Posts tagged Merckx

If you haven't seen it--and if you have a bit of downtime this holiday season--be sure to check out the Jørgen Leth film “Stars and Watercarriers," which documents the 1973 Giro d’Italia. See the legends of that era in action: Gimondi, Merckx, Moser, Fuente, De Vlaeminck, and Battaglin. A lot has changed in 50 years! Read a detailed review on PEZ Cycling and you can watch the full movie on Youtube.

I recently built this Weinmann Merckx up with 9 speed Dura Ace to sit on the trainer and am loving it. Yes newer bikes are lighter, have better brakes and more gears. But you don't need any of that for Zwift!

Other advantages: Your main bike is always ready to go. You don’t have to worry about straining that fancy ultra-lightweight carbon frame. And you can pretend you are Sean Kelly or Andy Hampsten or (insert your favorite 80s/90s pro here).

For anyone curious, here is the full build:

Weinmann Merckx 57cm Columbus SLX Corsa frameset
Chris King headset (just because)
Cinelli 1A stem
Soma Highway One bar (works a bit better with STI levers than an old school Cinilli bar IMO)
Thomson post (I’ve moved a bit forward in my old age)
WTB Volt saddle
Ritchey cranks (slightly lower q-factor than the Dura Ace)
Dura Ace 7700 shifters, ders, brakes

Stay tuned for a review of my new Zwift Hub trainer!

Let us know in the comments below: what is your trainer setup?

It’s no secret I’m a huge Eddy Merckx fan. It all started for me in the 80s at age 16 when I sold Merckx bikes at Palo Alto Bicycles. I loved that Eddy sponsored the 7-Eleven team and later the Motorola team. Today I have six Merckx bikes. Of course I love the early Molteni and Faema colorways, but my true love is the early 90s stuff, in particular the Motorola, Weinnman and Kelme schemes. You can see all three here in my office (I just put the Weinmann on my new Zwift trainer).



In recent years I’ve seen a few homages to Merckx colorways. The first I noticed was the Black Mountain Molteni road frame in 2017. (Pictured below, was for sale briefly on our site.)



Then a year later All City came out with their Mr. Pink based on the early Kelme bikes.



And then this month I noticed two more!

State Bicycle Co just came out with this limited edition collab with HAM Cycles, which looks absolutely incredible, down to the white Turbo saddle.



Then Breadwinner knocked it out of the park with their 10th Anniversary bike.



Who did I miss? And what is your favorite Merckx colorway?