This is a pretty interesting bike, and the frame might be more like an '86 or '87. Looks to me like a Panasonic Team Issue frame. ("Team Issue" frames didn't necessarily go to the Tour team, but were also produced as back-up and for other, lesser, teams.) I had a virtually identical road version, including the number tab braze-on and the Columbus decals on the fork, that was from '86/87. Robert Millar rode Merckx frames in this color for Panasonic in the '86 Tour. (Anyone have any TT pix from the Tour that year? Weren't they riding "funny" bikes in '86?) While the color combo was available on Merckx frames in later years, they were labeled as the Corsa Extra model, which mine was not. Very few (any?) "stock" Merckx frames came with number tab braze-ons. This could, of course, have been a custom-build, but the details certainly point to at least the possibility of a Panasonic Team Issue frame.
As for the seller, I've dealt with Carsten Rehbein before, with no problems.
Wayne Bingham Falls Church VA
Ian Briggs wrote:
>>>>Here's an interesting one...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/
Off-topic because the bike is 1990's (but it's "Vintage" note!) and I found doing one of my usual world-wide searches on "Merckx".
However this vendor is offering Free World-wide shipping on this and a lot of great stuff which is definitely on-topic and surely of interest to the list.
Free w/w shipping on an entire bike??! - and also he / she has a zero ebay rating...
What do you think?
The stuff on offer looks legitimate I must say.
I won't be bidding on this item - not because I'm not interested, I definitely - am because this particular bike is right up my street...
However I'm just waiting for the fallout from my wife when she sees the delivery of the two Merckx bikes that have bought in the last fortnight!!! There's going to be hell folks!<<<<