1983 Bird "Falcon"

markus

markus

Well-Known Member
#1
#1
I bought this bike a month or so ago, from the original owner. with the exception of some touch ups and throttle and kill switch rigging 100% original I believe. It even came with the dated original owners manual.

Not really the coolest bike out there, or oldest. But still kinda neet since I was 10 in '83 so this would have been the bike I would have been drooling over in the stores.

Here it is the day I brought it home:


I disassembled it, and stripped the paint, nice thing about an original bike is the paint comes off real easy as its only one coat :smile:. I did have a light bend in the forks (I thought they were straight till I pulled the nameplate off), I straightened them in the press.

I was not intending to to go hog wild on this, used some cheap leftover black paint and hoped it would just come out uniform, it actually came out looking pretty good after a little polishing! I sandblasted the wheels, I was hoping to just hit them with steel wool afterward and then clearcoat over them, but there was some spotting and I did not want to spend all day on it so Hit them with some silver and a light shot of clear.

Sorry no shots of the painting, there was nothing really notable anyway, no repairs needed to be done.

Heres where I am at with it right now:


the motor ran when I bought it, it was leaking fuel from the inlet on the carb. I fixed that and did some touch ups to the block and carb, I polished up the shroud etc.. I did not take it apart at all. Not a perfect job but it looks pretty good.


I will take the muff off and blast it, not sure if I am going to spray it silver or black just yet though.

I really dont care for the nameplate, but its unique to this bike, the seat is molded foam made to look like stitched vinyl :doah: gotta love the '80's...

I think I will need a new throttle assy, I still need to strip the rear fender and weld a few cracks up at the bolt holes, but thats about it. I should have it going just as soon as I get over the fact I'm going to scratch the hell out of the engine plate soon as I mount the motor:laugh:
 
Sinner70

Sinner70

New Member
#3
#3
very cool. I did that to an 84 Sears puddle jumper. It was my first bike. I was 10 in 84, so i hear ya. Nice job. here's mine.
 
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Putt-Putt

Putt-Putt

Member
#4
#4
Man......Am I impressed. That thing is totally complete with the Chain Guard; Name Plate and even the Rubber Cover for the brake pedal; plus the Owner's Manual? Someone REALLY took care of that Mini Bike.

I recently picked up a (late 1960's - early 1970's) Foremost JC Penney version of that Mini Bike that I could only wish was in half as good of shape .....Congratulations on your "score".
 
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markus

markus

Well-Known Member
#6
#6
Well its pretty much done, Halfway through this redo I sustained a pretty bad injury to some fingers at work (almost lost the fingertips) so I am having a very rough time trying to complete the simplest of tasks:no:

Anyway I got it together, I want to do some work to the rear fender and get it put on there but I really cant do the work right now with my fingers, so started to just buff on the existing paint and will just stick it on there till I get back to normal.


with the fender after some buffing this afternoon:




I rode it around this morning, still pushing some nasty fuel through it but if fires right off and runs good (just needs that fine tuning), not the most comfortable bike to ride if your 6'1" though


It needs some more "bling" its too much black for me. If I keep the bike I will probably try and pick up some 5" azusa wheels and polish up the intake, etc.. like I did with the last tec I put together:
 
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mushhawk

mushhawk

Member
#7
#7
FYI guys, I just purchased this bike from Markus.
He is going to ship it this week.

I will post some pics once it arrives and I get it put back together. I will also post any pics, if I fix it up any more in the future. It looks like Markus did a great job on it, so there probably won't be a lot of fine tuning to do on my part.

Thanks again Markus for contacting me about this! It's the exact model I had as a kid and have been looking for. :scooter:
 
mushhawk

mushhawk

Member
#8
#8
Falcon - Reborn!

My Bird Falcon minibike arrived yesterday.
If you recall, I had this exact year and model of bike when I was a kid.
My grandpa built it for my brother and I and we had years of fun with it.
I think some neighborhood kids ended up with it, once I got a bit older.
I have been looking for a bike like this for some time.
I started this thread a while back, searching for it:
http://www.oldminibikes.com/forum/mini-bikes-parts-wanted/32300-wanted-old-bird-falcon.html
Markus sent me a message recently that he had one and I bought it from him.

