Merckx owners thread

I'd say build it with 8 speed if your going period correct, 9 speed was the aluminium era a la Ulrich & Pantani with their titanium 9 speed Record set ups in 97, 98...

97 was not yet Alu era. Gan still rode MXL in the blue livery... While Pantani was big on Alu and rode a series 7000 frame in 1998 these frames were not widely accepted.. a lot of forks and frames broke.. things were much worse than the teams and mechanics ever let out.. A recall a friend coming back from the Giro--- he was providing technical support to Pantani and few other riders who were riding his wheels--- with stories about all the alu/carbon death traps.. but if we are going to talk about the Alu era.. its probably from 94 or 95.. Riis rode, for example, metal matrix in '86.. still steel was still very much around.. and Ti too.. and even carbon.. until 1999.. steel went dead for Y2K and most traditional vendors to elites found it quite difficult to sell or place their frames..