concerning this auction...
http://ebay.com/
...Mark C. wrote:
"But apart from frame size (54 vs 52cm and yes, the Eddy is SR equipped rather than NR but who cares) why is the 1984 Eddy M offered by the same seller attracting more and higher bidding?"
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My question is: aren't these early Merckx bikes/frames essentially De Rosas under the Merckx marque? I'm not saying De Rosa made them (although he did make the very earliest Merckx frames, did he not?)...and I'm not saying De Rosa made this one. I'm sure it was made in Merckx's own factory by 1984...but, it sure looks like a De Rosa to me. Same lugs; by eyeball, same geometry... the fork crown is different, and very pretty.
Still, all-in-all, isn't this a De Rosa? Would it not ride the same as a De Rosa of the period?
Of course, the originality of the Merckx, the pantographing--and most of all, the SIZE--make it more attractive than the Masi, which was made at the very end of the line, far as I'm concerned, and far beyond the end of pressed lugs.. that Masi has no charm, to me. It'd just a nice bike, that's it. Nothing special. Even if it was my size, I wouldn't look twice at it, but that's just me.
... the Merckx, by contrast, is early for the marque, and a lovely original piece. I also notice that one of our list-members is a high bidder..and I'd be duking it out with him myself, except that I'm outta fun money, for the moment. That damned Colnago Regal f/f a week ago busted my mad money budget.
Although, all that said, if one of the VERY earliest Merckx-marqued bikes showed up, I'd go for it full-tilt-boogie: one of those Molteni-orange road bikes made by Colnago in the early 70s, marqued as a Merckx, pantographed special, with Merckx's picture on the head and seat-tubes. Those bikes are rare as hen's teeth. I have yet to see one in the flesh. *That's* the Merckx to have!
Charles "California dreamer" Andrews SoCal
"Even in such a time of madness as the late twenties, a great many men in Wall Street remained quite sane. But they also remained very quiet. The sense of responsibility in the financial community for the community as a whole is not small. It is nearly nil."
--John Kenneth Galbraith *The Great
Crash of 1929*