Eddy Merckx Early 80's

[joeditch]

Bought myself my first retro side project not looking for it to be blingy and shiny want to keep the original paint and patina. Like the rusty old look! Basically give the bike a strip and clean new bearings and rubber all round.

here she is with majority stripped. if anyone could shed some light on the model of the frame that would be great!

joe!

 

[TheElectronKid]

Re:

Looks like one of the Falcon made frames from the 70's.
Eddy Merckx allowed a couple of bike producers to use his name in the 70's but didn't have any imput in the design or quality of steel used.

 

[predki]

Any serial number? EM pantograph?

 

[Midlife]

Looks too good to be a Falcon . Maybe a Kessels bike which was a step up from the Falcon but below a "proper" Merckx. One or the other

Shaun

 

[joeditch]

i thought it may be one of the ones build with just his name! brakes are marked up 81. will get some shots of serial

 

[Jamiedyer]

To me, that looks at first glance like one of the Falcon produced Merckx. I thought they built several models, quality wise and this looks like one of the better ones.
Hard to tell from just one pic. A Kessels like a Meisse built Merckx will have some tell tale sign, some sort of embossed symbol, pantograph or bottom bracket mark.
Detailed shots of fork crown, dropouts etc and also see if the bottom bracket is English or Italian.
Agree with Shaun, it does look a bit too nice to be a Falcon so hopefully its a hidden gem.

Jamie

 

[joeditch]

So over lunch I've done some investigating, turn's out the BB shell is 34mm which i believe to be English, but looks like some has maybe tried to fit an Italian shell in the drive side at some point in its life. The question is does the English BB point it towards being a Kessels? Or could it infact be the more uncommon french bb?

 

[Jamiedyer]

From memory and experience of Merckx frames, if the BB is English then its a Falcon, the Merckx and Kessels will be Italian threads.

Jamie

 

[predki]

Re:

Some info on the topic
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/falcon.html
http://classiclightweights.net/belgium/eddy-merckx/

 

[joeditch]

awesome thanks for that now im wondering whether its been repainted at sometime in its life?