Connie Paraskevin Young Merckx Pista

Someone presumably doing a little serial number research sent me these pics the other day, and I thought I'd share them with all of you. It's owner, Marc St. Martin, wrote me the following about it:

I recently purchased an Eddy Merckx pista and have confirmed with Eddy Merckx cycles (through Gitabike) that it was built in 1987 for Connie Paraskevin Young. I suspect it was used by her in the 1987 UCI Track Worlds in Austria. It was all white and equipped tout Mavic at that time. In 1988, Connie enlisted Keith Anderson (confirmed by Keith) to livery the bike as a Murray. It was then put into service late in 1988 for the Sundance Juice Sparkler series. It is serial #A 4694 A, Columbus SLX, 47cm.

Very cool! Enjoy the pics.

Thanks for sharing, Marc!

4 days to Roubaix: The correct answer is "elastomer"

A few months ago, I wrote about the full suspension bikes that some Team Gan members were riding in 1994 at Paris-Roubaix. At the time, I wasn't sure what the deal with the rear suspension was - was it air/oil, or elastomer. The article below solves that mystery. (it was elastomer)

That's a whole lotta technology on Greg's bike in the above scan. Early SRM power meter, Mavic Zap shifters. Most riders don't care what they ride, but Lemond definitely was the bike geek's racer - he was more willing to try out some of the new technologies that were beginning to emerge, even if some of those technologies, like electronic shifting, are only just becoming viable today.

MERCKX TEAM COLOR SCHEME ALERT: The Lotto rider between Lemond and Cipo is riding a Caloi - which is really an relabeled Merckx. Different color scheme that I'd previously documented - guess I was right when I said there was a Lotto scheme I was missing.

HIncapie's rookie year Paris-Roubaix

This'll be George Hincapie's 14th try at Paris-Roubaix, I believe. He's come close to winning, finishing 2nd in 2005, with a handful of other top ten finishes. He's got the experience, but it seems to take a liberal dose of luck to succeed.

Here's a little one pager from 1994 about him, from the June issue of Winning magazine. I wonder what 20 year old George Hincapie would have said had they asked him whether he would be racing Paris-Roubaix 16 years later - let alone whether he'd be considered a contender.

Merckx Teams 1989

ADR, Domex, La William, Teve Blad, 7-Eleven, Hitachi and Stuttgart. As its says, Kelme not included.

scan provided by 'J2000E'

Eddy Merckx 1992 Catalog Pages

My friend Harry broke his leg a few months ago. He's back on the bike now, but for a while he was stuck sitting around a whole lot. With all of the downtime he been dug up all sorts of cool catalogs. Here's another one.

 

These are the Merckx pages from the Gita Collezione 1992 catalog. Let's see what we have



First on the page is the Merckx Max. Max?! Yep, the Max. The Max was the predecessor to the MX Leader. It used a non-Merckx specific lugset, with a fairly chunky looking fork crown. Fastbacked seat stays. These were only offered in 1992, and were redesigned a bit for 1993, with some slightly different tubing specs, a new fork crown, and its new name - MX Leader. The catalog shows it in the Telekom color scheme. Others were surely available as well.

The Corsa, Corsa Extra and Pista are largely unchanged from how they were spec'd starting in 1985. The Corsa was offered in the 7-11 color scheme, even though they became Motorola for the 1991 season.



The Century was still available in 1992 as well. 4 colors shown in the catalog - Kelme's "later" color scheme, Motorola (note the Motorola Cycling decal near the head tube), the always hideous Tutti Frutti, and Blue Cobalto.

Also shown on this page is a Corsa from the previous page in Faema replica livery.

1994 Merckx catalog pages

Courtesy of my friend Harry, here are the Merckx pages from the 1994 Gita catalog. There's only two, so read slowly!

The Century TSX is still available for the 1994 model year. The catalog says it comes with a flat fork crown, yet the catalog pictures clearly show one of the bikes with a sloping crown. Retail price: $1225.00

The Corsa's shown are in two replica color schemes, and both are sporting replica down tube lettering instead of the normal Merckx decals. Retail price: $925.



