Yes, Shifter Bikes is the mecca of Merckx MAX’dom. You can’t find any other shop around with such a plethora of ‘perty road bikes. A while back, I featured an article in Ride on Phil Anderson’s Motorola Eddy Merckx MAX team bike. Andy and Dan built the bike as close to specs from the era and now it’s hanging up in Shifter Bikes for all to see and drool over. Not that it needed any more documentation, but I decided to take a few photos of it anyway!

Like a skeleton hanging in a museum, this Merckx is a thing of beauty! Check out more Merckx Mondays below!

The MAX Merckx bikes had the top tube with the vertical, flat, aero section at the head tube and the flat, horizontal section at the seat tube. This made for a sometimes awkward seat tube cluster (something the MX-Leader bikes corrected by flipping the top tube so the flat section was at the head tube. Some love it, some hate it and I’m still figuring out what I love about it!

The Columbus and Merckx decals were made by Cyclemondo, the best in repro decals!

As much as Dan and Andy are Campy fans, most pros ran STi in the 90’s.

Here’s the full bike, elegantly hanging on the wall.

With the Motorola team cards framed in the background and the Ride article framed below it.

I am still in love with the Motorola team bikes and this beauty is in immaculate condition. Do yourselves a favor and the next time you’re in Melbourne, swing through Shifter Bikes and see this museum-grade masterpiece for yourself!

While we’re on the subject of MAX, MX-L and Fyxomatosis, here’s Andy’s MX-Leader with modern Campy 10 that he leant me on our road ride. It fit just like my MX-Leader and the modern Campy rode like a beast! It’s awesome having friends in high places.

More on Shifter Bikes and my road adventure with Andy later…