that's why i suggested it was a team spare or something "like that". regarding the marked bikes and logo issues, i don't believe the sport was <that> sophisticated back then that an event like this could not have occurred. there were often inconsistencies in how different rider's bikes from the same team were set up. an example might be the various fork crown types that were seen on faema bikes at the same race. i missed the start of this thread, but somewhere here in an old bicisport is a peugeot era merckx atop a white, unmarked very; one completely reminiscent of a late model masi special, with only a pair of world bands on the seat mast.. e-RICHIE chester, ct soon to be using next month's allotment.
I'm not wondering about the brand of bike, I'm wondering what concatenation of circumstances could result in Eddy riding an all white no logo bike in such a major race? He was already a big star, the world champ, and you would expect his sponsors to spare no expense to make sure the team was properly kitted out. Were back up bikes often finished in an anonymous white and without graphics? I've never heard of that before for any Euro pro team of any era, but of course I know so little. An anonymous paint job can't have pleased any team's bicycle sponsor, but of course by '68 I presume Eddy's bikes were already labeled "Merckx". In any event, this is the first picture I've ever seen with a pro rider on a bike finished like this, and I'm just curious how this could come to be. I thought anonymous bikes debuted with the neutral support Mavic yellow machines.
Tom Adams, Shrewsbury NJ
"richardsachs@juno.com" <richardsachs@juno.com> wrote:
these guys had dozens of team bikes at their
disposal. maybe more! how can you conclude anything
regarding his chosen "brand" from a single old
photograph? i've seen lots of differently painted
faema era frames in that 68-70 era; there's hardly
any consistancy except for the white-with-red "look".
there are different frame features in all of them. if
one was unmarked in the early years, maybe he was on
a backup bike.
e-RICHIE
chester, ct
Granted the list is in the archives, the question is why is the bike Eddy is riding in the picture so different from what we would expect? Could there have been some unusual circumstance in this race which resulted in Eddy riding something different from his normal Masi?
Bob Hovey (who must have much better eyes than me) says there's a BB cut out visible that is characteristic of a Masi. If so (and I have no reason to doubt him, but I'm going to pull out my magnifying glass when I get home :-)), we still don't know why the bike had such an unusual paint job. Bob speculates that Masi didn't have time to finish the paint before this race, and had to ship Eddy a bike "in the white". Does anyone know if the Tour of Flanders was the first race for Eddy with Faema? Do we know if he rode Milan San Remo in '68? I know he didn't win, but did he ride?
Tom Adams, still confused but on a higher level in Shrewsbury NJ
David Patrick wrote: This has been discussed many, many times before. In the archives you'll find a post that mentions a list of bike ridden obtained directly from Eddy by Brett Horton, and it is as follows:
1965 - Superia (stock bike) 1966 - Peugeot (stock bike) 1967 - Peugeot (stock bike) and Masi 1968 - Masi 1969 - Marcel Van der Este (Belgian builder) 1970 - Pella (or Pello) Torino, Italy 1971 - Colnago and Kessels 1972 - Colnago and Kessels 1973 - Colnago and Kessels 1974 - DeRosa and Kessels 1975 - DeRosa and Kessels 1976 - DeRosa and Kessels 1977 - DeRosa
Dave Patrick Chelsea, Michigan
stevens wrote:
On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 18:08:32 +0100, Feeken, Dirk wrote
> Merckx rode Kessels bikes in his early career. Kessels was a famous
> belgian builder. Sometimes old Kessels appear on european eBay, even
> with the well known orange molteni Merckx paint and decals. I doubt that
> he ever had a Masi.
Eddy's "Peugeot" bicycles were made by Masi, as were the Faema bikes he rode in 1968-70.
Steven L. Sheffield Eerste van vier uit Zoutmeerstad.
-- Steven L. Sheffield stevens at veloworks dot com veloworks at worldnet dot ay tea tee dot net bellum pax est libertas servitus est ignoratio vis est ess ay ell tea ell ay kay ee sea aye tee why you ti ay aitch aitch tee tea pea colon [for word] slash [four ward] slash double-you double-yew double-ewe dot veloworks dot com [four word] slash _______________________________________________
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