aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

TSX Motorola Eddy Merckx



A boy hood dream is almost a reality!



I remember back in maybe 1991 I had a dirty old steel bike that I wanted to get painted up like the above mentioned Merckx. Dad and I took it to the local panel beaters and with my copy of Winning magazine under my arm I showed the guy the photos and asked "can you paint it like this please?" "sure kid no problem".....3 wks later I was jumping out of my skin when he rang and said it was ready, what a F#@KN mess they had made of it!

So.....how some 18yrs later I finally get my Motorola Eddy Merckx team issue bike, and whats more its the real deal made of steel, Columbus TSX to be exact!



Who can forget Lance winning the Worlds @ 21 yrs old in Oslo on a Motorola team bike (yes i know it was a Litespeed painted in Merckx colours) or Andy Hampsten racing in the Tour and winning a stage in 94.





These frames are probably the last of the "Classic" Merckx paint jobs and also the last of the "Classic" merckx frames ridden by the pro's, I think it was the mid 90's they all started riding Ti this carbon that..... ya just cant beat steel though can ya!



This frame comes complete with a braze on number hanger (sign of a real team issue frame) I will have to do some research and get a proper race number of either Lance or Andy's Tour bikes made up and attached to make it look the part, no messy cable ties on this beauty.



I will be building this frame up as close to Team spec as possible, I already have the engraved Cinelli stem and the Dura Ace 7410 groupset, and avocet saddle ready and waiting, I will "borrow" my best mates old DA seat post for a few, well...decades i guess (cheers Harty), only thing I will need to make her a full team spec bike is some Wolber Rims, which chance may have it I found today in a local 2nd bike shop in town, 32 hole profile 18's, beautiful and new looking laced up with Shimano 600 hubs, I will of course have the rims re laced with DA hubs in keeping with the groupset.



So hopefully within the next 2-3mths I will have my 2nd Merckx complete and ready to roll for the summer mths, this Eddy will definitely see a few laps of the beloved Short Bays ride come summer time! A friend of mine has a Merckx MXL in team telekom colours Shamals and full Campagnolo so we will have to search for full team kit and have a battle royal in the mountains! Bring it!

So 2 Eddy's down, 2 to go, the Holy Grail's of Eddy Merckx frames, Team 7eleven & the 10th anniversary frame set, anyone out there that has either in 55-56 ctc please let me know.



till next time....Ride Safe, G

Eddy - SOLD!!!

Hi all, this Columbus SL Hitachi Merckx (57 ctc) is up for sale as either a frame set or complete bike. The complete bike will be finished in Shimano Dura Ace Sti 8 speed (condition on grouppo is not that flash)....for the purest out there, yes I know this bike was equipped with a Mavic groupset but try finding one of those these days!



The frame is in average condition but rides like a dream, SL tubing is/was one of Colubus's best offerings, smooth and not as heavy as SLX still a bloody nice ride after 22yrs!!!
Get this baby resprayed and you have yourself a mint ride just waiting for a nice new retro grouppo.



Contact me by leaving a comment below and leave your email address and I will be in touch. Frame & forks NZ$500 complete bike as mentioned above NZ$1000 shipping costs for international is very expensive from NZ please take that into consideration.

Ride safe G

"Just another day" # 3

Who shot the sheriff!

Dont know a great deal about these beauty's, dont really need to!

They are, in my opinion, the hottest hubs ever made, period!

Track or Road the are the smartest and meanest looking hubs around! Some might say they are not that great due to their weight or the fact they seemed to crack from time to time but come on when it comes to retro porn its hard to top these bad boys!



I have a rear track verison in my collection and I'm also trying very desperately to talk a friend into selling me a set of track wheels she uses for training that has a set of these hubs in them.



The road verison of the "Sheriff's" are even harder to find, esp as a set like the ones pictured (not from my collection sad to say). But I do have a front road Sheriff and thanks to this here little blog of BS I have made contact with one very very generous fellow in the UK who is selling me a rear Sheriff to complete the set :) .....so now I can build up a set of wheels with Campagnolo C-Record Sheriff Star Road Hubs to complete my Colnago Master with full C-Record group set including the belovered DELTA's.....aaaaahhhhhh lovely!!

SOLD!

For Sale Rossin SLX Frame and forks 53cm ctc

any offers welcome.....

Kaikoura Road Trip

A few mths back I had just had a guts full of Chch and work so decided "fuk it max" threw the bike in the car and hit the road!

Kaikoura look out is a pretty cool place to chill out and collect ones thoughts.




Drove around the bay from the township to find a pretty cool pub and shoreline.....




......and a fire place???



Was a pretty interesting trip, great waste of time and gas, amazing ride in beautiful NZ!

Ride Safe...G

"Just another day" # 2

Perfect Vision

"Just another day".....a view from above.

Burn Baby Burn

Photos say it all!

Retro yes....ride NO!

Ok.....so here is my other retro collection, some of you might think its cheaper to collect than bikes but I can assure you its probably twice as expensive!

Still its all in the chase as they say, nothing like surfing the junk shops, trademe, ebay and the weekend markets and finding that one off piece you been looking for for ages.

Below are some pic's of approx 1/2 the collection that started only a yr ago, not here to muck around and do things by halfs!!!



It all started with a simple question..."Mum what do ya reckon I should get Grant for Xmas?"...."oh a Crown Lynn Swan"..."WTF are they?"....I now have 3 myself and a raft of other Crown Lynn treats including the age old NZ Railways cups. Rumour has it the kids use to have competitions to see how many times they would bounce before breaking, they are that strong! Half the time the handles would break but the cups were sweet, that is until they got thrown out the train window after losing the bet...hahaha, so im told, far to young to know if this is true or not!

Other treasures are the Air NZ Koru in flight dinner ware from the 60's, just need a few more bits and will have the full set of that range.

The whole collection is currently in storage as I have a 20mth old house guest at the moment who well, sorry Neila you just cant be trusted, cute as you are you break shit!



cheers G

Giant Killer

Ok so she's hardly retro but hey what ya gonna do when ya get the chance to ride something new and cool and it doesn't cost ya fuk all???

This bike would have to be the 2nd best bike I have ever ridden, Colnago Master(previous posting), is still the one and only! Having said that I still haven't, and more than likely never will, ridden my SL Eddy Merckx NOS!

From the first ride this Giant (TCR 1 - 2nd top frame in 09 series)just wanted to GO GO GO!!! pedals down power straight ahead with not an once of flex, incredible how responsive this bike is and STRONG yet so so light!


I love the shape and design of this frame. The MASSIVE carbon tubes are so angry looking and it screams "let me race"! The head tube and top tube are so over sized its ridiculous, but shit they look cool, and again stiffer than a school boy with a stick mag!



The huge over sized bottom bracket with the pressed bearings is unreal, the boys @ Giant have spared no horses on this one, its just power down and hold on tight as the bike ALMOSTS rides itself! Climbing, sprinting, cornering this bike does it all with ease and just begs you to give it more power!

Having said all of that, its amazing how comfortable it is on long easy rides as well, normally you'd expect something so responsive and race ready to be a bit harsh on the longer rides, not so, this bike really does it all.


Bang for buck ya just cant go past this bike for a race/training bike! Sure there's some nicer smoother bikes out there, if you are prepared to pay $15k plus, but for $5-7K (depending on the groupset) you just cant go past one of these bad boys!

Like I said, she's not retro but my word it rides so good I cant see me riding anything else for sometime yet, good enough to keep as a future retro ride!

cheers......ride safe, G