What Eddy Merckx frame do I have?

tonym · Sep 19, 2013

Hi,
I'm new to the forum and I was hoping somebody would be able to help me!

I've just brought an Eddy Merckx frame with a vire to restoring it, but wanted to know a little more about the frame before starting out. I've read lots of articles about a serial number of the bb casing but cant find one on this frame. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

regards
Tony

keithglos · Sep 19, 2013

Without some detailed pictures it looks like the frame from a cheap british made bike from the early 1960's branded Eddy Merckx. Can't remember if this was another of the Clements efforts.

tonym · Sep 19, 2013

Thanks for the response, what pictures would help identify? Is it not a genuine merckx frame? The guy who sold it described it as a French frame...

keithglos · Sep 19, 2013

If French it would have right hand thread both sides of the bottom bracket.
Close up sharp pictures of the head set and lugs, bottom bracket, seat lug, fork crown and fork ends.
If you can accurately measure diameter of the seat pin it gives us an idea of the gauge of tubing. 25.4mm would be heavy cheap tube, 27.2 would be quality butted tube.
Any names stamped into the headset and bracket cups?

Old Ned · Sep 19, 2013

Falcon Cycles (Frank Clements again) had a licence to produce Eddy Merckx branded bikes in the 70's. There were several cheap ones in the range along with some better ones but I've ever only seen the cheap ones - like this.

Could be one of these? There are 4 pages in total.

Featch · Sep 19, 2013

Rumour had it that Eddy was horrified when he turned up at the Falcon factory in Brigg/Barton for a promotion. He couldn't believe the poor quality of bikes bearing his name. The contract didn't get renewed. The perpetrators of this deception? of course paint a different picture.

Sorry Tonym, yours looks like a 1970's Falcon.

Midlife · Sep 19, 2013

http://classiclightweights.net/belgium/eddy-merckx/

As above really, we used to sell them in our shop back in the mid 70's. We never came across the Campag Equipped ones though........

Is there anything on the other decals, the name of the shop that sold it?

The Giro D'Italia pink stripe on the seat tube was the colour I chose for the Falcon San Remo I had Falcon Build me LOL

Shaun

tonym · Sep 20, 2013

Hi,
The bike has various stickers on it. A couple are french, and the one on the downtube says Durifort made in francaise and the seat tube also has a Fabrication francaise sticker on it. As I said before the frame has been poorly painted by hand so I'm thinking of stripping it back to bare frame and respraying it. Would it be worth doing that?

ededwards · Sep 21, 2013

As above, it does look like one of the cheaper Falcon ones so not sure it would be worth time, effort and cost of a respray and rebuild.

Stempie · Sep 22, 2013

I am sorry to say this is hardly worth restoring. A Kessels made Merckx would be, but this certainly isn't. Probably a Falcon.

What Eddy Merckx frame do I have?

tonym

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keithglos

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tonym

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keithglos

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Old Ned

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Featch

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Midlife

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tonym

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ededwards

Stempie

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