Chuck,
After a quick search of the CR archives, I can blame Dale for the
Kessel-building-Merckxs-for-Falcon story.
See : http://www.phred.org/
It certainly makes sense to me that Eddy was licensing the use of his name for something, presumably bikes, when he was riding for Faema. Would the fact that his name was on the bikes make him the de facto bike sponsor for the team? This would imply that Eddy's income from the licensed use of his name was pretty substantial.
DB
> David,
>
> >From the examples I have seen over the years, Falcon built crummy Eddy
> Merckx-licensed bikes and Kessels built very nice Eddy Merckx-licensed bikes.
>
> I would _guess_ the Merckx bikes (Eddy licensing his name) appeared
> around 1969 (Eddy's big year); only a guess. Eddy and only Eddy would
> derive income from licensing his name and he would make much more this
> way with endorsements than with his race winnings. He gave his TdF
> winnings to his team mates for example.
>
> I very much doubt that De Rosa built any bikes painted as Peugeots. Eddy
> didn't have a relationship with Ugo De Rosa that early in his career.
>
> All of the above is just my opinion however!!!
>
> Regards,
> Chuck Schmidt
> South Pasadena, Southern California
> http://www.velo-retro.com (reprints, T-shirts and Campagnolo Timeline)