I got an orange Eddy Merckx new in 1972, what I'd call a sport/touring type frame, which had been built up by the bike shop with odds and ends of components that I upgraded for years and years, but it was a 531db frame, with Campy 1010 rear dropouts. The seat lug/stay gave it away (to someone more knowledgeable than I) as a frame made by Falcon in England, then branded (more like covered with adhesive stickers) with Eddy Merckx pictures, etc. The stickers soon fell off. The seat stays wrapped all the way around the front of the seat lug, which I thought was unique and cool, but the racers didn't think so because the fastback Cinelli style was cooler and used less metal, so was lighter.
I loved and rode the frame till the fork cracked under the crown, but I didn't have a framebuilder anywhere around to repair it, so it is gone.
Bill Gibson in very nice weather...never a racer, a tourist always, in any weather... Tempe, AZ
On 10/12/07, Isaac Schell <ias23philly@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Hello all,
> a friend of mine and I recently purchased a couple of
> bikes from a former serious amateur cyclist of the
> late 70's early 80's. One of the bikes was supposedly
> an eddy merckx, however there were no decals or little
> "em" logos stamped on the frame like all of the
> merckx's that I have seen. The seller said the bike
> was originally red but he didnt like the color so he
> had Tom Kellog repaint it as well as braze on cable
> guides. The story seemed a little fishy to me, the
> paint was not applied well, it looks somewhat thick
> and streaky on some of the tubes. The seller also
> said that he purchased the bike sometime in the 70's,
> but I didnt think Merckx started to produce bicycles
> until 1980. The seriel # reads c15427. All the
> components are high end campy and shimano (including a
> pair of phil wood pedals that I had never seen before)
> the drop outs are stamped Brev. Campagnolo and with
> thin bladed lugs. Either way it is a nice bike, but
> we have no way of truly identifying it. If anyone has
> any information that could help we would greatly
> appreciate it. Thanks,
>
> Isaac Schell
> from Philadelphia PA
>
>
>
>
>
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--
Bill Gibson
Tempe, Arizona, USA