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.

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!

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.

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!

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...

The Tears for Gears Merckx Team bike challenge

So as I noted in my last post, there are probably a ton of Merckx team frames I know nothing about. There are some main stream(ish) teams I haven't been able to track down, and dozens and dozens of continental teams I've never heard of, let alone seen a picture of.

There are also a couple of frames I suspect are team frames I've just never been able to figure out, including

and



So here's the challenge. The person who can find and identify the most Merckx team frames which I do NOT have not talked about in my blog posts or in the serial list will win a prize:



A Euro Trafic Merckx team jersey. Its not a new jersey, its actually a former team jersey, so it has some wear and tear, but I bet no one else will show up at your next club ride wearing one! I'll pay shipping and everything...all you have to do is follow some simple rules...

I'm looking for more teams riding Eddy Merckx bikes from 1980 through about 1998. This primarily means steel frames, built in the Merckx factory in Belgium. To positively identify a Merckx team color scheme, you need only send me a clear picture of a team rider on the frame that shows the primary details of the color scheme. A team color scheme means that the whole team rode/rides that scheme. If there's a color scheme i've missed for a team I've already identified, that counts -- I bet there's at least 1 other Kelme. I'll set a deadline of November 1, 2007.

You can send me info at merckxteams AT tearsforgears DOT com. The two frames above are a decent place to start -- that I can't ID them is driving me crazy. The top is from 1986/87, and the bottom from 1988/89. Good luck, and send me what you have! If you're the only person to respond, you just may win!

Still no new teams sent in! All it takes at this point to walk away with the super cool jersey above is identifying one new team. That's it! I'll mail the jersey anywhere in the world, postage paid for by me!

The last of the Merckx team frames...

Wow, today is going to be a 3 post day. I figure, before my little challenge can begin, I need to put out the last of the team frames I know about up. Without further ado...

The United States' first team to make it in the pro peloton ranks, 7-Eleven! After years of having their downtubes sullied with Huffy and Murray decals, they switched in 1989 to Eddy Merckx frames for their final two seasons.

In 1990, 7-Eleven folded and was reborn as...



Motorola. The above is Michael Dernies' team issue Motorola Merckx, in Columbus TSX. Motorola is best known by many as the team Lance Armstrong rode for when he won the worlds in 1993. Here's a picture of Michael Dernies on his Motorola Merckx. Maybe its the same one (or maybe not).

OK, we're on a roll. Here are some of the Merckx riding teams in the last years of steel:



In 1996, Gan rode blue MX Leaders and Arcabaleno's, as you can see in this picture. In 1997, they switched to white frames, that look like steel -- . If they were riding steel in 1998, I'd be pretty surprised.

And contrary to what I thought, they were riding white Arcabaleno's as late as 1998



Vlaanderen 2002 rode yellow MX Leaders, as seen here, here, and here.

Finally, it looks like S.E.F.B. Spaarbank rode the same colors as Domex/Weinmann in 1989.

So thats all of the Merckx team frames I've found. There are a few I know I'm missing, including IPSO/Euroclean, Hueso, Westwood...I know someone out there knows a couple of those. With my next post, hopefully I'll motivate some of you to lend me a hand.

Telekom and Kelme Merckx Team Bikes

The procrastination has gone on long enough! It's time to publish my next installment of Merckx team bike frames. Let's go!

Telekom used Merckx frames from 1991-1995. The above is the color scheme I most associate with Telekom -- you can see it in this team photo from 1994.

What you might not know is, in 1995, Telekom changed its name to Team Deutsche Telekom, and changed its bike color scheme to the one you can just make out in this picture of a young Jan Ullrich. Its a pink head and top tube, with purple points. Its more or less as if they flipped the colors on their previous scheme, and called it new. At least they didn't have to change their jersey colors. They shifted to Pinarello frames in '96, so this color scheme only lasted a year -- so if they were available to the public, it would have been a pretty short time frame.

OK, its Kelme time. Given how long Kelme was around, you'd think I'd have seen more examples of bikes in the public sporting Kelme colors, but you'd be wrong.

In early years, Kelme rode an all white frame, as seen here, as well as a all blue frame, as seen here.

In 1985 and/or 1986, Kelme used the same red/pink/white frames that Lotto and Teve Blad did, as seen here.

In 1987, they switched to what I think is a pretty awesome color scheme, seen here, that matched their jersey's perfectly. I think they kept this frame through 1989.

At some point, for reasons I can't fathom, they switched to this color scheme. The switch was in either 1990 or 1991...I can find pictures in this scheme that I'm sure are 1991, but I haven't found any good shots of a rider on one wearing the Kelme/Ibexpress jersey from 1990. Anyhow, the color scheme looks a lot like Telekom, but with a green bottom bracket and rear triangle. Its fine, but its no '87-89 color scheme if you ask me. Not that you did.

Next team post will cover the 7/11, and two of the last pro teams that Merckx sponsored on steel, Motorola and Gan.

