I should have added in my post that I questioned the brake cable routing to Mike as well. While it may or may not be original, he said that was not what he was thinking of.
One thought I had, after comparing this bike to all the Eddy In Action photos I could find, was that he usually seemed to be road riding on chromed forks, and these ones are painted. Although there is one shot of him on the track in Mexico in 1982(?) where the forks are painted. But that bike is a completely different beast than the one in the picture.
I'll let this run another day or two and then I'll send this thread to Mike, get his reaction and revert. (I hope we are not disappointed, after getting everyone all whipped up like this.)
I by the way still don't know what Mike Barry things is "wrong". I've sent him my two guesses (the forks and the waterbottle cage, which all seemed to have been strapped on, not brazed on.) and I'll find out the answer when we all do.
Peter
On Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 11:44 PM, <iamnofred@aol.com> wrote:
> The brake cable housing is routed like most American bikes (left brake
> lever pulls the front brake and the right lever pulls the rear brake).
> Possibly it's the water bottle cage is not held on with clamps.
>
> Gary Smith
> TLC for Bikes
> Raleigh NC USA 27614
> ------Original Message------
> From: pstock
> Sender: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org
> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Cc: Steve Kruse
> Cc: Ian Stock
> ReplyTo: p.stock@stocknet.ca
> Sent: 28 Oct 2009 22:56
> Subject: [CR] Merckx bike photo quizzler
>
> I was at a meeting of the No Click Cycling Club here in Toronto this
> evening. And as I was leaving I picked up a postcard promoting some bike
> history photo show.
>
>
> http://picasaweb.google.com/
>
> As I looked at it, NCCC co-organizer and meeting host and local classic
> bike guru Mike Barry asked me: "What's wrong with that picture?"
>
> and for the life of me I don't know. but I told him not to tell me until
> the next club meeting (November 28th I believe, in case anyone local is
> interested in visiting mike's mini-museum and talking pre-83 bike lore.)
>
> I've got a couple of ideas now but I'll throw it out here for you weenies.
>
> So, who knows what's wrong with the picture? (Mike said it was pretty
> basic and pretty obvious.)
> I'll take all your replies to Mike and report on who got it right.
>
> Peter Stock
> Toronto, ON
> _______________________________________________
>
>
> Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T