Bill Gibson wrote:
> 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.
Falcon licensed the use of the "Eddy Merckx" name for a line of bikes in
the early to mid 70s. Most were nothing very special -- straight gauge
531 main tubes, stamped dropouts etc. but some were quite nice.
> 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.
Fashion. Italian was hot then, British not. Ten years earlier it would have been the other way around.
--
John Thompson (john@os2.dhs.org)
Appleton WI USA