On Wednesday, Feb 23, 2005, at 10:37 US/Pacific, OROBOYZ@aol.com wrote:
> Being the devil's advocate here, could it not also mean that a DeRosa
> engraved crown was used, perhaps early in the process of Merckx
> building? With DeRosa
> carting up boxes of components to Belgium to start things off, it is
> not
> inconceivable that "box number 4" of 250 fork crowns contained a few
> engraved
> crowns. Does this absolutely prove that it was made in the DeRosa
> workshop? BTW,
> most all of the early Merckx Belgium frames had an Italian threaded bb.
As I heard it many years back the early Merckx bikes were built from left overs from Ugo's shop. I always assumed this to mean lugs, tubes, etc. Of course leftovers could be frames too. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the first 100+ frames were actually made in Italy and shipped up for finish. This could all be settled with call to the factory outside of Brussels. best, Brandon"monkeyman"Ives missing Belgium in Coeur d'Alene, ID.