It arrived yesterday afternoon dis-assembled in 2 boxes via UPS.
It actually went together pretty easily. I mounted the fork to the frame, then the front and rear axels. Then I mounted the engine, chain, kill switch and throttle. I put some oil and gas in it and it started right up on the 3rd pull. It runs great!
The rear tire tube has a hole in it. I actually tried to fix it but some fix a flat goop is preventing the patch from sticking. I'll probably buy a new tube today. I'm stoked though. I weigh 175 lbs but felt like a kid again riding my old minibike around town! :thumbsup: :scooter: If I ever have a kid, he's getting this!
Attached are a few pics. The first one is of it partially assembled, the motor and the finished product.
I plan to Armor-All the tires, seat etc to see if I can get her to really shine. The seat is foam made to look like vinyl, so it may not polish much. We'll see. I'm going to remove the shroud around the pull chain and paint over the scratches on that. Also, does anyone know where I could find a new motor decal like the old one? (see pic of motor)

Thanks again to Markus for contacting me!!


 
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buckeye

buckeye

Well-Known Member
#10
#10
Great score and OldMiniBikes members come through as usual. You should enjoy that bad boy for years to come and so will your children.
 
markus

markus

Well-Known Member
#12
#12
Glad you were able to get it put together alright. Its cool about the situation of you having that bike as a kid, because when I bought it from the original owner He was practically crying giving it up. He will be happy to hear where it went and stayed Original. He held onto that bike for all these years hoping that when his grandkids were old enough he could dust it off get it running and have fun with them like he did with his kids. Unfortunately, an Xbox, ipod, and cell phone trumps a crude mini bike these days:confused:
 
mushhawk

mushhawk

Member
#13
#13
that's really cool markus. it's nice to know that this thing was so loved from the start. it will be equally appreciated with me as well.

yeah, it was definitely a great find! i paid $400 total for it ($300 + $100 to ship it from Florida to me).

it was well worth the cost. it is just like when i rode the same model as a kid.

today i bought a new tube for the rear tire. i tried to patch the old one last night.
however the fix-a-flat goo that someone put in there was leaking out and keeping the patch from sticking properly.
with a new $14 tube now, she's good to go.
:scooter:
 
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R

ryan68bug

Member
#14
#14
Man, that is awesome... that's one of the exact bikes I used to drool over in both the mid '80s Montgomery Ward catalog and a Kart World catalog of similar vintage. I'm jealous! lol
 
mushhawk

mushhawk

Member
#17
#17
Hey guys,
I thought you might enjoy this project. I just made a little something to go along with this minibike that I bought from Markus.

So, I bought a small crate from Sears a week or so ago. They were closing down their store here and were selling off all their random hardware. I figured I'd either use it to store stuff in or maybe think of something original to make out of it.
So, I came up with a goofy man-ginuity project for it. I thougth it would actually make a good pull behind trailer for my minibike! The bike is a 1983 Bird Falcon.
So, I went to the hardware store and had them cut a 1 & 1/2" by 1 & 1/2" board into 3 pieces so I could make a yolk. I drilled a couple holes in the sides to insert a cotter pin and sheer bolt into. That's how I attached it to the little holes behind the rear wheel of the bike. I then attached the yolk to the crate with 4 wood screws and a lot of glue. :grind:
My next challenge was finding the best way to mount wheels to it. I found a 7/16" threaded rod at the hardware store. I asked them to cut it to length. I then got a couple 7" metal wheels with bearings inside the rim. I attached the wheels to the rod with some lock washers and lock nuts at the end of the rod. :hammer:
I used a couple 1 & 1/2" copper pipe connector tubes to slide the rod through the bottom of the crate. I used a couple copper pipe tie downs to attach those tubes to the bottom of the crate.
And boom goes the dynamite! We're up and running!! :scooter: It works great! :thumbsup: It doesn't really have a purpose aside from being fun. I might use it for hauling little stuff behind me like a backpack or random stuff. It would also be useful for little trips to the store down the street!





 
mushhawk

mushhawk

Member
#19
#19
Thanks! I like it and haven't seen anything like it before.

I was looking for something original and kind of goofy to do with that crate I bought. This came to mind and I figured, why not. :smile:
I ended up spending a bit on it by the time I got all the parts. It is worth it though, just for the fun factor. :thumbsup:

When I drive the thing down the street, I can't help but laugh and have a huge grin on my face. :laugh:
If anyone ever wants to buy it, let me know. I might part with it for the right price.
 
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