Today’s Merckx Mondays was in the works last week when I met up with Mat to shoot his Serotta at Continuum Cycles. Jeff, the owner of the shop, always comes up on these amazing deals. Someone was getting rid of their old race bike from the 90’s. He was the original owner and used to race it at the CRCA-sanctioned events in Central Park. Turns out, it had been in his apartment for over 10 years and he needed some cash, so he took it to Jeff and he bought it.

If you have a keen eye for detail, you’ll notice that there are no Eddy Merckx castings on the seatstay caps. What’s that all about? Check out more photos and an explanation of this beauty below!

Wait? MXL? I thought only MAX had seatstay caps sans logos?

It’s definitely a MX-Leader though.

In my favorite team colors, Telekom! If you recall, Telekom took the place of Stuttgart, the colors of my team Stuttgart pista.

The head-tube lugs, BB shell, fork crown and other signs indicate that it is indeed a MX-Leader, using the MXL lugs and tubeset.

All of these details (and the serial numbers) point to one thing: this is an early MXL. Most likely the year post-MAX. Many racers who rode the MAX Corsa Extras had issues with the fork crowns snapping. Merckx awknowledged this and made improvements to the bike’s design. Shortly after this model came out, they began to cast the EM logo in the seatstays.

The MX-Leaders are amazing bikes and this is one gorgeous example of the early 90’s race machines. C-Record headset and Dura Ace 7403, such a winning combination!

If you’re in the city, swing through Continuum Cycles and check this beauty out. It’s up in the front window. I’m not sure how much longer it’ll be there because the last I heard, someone’s trading another beautiful bike for it!