Hi gang,
As I recall from an International Cycle Sport magazine (the slick Euro mag of the era) a photo of Eddy Merckx showing he had just signed a deal with Falcon after a Spring Classic in Belgium. He was still in his cycle togs as I recall, though it could have been in his home. All grins. The text of the article and bikes available at the time from Falcon would indicate that this was a new venture as opposed to a renewal. Kessel may have been mentioned but I am not certain. The year as I recall was Spring of 1973 or 1974. I was a wee lad and remember it vividly but the precise date escapes me. The bikes in Eddy Orange and foil decals started showing up soon after.
Most were garden variety 10 speeds of the day like Gitane Grans Sports and Peugeot UO-8's but many used Reynold's tubing and I saw a few in a variety of colors that were very fine indeed, similar to Ernie Clement's Team bikes at Falcon Cycles. The good ones were rare and only a few may have made it to the West Coast.
On the Peugeot Masi's. These bikes would have been pointless to construct as I have been told that Peugeot had a race shop to build team and custom bikes to order for many years. This may of course be rumor (as Masi-Peugeots might be) as every time I go to France I am told by some builder or small frame shop that they are the actual people building the Team bikes for Peugeot and you must know of TDF winner Thevenet, we built his too! Ask around Paris a few years back and you might find several Peugeot Team bike builders. It's hard to separate fact from fiction.
An interesting addendum about Peugeot. Years ago the bike and car company parted ways and I feel the Peugeot family technically left the bike business. Gilles Berthoud; a builder of very fine French bikes told me (about 1990) that he had just finished a made to measure bike for Mr. Peugeot; smirking in the irony, he felt that it would soon end up with Peugeot decals. I have little to doubt about what Mr. Berthoud says.
Regards,
Gilbert Anderson "Not much to sell today" Raleigh, NC USA
In a message dated 11/6/01 8:58:53 PM, tech@worrall.co.nz writes:
<< 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)