edit: he bought it new in the 80s after his previous bike was stolen.

Falcon were bought by Elswick in 1978 and the had a model called the jet stream which was identical to this as far as I can see. Maybe they rebranded the jet stream as a Falcon at this time to extend the life of it . This could explain how they were still selling essentially a 70`s bike in the 80`s ?

I had a Falcon Grand Prix in 1985 with Reynolds 501 tubeset and forks which was black and gold but the chainset was a steel affair just like this one and their wasn't any bottle bosses on the frame any where and i think the rims were black alloy 27" rigida's if i remember correctly and that headtube badge is the same as what was on mine too ..

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Cheers all ! Got my LBS to order me a set of levers and hoods in the simlar style, which means i have to redo the tape,new lines but i now get to hide the brake lines under them.
Tried it on a short 6 mile run and had to tweak the rear derailleur a bit, as for the front it needs tweaking a lot more...not sure if its the new chain or what, but i'll look in to it this week.
The riding style is vastly different from the MTB, feels like im leaning over too far. Think a few more miles on it will help
And those gear shifts on the bottom tube lol !!!!!

Leaning more over the bars sorry but i couldn't resist as i was into road riding before i was into mtbing and when i 1st rode an mtb i felt like i was too high up with my head position and always wanted to lean further forward until i got the feel of it so yes it does feel strange going from one position to another but you'll soon get the feel of it and then you'll really enjoy it and that's a down tube that the gear levers are on which i just loved them being there but if you can't get use to it then theirs always the bar end levers you can fit in the end of the drop bars and fitting to fit onto the down tube gear lever mounts so you can extend the gear cables to to the bars ..

Is their much twist on the front ie; does the back end of the guide kick outwards a lot or is it straight as that can have a big influence on the chain catching it ..