Saturday, August 11, 2007

Merckx team bikes

In the mid-80's through mid-90's, Merckx sponsored a number of professional cycling teams. Each had a specific color layout for their frames. Some of them are very familiar -- the purple and pink of Telekom, the red and green of 7-11, while some of them are a little less familiar. Here's a list of the ones I've documented. Where there are examples in the Merckx serial list, I show a picture. Where I don't have a sample frame picture, I'll link to a picture of a team member astride one. I'll post a few color schemes each day. I'm lazy like that.

Its worth noting that some of the team livery frames were ridden by multiple teams, seperated by a few years...in at least one case, 7 years.



ADR, from 1988. You can see a picture of Eddy Planckaert astride one here.



Team Stuttgart, 1989 and 1990. Here's a picture of the entire team. These guys went on to form the basis of Team Telekom in 1991. Kinda makes you wonder just whats in that puma bag in the picture...

A reader was kind enough to drop me an email, letting me know that in Sweden, this color scheme was associated with the PK-Banken semi-professional team. We'll see another example of this with a different color scheme, where the second team rode the same frame labeled as a Caloi. Any guesses on the teams?



Team Hitachi, 1988/89. Claude Criquielion riding his, in the 1988 TdF.

Next post, I'll cover the Domex/Weinmann team frames (there are a few), and La William. Exciting, no?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You have an awesome weblog of the Merckx lineup. I admire your completeness! Having rode many frames, I finally settled on Merckx as the most comfortable for long rides and had him build a track set from from Columbus Max tubing in reverse Motorola colors. It is a pleasure to race and look forward to riding more Merckx bikes. Nonetheless, your site is great...keep it up. Have you visited the factory outside of Brussels?

Unknown said...

I use to own 1 of the ADR frames just like the one pictured. If anyone has a frameset in a 54 or 55 cm I want to buy it.
contact me @ http://twitter.com/OldManCreed

handsolo said...

I own a 59CM version of the 88/89 Hitachi team frame as shown in TDF photo. Thanks for posting this, I have been wondering the origin, since it lacks the "Corsa Extra" decal, and not shown in stock catalogs I've seen. Love this bike, though it rides like a roided out donkey

Jimbo said...

Nice Pics. I still have my Merckx Corsa Pro ADR. Still a wonderful ride.

Anndy nice said...

The difference between a standard bicycle and an e-bike is that the latter is normally manufactured with a specific frame Mountain Bikes, as well as forks and reinforced components to withstand the additional loads offered

Unknown said...

I still have my 1989 ADR frameset

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