Merckx Mania

   Earlier this year, when I sold the Look KG 271, I came in contact with a collector who was an absolute fanatic for Eddy Merckx bicycles. In fact, he had a shop/room that seemed entirely devoted to his stable of Merckx bikes.

   Eric seemed surprised that I had never owned a Merckx, or at least had a chance to work on one, but steel frames (well...ANY frames, really) by the Belgian manufacturer, are highly sought-after and pricey. The cycling legend started his namesake company back in 1980 and worked closely with his designers and craftsmen to form one of the most prestigious brands in the world.

   Merckx had always been visible as a supplier to pro teams, from the legendary 7-Eleven and Panasonic teams of the eighties, to their association with the highly successful Quickstep squad of 2010-11. Recently the company took a step back and provided machines for Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise, a Pro Continental team, as well as a couple other developmental clubs. However, next year Merckx bicycles will be back at the UCI World Tour level as supplier for AG2R La Mondiale.

   I had always included the brand among my casual searches on eBay, and surprisingly two very affordable bicycles became available at the same time! I’m certainly not an expert on the bikes, and attempts to decipher the serial numbers is sometimes fruitless, so I’m mostly counting on the sellers’ descriptions to identify them.

   The first is a (Gios-like) blue mid-1980s Corsa, which is currently equipped for a quality modern ride with mix of Campagnolo 10-speed parts. I’m going to clean, tune and touch-up the bike and attempt to sell it with its existing set-up, but I wouldn’t be averse to swapping out the parts for a more era-appropriate group, if someone expresses interest.

   The other bike (both measure 55.5 cm C-T-C, by the way) is navy blue early 1990s Grand Prix, equipped with a first-generation Shimano Dura-Ace group. This bike will pretty much be ready-to-roll after I tune it up and swap out the set of tubular wheels that came on the bike for a more rider-friendly pair of clinchers.

   On the projects-in-progress front, I would have the Wilier-Triestina Escape complete, if it wasn’t for the difficulty in finding the Mavic Cosmic Carbone wheels. Someone has already contacted me with interest, and we are contemplating a different set, should the search prove impossible. I recently came across a feature on Nicolas Roche, when he rode for the 2006 Cofidis team, and found they had also used Mavic’s Ksyrium wheels on occasion, and that might be a more “do-able” option. I’m trying to be patient in order to reach my overall goal with this bike!

   I was able to complete the Ciocc Mockba ‘80 build, as the last touch was (again) replacing a set of tubulars with clinchers. In this case the swap also proved to be a necessity because the previous owner had chosen to use an 8-speed freewheel on the nice set of Campagnolo wheels. Freewheels of this configuration were not popular, compared to the six- or seven- speed parts, mainly because they required the wheel to be re-dished – in other words, the spokes had to be laced in a manner that moved the hub more to the left side of the axle, in order to accommodate the wider cluster of cogs on the driveside.

   Unfortunately, the stresses applied to the cogs in this wider set-up also tended to brake axles, as I found was the case when removed the rear wheel and had the part come off in two pieces. The axle replacement would require a bit of work but would not be very expensive, so I wasn’t bent out of shape about it. The previous owner probably didn’t even realize he had a problem, as the wheel had still been spinning freely, and he hadn’t been putting in a tremendous number of miles on the bike, He was pretty lucky not to have something more serious happen while he was on the bike...or maybe, more accurately, OFF the bike!

   I did contact the guy and let him know how fortunate he was, and relayed a story about my teenage years when I abused my father’s old 10-speed (yes, just ten speeds) while delivering morning newspapers. I was standing on the pedals and accelerating when the rear axle snapped, and in this case the freewheel came loose and immediately dropped the chain. Now, with absolutely no resistance on the cranks, I slipped from the platform pedals and came down hard on the top tube of the bike – YOWCH!!

   As mentioned before, the bike had some beautiful Campagnolo Super Record engraved parts, and I swapped out the more modern parts for the matching S.R. components I had left from a previous build. I’ll bid arrivederci with pix of the Ciocc, which is now listed on my For Sale page.

P.S. The Ciocc name should have an umlaut over the “O”, like this – Ciöcc. I’ve abandoned this format, since the word gets lost in searches by folks who don’t bother with the correct spelling.