[CR]re: Merckx components

(Example: Framebuilding:Brazing Technique)

From: "C. Andrews" <chasds@mindspring.com>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 09:47:33 -0800
Subject: [CR]re: Merckx components

Ray wrote:

with respect to the pantographed chainring, at first sight it may appear to be same as the one we see on many colnago's and frequently by themselves on ebay, but it isn't. the "C" is bigger, and it is not "framed," by a thin groove, unlike the more common chainring. additionally, this ring has cutouts in between the spider arms. i'd never seen this ring before. i would guess that it is period correct to the bike, and is an early version of the more common pantographed ring.

ray dobbins miami florida

*********

The ring Ray refers to was an 80s product (or '79 at the earliest)... earlier Colnago rings were considerably different. The one on the Merckx Colnago under discussion was first seen, so far as I'm aware, on the first generation Colnago Mexico, which would have been 1975. Merckx was riding De Rosa frames by then, wasn't he? Either that ring was added later..or it was one of the first ones made, or else Colnago made those rings much earlier than I thought. The earliest Colnago-doctored rings were either heavily drilled, with a club-pattern in the webbing, or were heavily milled with small ovals, and had a large club-pattern milling only (no *C*) in the webbing.

Any votes for me doing my brief-history-of-Colnago-pantographing slide show at Le Cirque? It was interesting at the Velo last Fall.. I'd need a powerpoint projector..you have one, Dale?

Charles Andrews SoCal

Concerning Carlos Kleiber one of the greatest of all post-war conductors:

The glamour often associated with a conductor's life held no appeal for him; he preferred to stay at home in Munich. He once told Leonard Bernstein: "I want to grow in a garden. I want to have the sun. I want to eat and drink and sleep and make love and that's it."