It's interesting to compare the bike on e-bay with Merckx' bike from "The Competition Bicycle." The bike in the book (and on the cover) is the bike Merckx used for the 1975 World Championships. It features the same BB shell, the same cutouts, except that the heart is nicely centered. On the blue e-bay bike, the heart is very close to the edge - could it be that De Rosa used old reject shells he had lying around?
The Merckx bike from the book is here in moderately high resolution:
http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com/
Of course, the 1975 bike, while it's labeled "Eddy Merckx," doesn't have any engraving in the caps and fork crown, but otherwise, the similarities are remarkable.
Jan Heine Editor Bicycle Quarterly 140 Lakeside Ave #C Seattle WA 98122 http://www.bikequarterly.com
At 11:20 AM +0000 12/13/08, Hilary Stone wrote:
>I certainly would keep it myself if it was my size - it looks like
>confirmation that De Rosa built the very first frames for Merckx
>when he started his own factory...
>
>Hilary Stone, Bristol, United Kingdom
>
>
>
>chasds@mindspring.com wrote:
>>I have to say, there have been many, many cool frames pass through
>>ebay in the last 10 years...but, to my mind, for someone of my age
>>and background, this is one of the absolutely coolest:
>>
>>370127903322
>>Hilary lays it all out pretty nicely, and were this frame my size,
>>I would absolutely go to the mat for it. Fantastic find Hilary!
>>And with provenance to boot: it belonged to Patrick Sercu!
>>
>>It'll be interesting to see where this finishes up..and if this has
>>already been outed, my apologies..
>>
>>Charles Andrews
>>Los Angeles