CyclingWMD shot my Merckx!

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.

7-11-3

Red vintage singlespeed build

Here’s a new single-speed build I completed recently.  I started with an old lugged steel 58cm road frame that I stripped, primered, and   re-painted.  I also removed the braze-on wire guides for a cleaner look.  I added a 1960’s-era Ashtabula chrome track fork and a new Tange headset, which gives this build a unique and distinctive look.  The bottom bracket was replaced with a 103mm Shimano cartridge and Bulletproof cranks.

The stem is a 120mm Specialized quill with silver chopped risers and black rubber grips, a chrome BMX brake lever and new Tektro front caliper brake.  A pair of 700c wheels and a black saddle finished off the build nicely.  The gearing is 42×16 which is my preferred “cruising” setup for commuting around NYC.  The whole build took me about 8-10 hours of work; I’m pretty experienced at this point so the only tricky part was making the fork work.  I had to cut the steerer tube down, re-chase the threads, and neck down the quill slightly as the steerer tube was a non-standard diameter, slightly narrower than the usual 22.2cm.

I sold it this evening for $250, so I’m glad I got pictures this morning.  Check out more pictures after the jump…

Continue reading