Tag Archives: Eddie Merckx

Eddy Merckx 7-11 Corsa Restoration

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photo by Alan R. Tansey - alan.r.tansey@gmail.com

After several months, I have finally finished my restoration of the Eddy Merckx Corsa in Team 7-11 colors that I first acquired last year.  I started by stripping off the worn and non-period-correct Ultegra group that was on it, and sent the frame to Allan Wanta for a complete re-paint.

Allan is the real hero of this project.  His work is impeccable – from the paint to the decals, he did a truly perfect job on the bike.  It took about seven weeks from when I shipped the frame to him to when I got it back.  He was great about communication, updating me on the progress of the restoration and even sending me pictures.  The price for this work was very affordable as well – about 50% less than all the other quotes I got!  He gets my top recommendation and I will certainly send more work his way in the future.  Check out the pictures after the jump to see lots of up-close, hi-res shots.

To properly complete this restoration, I slowly collected up a complete Dura-Ace 7400 group on eBay.  Most of the group was New Old Stock, with little to no marks on it at all.  Being a fan of brifters over downtube-mounted shifters, I did drift just a little out of period by including the Dura Ace STI shifters from 1990.  The photos I’ve seen of the 7-11 team’s bikes don’t include these shifters but I’ve seen a number of other 7-11 Merckx’s using them, and more importantly I’m gonna ride this baby a lot so I wanted to go with what I like.  And it doesn’t disappoint – it’s fast and aggressive ride, with the trademark stiffness of Columbus TSX steel.  I feel like this restoration has really brought out the racing spirit of this bike.

The rest of the parts used were:

  • Modolo EVEN ergo bars
  • Selle Italia Flite saddle
  • Time ATAC pedals (Eddy Merckx Podio pedals and shoes coming soon)
  • Cinelli stem with Eddy Merckx pantograph
  • NOS Casiraghi brake cable
  • Matric ISO rims
  • Fizik Microtex bar tape

Alan Tansey was kind enough to volunteer his awesome photo skills to take a great set of pictures of this beast.  Check out the full photo gallery and specs after the jump…

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CyclingWMD shot my Merckx!

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Click image to see full-size

Alan from the CyclingWMD blog took this gorgeous photo of my vintage Eddie Merckx 7-11 Corsa at yesterday’s annual NYC Bike Jumble.  I was helping out at the Times Up! table, fixing bikes for free and soaking up the beautiful sunshine, cycles, and ladies.  Visit the CyclingWMD blog to see more photos from the bike jumble, especially the awesome pile of NJS track bikes on display.

Also, here’s a bit of cool history I saw on the fixed.gr/NYC bike photo thread today: a period photo of the 7-11 Team’s stable of Merckx Corsa and Supercorsas.  The difference is that the Corsa has the rear brake cable running on top of the tob tube while the Supercorsa’s is internally-routed.

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Eddie Merckx 7-11 Corsa – New Photos!

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I originally featured this bike back in January when I first acquired it, but since then I have done a number of upgrades to improve the fit and handling.  I switched the Selle Italia Flite saddle for an upgraded Gel Flow version with titanium rails, swapped the bar/stem combo for an original Eddie Merckx pantographed Cinelli stem and a set of Ritchie Pro Biomax bars wrapped in Cinelli cork tape, added a set of Origin-8 white pedals with white Soma Oppy-X four-gate toe clips and a set of red nylon double straps from King Kog.  Finally, a pair of new red water bottles to keep me hydrated on long rides.

This morning, after being first rained on, then snowed on during my commute into work, the sun broke through the clouds and I took these fantastic pics of the bike.  Enjoy!

Check out all the pictures after the jump.  Click the pictures to see the full-size version.

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Eddie Merckx Corsa – original team 7-11 colors

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merckx_sidefull

Here’s my latest two-wheeled acquisition, an Eddie Merckx Corsa, in the colors of the famous 7-11 cycling team.  It is an “original model” made of Columbus TSX tubing and features the distinctive flat-topped fork bridge, instead of the sloped fork found on the 2007 re-issue of the bike.  It is not the “Extra” model which had a chrome fork and internal routing for the brake cable, however.  It has a Shimano Ultegra group on it currently, although that is most likely not the original group, based on details in the 1990 Eddie Merckx catalog.

The previous owner has already set up a Velospace page for this bike, as well as a Flickr stream.  Check out Diablo Scott’s blog for a timeline of bikes used by the 7-11 team, including some cool scans of 1989-90 era magazine articles and ads for this bike.