This post is a little light on the eye candy...so light in fact, that later tonight I'm going to post a CHALLENGE! With a really excellent prize! Stay tuned...

Still more Merckx team colors...

Still hanging in there? Only 10 or so more teams to go! And this post is going to be a big one...

Panasonic seems to be primarily thought of as a Raleigh team, but in 1986, they were riding white with blue points Merckxes.

The color scheme was a popular one. Another top pro team got the same color scheme, relabled as Caloi, in 1993/1994...that team being Lotto.

Speaking of Lotto...those guys rode quite a few different Merckx color schemes.



No, not all of the above! In 1985, they rode a yellow with white panels color scheme, as seen in this team photo. To be honest, I'm not sure they used the font in the picture above. It's possible it was the same font that...

Europ Decor rode in 1984. Prior to that, they rode blue metallic with white panels.

Back to Lotto. In 1986, they moved to an all red scheme, and kept it (I think!) through 1987. The only thing that differentiates it from the normal stock frames is that the seat tube has vertical Eddy Merckx lettering, while bikes for us mortals just had the EM logo and the France/Italy world champ bands. Here's a mediocre picture where you can see what I'm talking about.



In 1988, they moved to the above, red and white, pointed scheme, as seen here. And in 1989, they moved off Merckx bikes, and on to Vitus.

Michel Dernies seems to have ridden on teams Merckx sponsored for all but the earliest years of his career -- starting in 1985 for Lotto, to Domex/Weinmann in 1989-1991, to Motorola through 1995. Being from Belgium, I guess its not that odd, but I thought it was worth noting. It also has nothing to do with team paint schemes.

Remember that red and white pointed bike I was talking about before that nonsequitor? Well, it was also ridden by Teve Blad, in 1986 and 1987. I highly recommend looking at the pics of their riders -- they did a photoshoot that makes them all look fairly ridiculous. I have no idea what color frames they rode in 1985, so let me know if you do.

Wow, I'm tired! I know I promised Kelme in this post too, but its too much! Panasonic, Lotto, Europ Decor and Teve Blad, combined, rode 5 color schemes. I think Kelme rode at least 3, possibly 4, so they have to wait. I'll get to them in the next post, along with Telekom.

Merckx Rebranding (and another team frame)

Yes, yes, I promised the next post would be more team bikes, but sometimes a guy gets busy, and can't get things together for a proper post.

Luckily, someone who read one of my previous posts sent me me interesting catalog scans. Michele lives over in Sweden, and was the person who let me know that in his area of the world, the Stuttgart color scheme is also know as the PK-Banken scheme. He owns a stunning example of a frame in the same color scheme, fitted out in full Croce d'Aune. He has a few other bikes that are really nice as well.

He sent along this scan from the 1990 Crescent catalog. In it, you can see a Crescent AND Merckx labeled frame in the Stuttgart/PK-Banken color scheme, ridden by Jan Carlsson, who I'm told was the Swedish time trial champion.



In the same scan, you can also see a blue and white fade Merckx. The same color scheme was used by...

Intral-Renting in 1988.

He also sent along a scan of a relabeled Merckx frame from the 1989 catalog...but since its the same color as the frame of 2 teams we haven't discussed yet, it'll have to wait...

More Merckx team bikes...

First up, we have the La William team from 1989. They rode a yellow and blue frame, with a lighter blue point. I've never seen one. I have no idea if the scheme was ever available to the public. Anyone have one?

Domex/Weinmann, and later just Weinmann, were responsible for 2 separate team liveries.

The Domex/Weinmann team frame was a pretty attractive one, in white and blue, with orange accents. While the team photo, in black and white, is entirely useless, a picture here shows it off nicely. Strangely, however, my serial number database doesn't have any examples. I'm almost positive, however, that I've seen them. Do you have one? How is it you haven't sent me pictures and your serial yet?!

In 1990 and 1991, Domex and Weinmann split up. The Weinmann team continued on Merckxs, in a new color scheme, as seen above. To go with the worlds ugliest jersey, they settled on a color scheme that, strangely, works. Course, I'm the guy with the purple and orange blog color scheme, so take that opinion with a grain of salt. For those of you who don't believe anyone would match hot pink with neon yellow and purple, here's just one sample of a team member in a publicity shot. They all look equally confused at how a color blind person managed to design their color scheme.



I finally found evidence of what I've suspected -- that the Weinmann color scheme in 1990 is a little different. You can see it above from a Crescent catalog. It lacks the pink rear triangle and bottom bracket areas, and reverses the green and pink in the points -- as seen here.


You may be noticing, I'm a big fan of de weilersite, aka cyclingwebsite.net for those of you who, like me, don't speak dutch, as well as hour.be. I don't speak flemish either, but the list of teams can be found here, and riders here.

Next up, we'll shift to some of the pretty well known teams: Lotto, Kelme and Panasonic.

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?