Los Angeles’ premier custom bike builder Falcon Motorcycles debuted the 3rd bike in their Concept 10 Collection this weekend at the the Quail Motorcycle Gathering in Carmel, CA. We were there to witness its unveiling to the wowed eyes of central Cali, and we’ll be posting images from the event plus full description of the engineering beauty later this week. For now we offer these images — the two galleries below which are exclusive to Lost In a Supermarket (one after the Jump). In a word, the third bike is stunning — the first non-Triumph based motorcycle for Falcon, the Black is founded on the engine of the Vincent Black Shadow, one of the most coveted motorcycles in the history of two wheels (and the fastest bike on Earth for over 2 decades after its 1948 debut). Where the Bullet put Falcon Motorcycles on the map, and the Falcon Kestrel showed what designer Ian Barry could do with more resources at his disposal, the Black Falcon is Barry hitting his stride. The engineering feats are many: The Black’s chassis was designed and fabricated entirely in-house, as were the forks, brakes, tanks, handlebars, hand and foot controls, seat, and mudguards. The powerful front brakes’ double-sided, four leading shoes were purpose engineered by Barry to stop the Black from its potent 140+mph speed potential. The bike features 2 different swappable gas tanks, both hand-formed from aluminum. The standard “Roadster” tank can be easily swapped for the “Quarter Miler”, a smaller 1 gallon tank which will be used in the Black’s speed trials. It also includes a leather ‘chin’ pad to supply the rider some cushion while lying down, and due to its ‘press-click’ spring-loaded pins with quick release marine fuel taps, the entire fuel system is removable in under 30 seconds. Lastly, the handlebars are adjustable for 7 different positions for rider preference. All these adjustments can be done without foreign tools, utilizing a single tiny “wrench” which normally acts as a lever lock. And that’s not even mentioning the vaunted Vincent Black Shadow engine, a 1952 former drag racer rebuilt from the ground up with every moving part balanced to within a tenth of a gram. More coming later in the week, for now enjoy the exclusive pics, plus video interviewing designer/co-founder Ian Barry with co-founder Amaryllis Knight for LA Times.
Two LIAS exclusive galleries of Black Falcon images featuring many of the Black’s many details — including engineered brakes, “Stop” LED brake lights, racing carburetor, swappable tanks, etc — one below and another after the Jump…
Falcon Black motorcycle with traditional ‘Roadster’ tank…
Falcon Black motorcycle with ‘Quarter Miler’ racing tank…
Falcon Black motorcycle completely naked…
Cool post, those are some beautiful bikes!
[…] good stuff — your Dodge Challenger SRT8s, Kate Upton showing us how to Cat Daddy in a bikini, the Falcon Black and Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, all that stuff pretty much rules. We appreciate it. A […]