Oops, I cut off Lance's head in the scans. I believe thats a picture of him winning the CoreStates US Pro Championships. Whatever race its from, its prior to his winning the '93 worlds, based on his jersey.

The Titanal was new for 1994. Apparently, its a bonded Titanium frame. I've never actually seen one. Who actually produced these? What frame manufacturer in Austria was producing bonded frames in the mid-90's?

Finally, the MX-Leader. Retail price: $1421.00

Click any pic for a high res version. Enjoy!

Recent find...

At a bike swap recently, I managed to score this:

What's that in the bag???



New-in-bag Eddy Merckx pantographed Cinelli 1-A stem. Probably mid-80's, judging by the bar size, packaging, and the font the Merckx pantograph uses. Too bad its so short!

Eddy sells out...

Sells out his shares of the bike company bearing his name, that is.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?id=/tech/2008/news/10-24

I suspect he hasn't played much of a role in designing his bikes for some time, so I guess its nothing to be too upset about. Sounds like he had hoped his son would take over, and when that didn't happen, it was time to move on.

Podio Pedals

Hey! Long time no see! Thanks for stopping by - I've been pretty busy with life, and haven't had much time to dedicate to writing. Looks like things will be a little easier from here on out though. This is just the first post of a few I have planned - more DA 7400 stuff, some Mavic things, and as you might guess, some more Merckx stuff.

In the mid-1990's, Merckx started marketing its own clipless pedal system, called the Podio. I have no idea how they were marketed in Europe, but here in the US, I never heard about them.

 

The cleats are fairly low profile, with what looks to be a non-standard bolt pattern. I don't know if third-party Podio shoes ever existed - the only ones I've seen are Podio branded. I think I heard somewhere they were made by Adidas, but I don't have a pair or have any way to prove/disprove that.

Sidi makes a Podio adapter plate. Not sure how easy it is to find, but I suspect it could be special ordered.

 

The cleats slide in from the back, and you twist to remove. Pretty normal. Tension is adjusted via a screw on the back. I assume they have no float.

Merckx still sells these. They're not distributed by Gita Bike in the US, as far as I can tell. I've never heard of any Merckx sponsored team riding them either. Matter of fact, the only person I've heard of riding these is the man himself.

June 17th is...

Eddy Merckx's birthday. If you have a Merckx, grab it and go out for a ride.

Jerseys

I know I've said it before, but I'll keep saying it. When you live in New York City, its tough to have a large bike collection. Over the last few months, I've actually been downsizing, and have sold my Lazzaretti and my red and white Merckx. Don't feel sorry for me though, its all to free some space up for my soon to be born daughter! Exciting stuff worth losing a bike or two for. Not to mention, with all of the other work I've been doing installing cabinets, cleaning up our storage area, so on and so forth...I think I may have freed up enough space to justify getting another bike someday. Ask my wife about that, and I'll deny everything.

The real point to this story is that while its tough for me to have a ton of bikes, it is possible to collect some other bikey things. Jerseys, for instance, don't take up much space, don't cost much, and can be used on a daily basis. Here are a couple of the Merckx ones in my collection:

Lotto, circa 1988. The nice thing about having a nearly electric blue bike is that a jersey like this doesn't look so jarring.



Eddy Merckx team, mid-80's. Still don't know exactly what this is - most likely a jersey for a club team. Dutch maybe? More info here.



U.C. Seraing. I'd guess this jersey is from the last, say, 5-10 years. Junior club in Belgium. Fortunately, someone on the team was either tall enough, or fat enough, for me to fit in the jersey.

I have more, and sooner or later I'll get around to posting them.

Cool new saddle

Well, new in the sense that I just got it. It's a Eddy Merckx embroidered Selle Italia Turbomatic 4. I've ridden Flites for years - a particularly well broken in example currently graces my main bike. Recently, however, I put a Turbomatic on my commuting bike, and it felt GREAT. So now my main ride will be getting one as well.

Merckx serial number updates!

I finally began making updates to the serial list. Its been a few months. When you procrastinate with something like this, it gets harder and harder to convince yourself to tackle the mess you've made. So I'm taking it slow.

