Last Friday I picked up a very special NOS Eddy Merckx frame from a bike shop in Belgium. The owner recently purchased all the remaining stock from the old Eddy Merckx factory and this frame was part of the batch. All the seller knew about it, was that is was some kind of prototype.
The fact that the frame was TIG-welded made me worry this might not be a real Merckx, since Merckx only did lugged steel frames, apart from the Arcobaleno model that was partly fillet brazed. Having sold dozens of Merckx frames in the past though, I could tell the paint job was authentic and not a respray. The weird geometry also reminded me of a frame that Merckx built for Paris-Roubaix. My imagination got the better of me and I ended up buying it.
Back home I weighed in the frame, since it felt really light for a steel frame. The scale indicated 1520g, which would have made it the lightest vintage steel frame I had ever come across. The tubing also puzzled me, seeing as the down tube tapers out in the direction of the bottom bracket and the top tube tapers out in the direction of the head tube. No steel tubing I had ever seen looked even remotely similar. The bulky dropouts and the seat stay bridge did ring a bell, I just wasn't sure where I had seen them before.
After having stared at the frame for a couple of days, I woke up on Monday to finally realise where I had seen the dropouts and the seat stay bridge before: on a Merckx Titane frame I sold a while back. From that moment on everything made sense. The welds, the absence of lugs and the low weight were all pointing in the direction of titanium!
A quick Google search revealed loads of similarities to the Merckx Titanium EX model. That is why I am guessing this is a prototype based on that model. The geometry suggests it was built for use on rough roads, e.g. spring classics.
I was thinking about maybe building this up for myself. I have no idea whether I will fit on this frame though, seeing as my expertise on geometry is pretty much non-existent. My instinct says no, giving the short head tube, but the top tube says yes. For your information, my length is 1,90m and my inseam is 90cm (if I recall correctly). Any thoughts on this matter?
The geometry specifics are:
Head tube: 11,9 cm
Top tube: 61 cm (C-C)
Seat tube: 54,5 cm (C-C), 55,5 cm (C-T)
Seat tube angle (approx): 63 degrees, measured between top tube and seat tube
Head tube angle (approx): 69 degrees, measured between top tube and head tube.
Chain stay length: 48 cm, measured from center of BB to the back of the dropout
The fact that the frame was TIG-welded made me worry this might not be a real Merckx, since Merckx only did lugged steel frames, apart from the Arcobaleno model that was partly fillet brazed. Having sold dozens of Merckx frames in the past though, I could tell the paint job was authentic and not a respray. The weird geometry also reminded me of a frame that Merckx built for Paris-Roubaix. My imagination got the better of me and I ended up buying it.
Back home I weighed in the frame, since it felt really light for a steel frame. The scale indicated 1520g, which would have made it the lightest vintage steel frame I had ever come across. The tubing also puzzled me, seeing as the down tube tapers out in the direction of the bottom bracket and the top tube tapers out in the direction of the head tube. No steel tubing I had ever seen looked even remotely similar. The bulky dropouts and the seat stay bridge did ring a bell, I just wasn't sure where I had seen them before.
After having stared at the frame for a couple of days, I woke up on Monday to finally realise where I had seen the dropouts and the seat stay bridge before: on a Merckx Titane frame I sold a while back. From that moment on everything made sense. The welds, the absence of lugs and the low weight were all pointing in the direction of titanium!
A quick Google search revealed loads of similarities to the Merckx Titanium EX model. That is why I am guessing this is a prototype based on that model. The geometry suggests it was built for use on rough roads, e.g. spring classics.
I was thinking about maybe building this up for myself. I have no idea whether I will fit on this frame though, seeing as my expertise on geometry is pretty much non-existent. My instinct says no, giving the short head tube, but the top tube says yes. For your information, my length is 1,90m and my inseam is 90cm (if I recall correctly). Any thoughts on this matter?
The geometry specifics are:
Head tube: 11,9 cm
Top tube: 61 cm (C-C)
Seat tube: 54,5 cm (C-C), 55,5 cm (C-T)
Seat tube angle (approx): 63 degrees, measured between top tube and seat tube
Head tube angle (approx): 69 degrees, measured between top tube and head tube.
Chain stay length: 48 cm, measured from center of BB to the back of the dropout
