Todd Kuzma wrote:
>
> Can someone fill me in a little on the Merckx Hour Record bike? I know that
> Pino made some parts for it, but I was under the impression that it was a
> Colnago that was badged a Windsor at the last minute. This bike is labeled
> Eddy Merckx. So, was it relabeled at some time?
>
> Before the Windsor deal, was it badged Merckx? Owen Mulholland's article on
> the Torelli site says that it had no label at all before the Windsor label
> <http://www.torelli.com/owen/eddyhour.html>.
>
> Additionally, there are photos of the Hour Record bike at
> http://www.rttc.org.uk/
> The seat tube decal does not look the same, and the downtube decal is
> blurred in both photos. I'm not sure if this is coincidence or done after
> the fact with Photoshop or similar.
>
> I seem to recall seeing this bike in various configurations in older photos.
> Could there be more than one Hour Record bike floating about?
>
> I know that Lance Armstrong won his World Road Championship on a Litespeed
> titanium frame painted in the Motorola team colors and labeled an Eddy
> Merckx frame. Merckx later displayed a lugged steel frame as the winning
> frame although a look at any of the photos of Lance's bike on race day show
> a TIG-welded frame with oversize, ovalized tubing that exactly matched a
> Litespeed Ultimate of the same era. So, Eddy pulled a switcheroo then.
> What about the Hour Record bike?
I know there was the actual Hour Bike and then there was the second training bike / backup bike that Merckx had with him at Mexico City. And then at the trade shows following his setting the record there was an Hour Bike with pantographed parts (E D D Y in the chainring, etc). There are Rebour drawings of this show bike in The World of Daniel Rebour and The Data Book. Unclear to me if the show bike was the actual Hour Bike or the backup bike all dolled up for the trade shows or if there was a third that Ernesto had made up?
Anyone else want to wade in (the water's fine)...
Chuck Schmidt L. A.
.