Its well established that De Rosa helped Merckx set up his factory. And its well established that De Rosa built frames for the Molteni team between at least 1974 and 1978 (by which time it had become Fiat sponsored). Brett Horton established that in an interview with EM a few years ago - we also have the evidence of the bike in 'The Competition Bicycle', another at De Rosa and one in an Italian museum as well as a number of others in private collections. Despite the Speedbicycle Merckx De Rosa I am not at all certain that De Rosa built Merckx DR Team replicas. The genuine Merckx DR Molteni team bicycles all seem to lack hearts in the lugs and fork crown but have hearts in the DT and ST tangs of the BB shell. What is certain is that DR built DR frames in Molteni colours but with the DR name on the down tube rather than Eddy Merckx...
Kessels also built bicycles for the Molteni team at the same time as they were supplied by DR. And there are quite a few Merckx Kessels machine around - Kessels had the licence to use the Merckx name in Belgium at least, during most of the 70s. Many of these are in Molteni team colours. None of the Falcon built Merckx bikes as far as I know were painted in Molteni colours.
The frame in question has certain features like a DR - the finishing on the rear dropouts is very DR in style. The BB shell is superficially like a DR and the head lugs do not look DR like... The fork crown could be like DR used but its difficult to tell with any certainty from the pics. And of course the Campag Portacatena rear dropouts means that the frame was built after the demise of the Molteni team unless the dropouts had been changed. Campag Portacatena dropouts I believe were first available in 1977/78. What I was hoping was that those who have had more experience with DRs than me might comment on the frame...
Hilary Stone, Bristol, British Isles
Jerome & Elizabeth Moos wrote:
> I've heard that Eddy consulted with Ugo DeRosa in setting up production of his bikes, but I believe that was only after Eddy's competitive career ended. Eddy rode through the 1978 season. Judging from the first-generation Super Record RD, this bike is probably from 1974 or 1975, when Eddy was still with Molteni. AFAIK, Eddy never had any direct involvement in bike production during his competitive career. This looks to be one of the Molteni replica bikes for which Eddy licensed use of his name. It has been established that such bikes were manufactured both by Falcon and by Kessels. I've never heard that DeRosa had anything to do with those replicas, although he may have built some of Eddy's personal bikes, or maybe even some for Eddy's teammates.
>
> I see no reason to believe this is anything other than a Falcon or Kessels built replica from Merckx's years at Molteni. Nice bike, relatively rare first generation SR RD, but I'm not sure that justifies the 1,750 GBP BIN. I think one should simply ignore the dubious reference to DeRosa.
>
> A while back someone posted a link to some Kessels-built Molteni replicas, and perhaps Falcon-bulit ones as well. If someone still has that link, it might be interesting to compare those bikes to this one.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jerry Moos
>
> --- On Sun, 9/6/09, Hugh Thornton <hughwthornton@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> From: Hugh Thornton <hughwthornton@yahoo.co.uk>
>> Subject: Re: [CR] Supposed Merckx De Rosa on English Ebay
>> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
>> Date: Sunday, September 6, 2009, 10:59 AM
>> What is disturbing about this listing
>> is that it sidesteps the issue of saying what it actually
>> is. To quote:
>> "The frame is a very early, DE ROSA consulted, 'MERCKX'
>> brand item, made of COLUMBUS tubing with CAMPAGNOLO
>> dropouts"
>>
>> Whatever that means. The frame is claimed to be "DE ROSA
>> consulted" which doesn't say that De Rosa built it, just
>> that they allegedly consulted with whoever did. "MERCKX
>> brand" just means that whoever built it stuck Merckx decals
>> on it, with or without permission. It looks like the
>> vendor is going to great pains to avaoid saying that it is a
>> De Rosa Merckx while wanting to imply that it is..
>>
>> Could it even be a Falcon Merckx frame that has had a bit
>> of fettling before its repaint? Except I think the Falcons
>> were 531 and this is said to be Columbus. I think that
>> anyone contemplating offering for this should try to get a
>> straight explanation of what the frame actually was/is
>> because I otherwise consider that it has no real interest or
>> historic value -- just a nice looking bike with nice
>> equipment that has been made to look like a Merckx. Does
>> anybody know if Ugo De Rosa consulted with any other
>> manufacturers to give a possible clue as to what the vendor
>> meant?
>> Hugh Thornton
>> Cheshire, England
>>
>> --- On Sat, 5/9/09, Hilary Stone <hilary.stone@blueyonder.co.uk>
>> wrote:
>>
>> From: Hilary Stone <hilary.stone@blueyonder.co.uk>
>> Subject: [CR] Supposed Merckx De Rosa on English
>> Ebay
>> To:
>> Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
>> Date: Saturday, 5 September, 2009, 7:36 PM
>>
>> Just recently what purports to be Merckx De Rosa bike has
>> been listed on English Ebay - item number 160359704131 Its
>> obviously rather late to be a Molteni Merckx De Rosa - the
>> dropouts are Campy Portacatena though they do appear to be
>> finished in the De Rosa style. However the lugs - in
>> particular the head lugs don't look De Rosa to me... I'd be
>> interested to hear what other CR members who have seen many
>> more De Rosas than I have think...
>>
>>
>> Hilary Stone, Bristol, British Isles