Gregory Taylor
02-22-2005, 04:22 AM
This bike epitomizes why I absolutely LOVE trash day.
Behold my winter project: a '70's vintage Eddy Merckx that I retrieved from a dumpster. Yes, that's right: some Luddite binned a vintage Merckx. Sure, it was a little worse for wear when I pinched it from the trash pile (see the "before" photo), but it IS a Merckx, but any bike with Eddy's name on it deserves a better fate than to rust away in the dump.
The bike itself is a Falcon-built Merckx from the 1970's. The frameset is a workman-like lugged steel creation that had spent a few years out in the elements by the time that I retrieved it. The frame and fork came through fine, thanks to the stout construction. The top tube also provided a fine home to a colony of spiders that I discovered when I started disassembling my find.
Keeping with the trash-day theme, I built the bike back up using as many "recycled" parts as I could from my personal stash. Like I said, I love trash day, and nothing makes me smile more than finding a cool old bike in the garbage. Some get taken home and fixed up, and some are stripped of their parts for other projects. For the Merckx, I decided to break out one of my better finds: a set of Campagnolo Valentino shifters and derailleurs that came off of an old Atala. These cleaned up very nicely, and still work a treat. I did splurge and buy some fresh Campagnolo cable clamps to go on the top tube. Oh, vanity....
The hubs are very old hi-flange Shimano units (forgive me, Tullio) that I polished and laced to Mavic MA3 rims. The crank is a strange Sakae unit that has turbo-twist design that came off of an old Nishiki. Out back is a 14 - 34 five speed "Pyrenean Mountain Monkey" cassette that is, frankly, a little embarassing. No one should be seen in public with a low gear that big. No one. Let's just say it was the only 5 speed cassette that I had in the shop, but the rear derailleur handles it just fine.
I managed to save most of the Merckx decals which are, frankly, the coolest part of the whole bike. I shot the paint myself, Molteni orange, which turned out nicely.
And the best part of all is...this bike is for my son. The frame is sized 48 cm center to center, so it fits a tall 11-year old very nicely. Me and junior have some big plans this spring, so I fully expect mini-Merckx to have a very busy second lifetime.
Behold my winter project: a '70's vintage Eddy Merckx that I retrieved from a dumpster. Yes, that's right: some Luddite binned a vintage Merckx. Sure, it was a little worse for wear when I pinched it from the trash pile (see the "before" photo), but it IS a Merckx, but any bike with Eddy's name on it deserves a better fate than to rust away in the dump.
The bike itself is a Falcon-built Merckx from the 1970's. The frameset is a workman-like lugged steel creation that had spent a few years out in the elements by the time that I retrieved it. The frame and fork came through fine, thanks to the stout construction. The top tube also provided a fine home to a colony of spiders that I discovered when I started disassembling my find.
Keeping with the trash-day theme, I built the bike back up using as many "recycled" parts as I could from my personal stash. Like I said, I love trash day, and nothing makes me smile more than finding a cool old bike in the garbage. Some get taken home and fixed up, and some are stripped of their parts for other projects. For the Merckx, I decided to break out one of my better finds: a set of Campagnolo Valentino shifters and derailleurs that came off of an old Atala. These cleaned up very nicely, and still work a treat. I did splurge and buy some fresh Campagnolo cable clamps to go on the top tube. Oh, vanity....
The hubs are very old hi-flange Shimano units (forgive me, Tullio) that I polished and laced to Mavic MA3 rims. The crank is a strange Sakae unit that has turbo-twist design that came off of an old Nishiki. Out back is a 14 - 34 five speed "Pyrenean Mountain Monkey" cassette that is, frankly, a little embarassing. No one should be seen in public with a low gear that big. No one. Let's just say it was the only 5 speed cassette that I had in the shop, but the rear derailleur handles it just fine.
I managed to save most of the Merckx decals which are, frankly, the coolest part of the whole bike. I shot the paint myself, Molteni orange, which turned out nicely.
And the best part of all is...this bike is for my son. The frame is sized 48 cm center to center, so it fits a tall 11-year old very nicely. Me and junior have some big plans this spring, so I fully expect mini-Merckx to have a very busy second lifetime.