I added 6 1985 frames to the list today. I have another 60 from 1986 and on that I'll be adding over the next few days, and then probably another 20 I'll do over the next couple of weeks. I've added a column denoting new additions since 4/15, so you can get your pic fix without seeing frames you've already seen.

(4/18) Just added some 86/87 'A' coded frames.

(4/25) Just added 13 88/89 'B' coded frames.

(5/12) Back from vacation! 'C' coded frames coming soon.

Eddy Merckx 1990 Catalog

I'm always on the hunt for primary sources for information about the bike stuff I'm interested in. Pictures, catalogs and the like. Words may lie, but pictures...well, they can lie too, but I'd rather be fooled by a period picture thats been retouched than by the recollections of a guy who worked in a store with a guy who worked for a manufacturer who's founder was a mechanic of another guy who's cousin rode with Eddy Merckx. Sure, I'd still like to hear their story, but I'd take whatever I heard with a grain of salt.

I recently picked up a 1990 Merckx catalog, that isn't (yet) in the enormous bike catalog archive that Mark Bulgier has. I've seen this catalog a few times on eBay, and loathed the fact that it wasn't scanned and available online.

It's up on bulgier.net in full resolution now. Get it here.

If you have this catalog, and never made it available to me and other Merckx addicts, I'm very dissapointed in you.


Anyone who's read this blog knows it was a Grand Prix that got me all excited about Merckx bikes. Mine is an 88/89, so it predates the above, but its very, very similar. My current thought is this catalog is from early 1990, as I believe they switched the way they did internal routing in 1990, from both cables on the top of the top tube, to the entrance tunnel being on the lower side of the top tube. I guess 1990 was when they decided non-aero brakes were dead.


10th anniversary frame. Whats interesting about these is a large percentage of them bear a B date code, which indicates they were actually built in 1988/89. I'm guessing late 1989 is more accurate, which makes sense -- model year 1990 frames are usually available prior to the end of the previous year.


Century TSX. Note the different internal routing. The entrance tunnel is out of sight, on the under side of the top tube.

New team color scheme too? Team Forum? Never heard of them -- can anyone tell me more?


The Team 7-11 frame. I think this is effectively a Century in 7-Eleven colors. Note the presence of a 7-Eleven Team decal on the top tube.


Corsa Extra, in the 1990 Weinmann color scheme -- perhaps my favorite of all the color schemes. Someday one will be mine. Also present is a color scheme I assumed was a team one which just appears to be a stock color scheme.


Corsa. The Faema reproduction is a beauty, and you can't go wrong with either the 7-Eleven color scheme or the blue. No 7-Eleven Team sticker here.


Pista in SL, sporting a Corsa decal. Simple + attractive in blue.

Have any Merckx catalogs that aren't at the Bulgier archive? If you don't have a scanner, I'm more than happy to scan for you. There's no good reason for people to pay ridiculous amounts of money for an 8 page catalog, when its so easy to scan and make them available to others.

An interesting Merckx on eBay

One of the primary methods I've employed to decipher the Merckx serial number scheme is by setting up a search on eBay that mails me a listing of every new bike or frame on a daily basis. I've seen some great examples -- former team frames, NOS frames that have been sitting in a Belgian basement since they were built, new color schemes I hadn't seen before...all sorts of cool things.

Today I saw a listing for a frame in Motorola livery that I thought I'd share. Not because its some pedigreed frame, or particularly obscure, but because its being sold to benefit a fellow rider who was involved in a pretty terrible accident involving a drunk driver.

Seeing as how I get a ridiculous number of hits from people looking for Merckx info, I decided I'd post a link to the listing.

It actually is an interesting frame. Take note of the decals on it -- this isn't the standard Motorola decal package, but an earlier one that would typically be used for a solid, paneled or fade color scheme. Pointed liveries would typically have a different set of seat tube graphics, and those slanted letters -- well, I thought those were gone by the late 80's.

I've seen four or five of these Motorola frames with the odd decals. A couple of Corsa's, a Strada, and maybe a Corsa Extra as well, all in the C date code (1990/1991). My guess is they're early Motorola color scheme frames, prior to them nailing down the decal package. Or are they something else? No good answers here, but I think they're an interesting variant on a pretty popular color scheme.

