Bringing an Eddy Merckx Professional back to it's glory

Some weeks ago my eye fell on this nineties basic (it had a Campa Mirage 8-speed goupset on it) Eddy Merckx bike that was being sold for only 250 euro.

First I found it not really attractive and I didn't have any interest in the bike, but suddenly my eye fell on the brake cable routing. It was on top of the tube and that was not how things were done by Eddy back in the nineties. I asked the seller some more information and 2 or 3 e-mails later, I payed him the amount he was asking for.

So, what's the deal, you will ask. This: from the pictures the seller sent me, I learned the bike had "over the BB" derailleur cable routing and a front fork that wasn't like the ones used in the nineties (had a flat crown). Again things pointing i the direction it being an older Merckx than the paintjob suggested.

But the biggest surprise was yet to come. The fork had one leg "Eddy" stamped in it, the other "Merckx" AND the seatstays didn't show the classic "EM" but had the Cannibal's own autograph on them.

This made it's disguise fall off: this so called nineties bike was one of the very first "Professional" frames built by Eddy Merckx, after he retired from professional cycling. He had them built with the help of his former frame builder, Ugo De Rosa. I checked the serial number and the A proves it' s a Professional, the stamped autograph it's one of the very first produced.

Next thing for me will be dismantling the bike, and have it resprayed in colours of that first generation (I think I'll go for "Cherry colour").

I started my search for period correct parts already and found

• Super Record shifters, brake levers, brakes, derailleurs and crankset
  
• a pantographed chainring
  
• a pantographed stem
  
• Cinelli "Campione del Mondo" bars
  
• Benotto bartape
  
• a Selle Italia RS saddle
  
• wheels (Mavic GP 4 rims on Superrecord hubs)
  
  

What a find.

I have just finished a 1970's build of a Dave Lloyd and actually found part easier to find than for my current 90's Lemond.

Looking forward to this build.

amazing! sub'd for sure :)

I'm aware it's a very lucky find; these bikes (when in original state) go sky high. There's one on ebay right now (in the Cherry colour I want to have mine resprayed in) and the seller asks 3250 USDollar.

Some more photos of things I recently found for a very decent price

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That is a nice find indeed. It's gonna be really special I'm sure once you've worked your magic on it.
Might be worth looking up @eddyforever as I bought a professional frame from him and seem to recall him having some Merckx panto parts too. Certainly some Campag shifters.
I'm sure he's close to you too
I'll be following your progress very closely my friend.

Thanks, you all. There's only one strange thing about the bike: it has double water bottle bosses and a braze on front derailleur. This is a feature only later frames had.

Tweaked maybe when the frame was updated with newer components ?

Yup, easy to have bits brazed on at a later date. Any decent frame builder can soon reverse that. I use Argos, they are local to me and their work is excellent, but there are plenty of others.

That was what I was thinking too. Frame was resprayed by the Merckx company in the nineties so maybe those things were put on it at that moment.

Nice project again Wim! Will be enjoyable to follow your pogress again :)

Just guessing but maybe it was repainted after damage repair, with the extra bits added into the mix as an update.

Damage repair? Aaaargh, nooooooooo!!!!!

No, think it was just being "updated", back in the nineties "vintage" wasn't invented yet, you only had old and outdated bikes. ;-)

Have you been in touch with Merckx?

You'd hope that as they repainted it, and particularly as it's an early model, they would have recorded any work they did.

What are you going to do with the "new" additions?

I haven't contacted the Merckx Company but I don't tend to, in fact. I heard sevveral times that since he sold the company, the new owners answer they don't have any information on that period.

I will ask what it will cost me to have the bosses removed. But maybe I just leave it like that and only have it resprayed in original colour. As I don't really have the intention to sell it, that braze on doesn't disturb me and the second bottle holder might be practical for longer rides. I have a 1990 Corsa Extra and I'm not taking it out for +2 hr rides because of the lack of second bottle cage.

It's your bike, you build it as you see fit.

The nice thing about steel is that you (or someone else) can always change it at some other time.

Thing is: once resprayed, I'm not going to change it the first 10 years. ;-) I have some other projects going on so I have the time to look around and ask some of the companies doing steel frameworks.

I took off the parts today and second pair of bosses are definitely from later period. The ones on the downtubes are welded and those on seattube are riveted. Think I'll have them removed. Does anyone know if the holes that were drilled can be repaired in a decent way?

I would have thought they could be brazed or silver soldered over and polished, it's not a difficult job.

Thanks. Think I will go for complete restoration (so having the braze on removed too). Noticed today (when inspecting some paintchips) that under the red paint on the forks, there's chrome.

Nice find - I've got one almost the same... trying to decide what colour to get it resprayed in.

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bottom bracket - 57cm and 222 made.

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Mine has a BB serial number that doesn't really follow the serie as you can find it here A12 - V294. The A should stand for the "Professional" series but 12 can't be the size (it's not a 62 or something ;-)) and no idea about the V. My guess is that when -accorinding to the list mentioned- X is 85, V is possibly 1981. Mine has a different kind of BB-shell.

So, back to this project.
Update: frame is at the sprayer at the moment, forks are being rechromed and got myself this set of decals. By the end of july, the frameset should be ready.

Contacted the sprayer today and the frame is ready. Forks aren't ready so far so I'll have to be patient for a bit longer...

Really looking forward to seeing it Wim.