its ALIVE!!!

This Frame was meant for other things but on arrival I discovered that she was in much MUCH better condition than first thought! NO way could I strip her back and redress her just for the sake of it, this is one beautiful original ol school Merckx!

I had just the answer for my latest addition to the stable, Shimano Dura Ace grouppo 7402 8spd with down tube shifters, that's wright campers...DOWN TUBE SHIFTERS! ah bless!!!



With a full Dura-Ace group including seat post I was (still am) at a bit of a loss to solve the problem of bars and stem for this ride. In the end I had to just throw on the only combo I had lying around which really doesn't do this bike any justice at all but will have to do for now.

Besides there are many beautiful aspects to this bike to distract one from pointing out the bars and stem! Take the number hanger for example, how many of these do you ever see these days? Who cares if they make the frame weigh 200grams more, number hangers on steel frames are functional pieces of artwork in my book!!!



I have always found it interesting yet disturbing that SLX frames just aren't as nice to ride and are heavier than their SL brothers, the last Merckx I actually rode was a SL and it was stunning to ride! This SLX is very Very niiiice don't get me wrong but just doesn't have the same rolling smoothness of an SL.

That said its one HOT bike, ridden today for the 1st time and on a sunny CHCH morning almost every cyclist I saw turned there heads to see what I was riding. I imagine some of the younger riders have never seen a bike without STI or Ergo power shifters before!




Ya just gotta love the lines of a classic geometry steel frame, the engraved lugs and brake bridges to the fork crown, simply magic!

To be fair I'm running out of things to say about this bike, its simply a joy to ride and I love it! the pictures say it all so here are a few more....






Just want to say a MASSIVE thank you to Jason Rico and Ski for getting this bike to me from the US, wouldn't have been possible without you guys helping out so big BIG UPS to you both, Cheers G

Ride safe....G