Nuovo Falcone in Vancouver BC

[Matteo]

Just for you Brad!

http://vancouver.craigslist.ca/nvn/mcy/5732987554.html

[fotoguzzi]

wrong Brad, would love to have but I can't afford it .

[rtbickel]

46 year old tires?   What else might be dry rotted?   Could be fun though.

[Kiwi_Roy]

It's been on CL for ages.

[leafman60]

It's a Civile too. Civilian version.

[canuck750]

That bike has been flogged for ages. My business partner is related to the family selling it, apparently it was imported from Italy by an uncle who passed away and now his son wants to sell it. About three years ago one of the sons asked me what it was worth, I suggested $5K +/- and it would take a rare collector to pay much more. The son claimed it had been appraised for a low price of $12K to a high of $15K, I told him to contact the appraiser and accept $19K.

[pehayes]

The son claimed it had been appraised for a low price of $12K to a high of $15K, I told him to contact the appraiser and accept $19K.

Easy to see.  Son told the appraiser it was a FALCONE.  Appraiser looked it up.  Numbers are logical.  However, when you correctly call it a NUOVO FALCONE the value drops substantially.  Not that there is anything wrong with a NUOVO.  Fine bike in its own right, just ask Nick.  Just doesn't have the museum draw that the original Falcone does.

Patrick Hayes
Fremont C

[Aaron D.]

So speaking of Falcones-what is the actual internal difference between Falcone and Nuovo Falcone? Bore and stroke are the same, NF has a wet sump, flywheel is just a distraction...

[leafman60]

The New Falcon is a totally new bike from the Old Falcon.

The engine is a complete rework with current period updates. Lino Tonti has prevalent in the design and the bikes have a version of the iconic Tonti frame. The earliest NFalcone bikes were shown in 1969 and the bikes remained in production until 1976.

Two versions were produced, the Militare (Military) and the Civile (Civilian).  The Militare version is characterized by a short rounded tank and a single speedo instrument pod.  The Civile has its own unique tank that is long and slender.  It features both a tachometer and speedometer situated side-by-side.

Production of these bikes was heavily oriented to the military and police market and the design characteristics were heavily influenced by this market.  Many more Militare bikes were produced compared to the Civilian.

The early Militare bikes had  a smaller flywheel than was adopted soon thereafter in response to military and police desires to have a bike that would throttle down to a walking pace for parade duty as well as crawl over off-road obstacles.

The Militare is much more commonly seen today while the Civile is more rare. From their introduction in 1970, the Civile features a brilliant white paint job for tinware coupled with a vivid red frame. In 1974 a new version of the Civile was produced with a maroon paint job, black frame and chrome fenders. These are very rare.  Only 74 bikes of this livery were produced only in 1974 to end the production of the Civile model.

Guzzi continued a "Civilian" version with the same tank etc as the Militare for 1975 and 1976.  This bike was named the "Sahara" and featured a cream or off-white color scheme with hard bags available.

The Nuovo Falcone bikes were never officially exported to the UK or to North America. Not many over here, only a handful.

I love my '74 Civile,  as my regular postings about it attest. I ride it regularly on the same roads that I would ride my newest bikes.  On the Interstates, I can maintain 70MPH and occasionally flirt with 80.  55-65 MPH on two-laners with the Civile is sublime. The frame is very rigid and the brakes (2LS front) are sufficient.

I hope someone gets the white Civile an enjoys at as much as I've enjoyed mine.

Setting a value for something like this is difficult but I'd say $5-6k for a nice Civile in North America is a low price.  On the other hand,  getting $15k is really a major stretch.