Maybe one of you out there who's been looking for a Merckx of their own will find it there -- and help a rider in need at the same time.

Marc - V.R.D.

Just recently found another few Merckx sponsored teams. First up is Marc-V.R.D., starting in 1980! Might have been the first Merckx sponsored team.

Their frames looked somewhat similiar to the above. Marc teams continued to use Merckx frames for a couple of years, but I haven't found any decent pictures to indicate what they looked like.

In 1985, Tönnisteiner roade Merckx frames. Here's a black and white picture of Filip Cottenies. In this picture, you can just make out someone (might be Cottenies, I'm not sure) on a white frame with a red head tube and read seat tube panel.

Motorola Scans

I've been combing through various magazines and books, scanning pics of Motorola team riders, to try to lend a hand to Randy Dugan, who owns Michel Dernies former team frame. He's built it up with an eye towards accuracy for how it was likely to be equipped in the 1993 racing year. Extremely cool bike, and the source of extreme envy on my part.

I haven't found any Dernies pics yet, but I've found a few cool pics that I thought some of you might be interested to see. Here's one.

Max Sciandri on his way to winning the Kellogg's Tour of Britain in late 1992. Pretty sure he's riding an early MX Leader, based on the fork crown, size of tubes, etc.

La Vuelta 1986

Here's a cool picture of two of the teams riding Merckx frames in 1986 -- Kelme and Panasonic.

From Winning magazine, June 1994. It was one of two pictures meant to illustrate the ever interesting topic of shoes in the peloton. I'll post the matching picture, which shows the 1994 peloton and their shoes (and another pair of Merckx teams) shortly. Enjoy!

A Tale of Two Cities

I have a pretty nice collection of team jerseys, if I do say so. A few (ok, 5) of them are various Merckx sponsored team jerseys. One of them is newly acquired, and is an interesting one to me, at least.

The above is the normal, common Eddy Merckx jersey. I thought this was the design used in 1985 + 1986 Eddy Merckx sponsored teams (scroll down a little), which I'm pretty sure were cyclocross only. Most sites have 2 teams listed -- one being a Belgian team, notable for having Roger De Vlaeminck in the very end of his career, and the other being a Luxembourg team, which seems to have been an amateur team. The above isn't an exact jersey, but its pretty close. The rainbow colors aren't quite the same, but the Eddy Merckx lettering is the same -- seems like a general consumer version of a team jersey. Ok, great, makes perfect sense.



The skyline on the back of the jersey seems to be Brussels -- the tallest building sort of looking like the Grand Place. The little seal which seems to depict St. Michael stomping on a dragon works too, being part of the seal of Brussels.



This jersey, however, is something of a mystery. Its an old-style label, Giordana jersey. It has the textured inside, thats composed of loops of thread, that you saw in nice jerseys in the mid-to-late 80's. High collar. The Eddy Merckx lettering is straight across, instead of over/under. It contains a full array of sponsor logos -- aside from Merckx, there's Diadora, Campagnolo, Pronto, and on the collar...



G.C.V.C. Or maybe thats G.C. V.C. Something-something venture capital? velo club? Beats me. Not so sure on what Pronto is either...



No clue what city's skyline this is. A very boxy city, with a building that looks little like a syringe (whats with the weird lightning, glow worm thing?), and one that looks like the Empire State building.

What is this jersey? The proper 85/86 Merckx team jersey? Some small club or shop team? One of the myriad of Belgian trade teams? What skyline is that? Is anybody out there? Help!

Yay for me, boo to all of you

Here's another Merckx team -- Capri-Sonne

Yep, Capri-Sonne, known here in the US as Capri Sun, those funny little silver juice pouches from the early 80's, that apparently are still around. Who knew?

They rode a silver frame, as seen a little better here. Calling some of these solid colors "team colors" is pushing it a bit, but it fits my criteria. Too bad I'm the one who found it, otherwise someone might have found themselves with a nice, 100% free jersey. Still plenty of teams out there to identify, and a couple of days to do so...