Dale Brown wrote:
>
> Hey! I thought Merckx had stopped making steel and it was only a few
> leftovers to be grabbed up, etc etc? Look at this:
>
> In a message dated 10/16/2003 11:40:35 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> RBRPublishing@RoadBikeRider.com writes:
>
> <<
> Interbike is like a candy store for cyclists. The show floor
> is decorated with thousands of new bikes made of aluminum,
> titanium and carbon in every conceivable mix. But the bike
> that caught our fancy is lugged steel, and it comes in just
> one color -- Molteni orange. Yep, it's a Merckx MX Leader
> ($1,600 frame/fork), the latest incarnation of the first
> bike Eddy ever built. It features a MAX Nivacrom tubeset,
> elegant steel fork and his youthful mug on the head and seat
> tubes, just like in 1977. The ultimate big rider's rig, this
> sturdy mount is what Belgians call a "cobblestone bike"
> capable of taking punishment ride after ride. But it'll
> still build up to a decently svelte 20 pounds with modern
> components. Available in 54 to 63 cm in 1-cm increments.
> http://www.gitabike.com >>
>
> Dale Brown
> Greensboro, NC
I have one of these. Mine is from 1991 and is a Motorola Merckx MX Leader ridden by Andy Hampsten in the spring classics. While it may be a cobblestone bike to the Belgians the ride and general feeling of the bike is light; not heavy feeling in the least. A very nice ride.
The impressive thing with this frame at the time was that a set of lugs was made up to go with the Columbus MAX Nivacrom tubeset (ends squashed on mutually perpedicular axes), instead of just tig welding the tubes together.
A wonderful bike!
Chuck "orthogonal shaped" Schmidt South Pasadena, CA
.