The Radavist

Eddy Merckx, like most great athletes, finds his way into pop culture quite frequently. I’m not talking solely about bicycle companies using the Cannibal to promote a product. Or a grassroots cycling wear company using his slightly-altered image to sell their shirts. Imagine my dismay when a reader forwarded me a link to a recent episode of Adult Swim‘s Assy McGee.

In this episode, Assy McGee visits Mike, a bike store owner he previously sent to prison. When Mike doesn’t give Assy the information he’s looking for, bad things happen to Mike’s 1972 Merckx. Check out the episode below.

Mont Verdoux 13 July 1972 via the Guardian

This week for Merckx Mondays, I’ll be looking at the 1971 Tour de France.

Eddy Merckx had many rivalries during his racing career. One of the most memorable battles took place during the 1971 Tour de France. It pitted the Cannibal (in a newly sponsored Molteni kit) against Luis Ocaña (pictured on the left of Merckx in the photo above). Merckx knew that Ocaña was a worthy opponent. It wasn’t long into the 1971 Tour that the Spaniard had taken a 7-minute lead over Merckx on the Orcieres-Merlette. The world thought it was over for Merckx. Luckily for Eddy, he regained the yellow jersey in the Pyrenees when Luis Ocaña crashed into two spectators and was forced to pull out of the race. Merckx went on to win the Tour that year and again in 1972, when the above photo was taken. Ocaña finally grasped a victory in 1973 which, coincidentally, was the year that Merckx decided to not race.

To many cycling fans, the 1971 Tour de France was a memorable one. Below is a three-part documentary on this year entitled Tour de France 1971 – Luis Ocaña vs. Eddy Merckx. All three videos are embedded below. They’re an interesting watch, so set some time aside to check them out.

Photo by Andy White

Today’s Merckx Mondays comes from the land down under. Andy at Fyxomatosis always has the sickest projects in the works. Most of which include vintage Eddy Merckx bicycles. A recent project for a friend of his merited something classic to be converted to a fixed gear. What better bike to convert than a Merckx Professional (personally, I’d rather see it with a Super Record Strada group, but that’s me).

Check out some more shots, including some polished porn below.

Photo by Orange 20

What a random Merckx Mondays we’ve got today. As you may have heard, I’m working on a collaboration with Eddy Merckx on a 700cmx bike. Kyle at Trackosaurus Rex got the exclusive first look this weekend at the NAHBS.

Check out some more photos of the project below along with an update to my 7-Eleven‘s history!

It’s funny how the Internet works. Last week a reader forwarded me this Eddy Merckx board game that was for sale on Etsy. I saved the images and planned on scheduling it for this week’s Merckx Mondays. Then, this morning, Aaron at Hipster Nascar posted it and cracked a joke about me trademarking Merckx Mondays. You’re laughing dude, but my lawyers are sending you a cease and desist notice right now. Sorry man, I hope you understand. ;-)

Even though Aaron let the cat out of the bag, that’s not stopping me from posting it up! Check out some more photos of the French and Flemish board game below.

This week for Merckx Mondays I’ve organized a series of photo collages from images I’ve saved over the past few months. They’re from various stages in the Cannibal’s career. Included in the mix are a few other gems, so check out the rest below!

Above is one of my spare parts bins. I’ve gotta organize this clutter better, but it gives you an idea of how I keep random parts. I think I’ve got 10 or so drawers filled like this. Been too busy to sit down and sort through it all. The red-wedged Cinelli XA stem is going on the 7-Eleven and the other XA will go on the MX-Leader.

I’m not usually one to drool over aluminum track frames, much less the modern Eddy Merckx pistas, but this one is really sharp. Chari & Co, the conveyors of endless bike porn, just got it in stock. Looks like a small frame, maybe a 52cm? Definitely compact geometry. No details yet, but it’ll be on their New Arrival section of the site soon enough. Would look great with a matching Faema cap!

Ever since I was cleaning my Corsa Extra and found not one, but two cracks in the head-tube lugs, I’ve been on the hunt for a new frame. Initially, my plan was to just find a frameset and swap all the parts over. A few weeks ago, I bought a Molteni Corsa Extra off eBay. I unpacked the box to find a rather large bulge in the underside of the top tube. A quick straight edge test proved that the bike had been wrecked. Bummed out, I shipped it back to the seller. At this point, I hadn’t ridden my Corsa Extra because of the cracks and was still looking.

Then, last week I found something online.

Photo by Sasha E

This Merckx Mondays post has been growing peace-meal over the past few weeks. I really wanted to try to compile a good amount of information on Eddy Merckx’s MXL tubeset that he developed with Columbus. Merckx wanted to design a bike for his professional racers; made out of a tubeset that was stronger and suited for the workhorses of stage races. It had to be stiffer than anything else in Columbus’ arsenal. After working with Columbus and consulting his racers, they created Columbus MAX and later, MXL. Using Nivacrom chromoly, Columbus began to develop a new and unprecedented over-sized steel tubeset for Merckx.

Read up on how MAX evolved to MXL and see some gorgeous photos below.

Photo by SashaE

I’ve been working on a post for a few weeks and was all ready to publish it when I realized the photos are all sitting on my flash drive back at the office. My backup plan was to have my new frame in a post, but FedEx screwed that up. Sigh. We’ll have to wait until next week for the MAX/MXL post. Until then, enjoy this Eddy Merckx Jersey that Sasha recently purchased.

Bud Light. Seriously? Amazing. Bud Light sponsored races back in the early 90’s and Eddy Merckx sponsored a team. What a find. Now if it were a Budweiser Eddy Merckx jersey, I’d have to “borrow” it from Sasha. Anyway, to satisfy the vintage Eddy Merckx cravings, there’s a Mavic-equipped Professional below.

So I know it’s really late and like I said before, due to unforeseen circumstances, my posting queue got a bit delayed this morning. That being said, I have a post in the works that’s 75% there and was nervous about finishing it in time for today. Just as I was about to freak, I checked my Twitter account to find Mark, from iMiNUSD‘s Eddy Merckx AX build sitting there waiting for me.

Another video this week. In what seems to be a continuous saga about the Eddy Merckx hour-record bike, a reader uploaded this video of Eddy giving a tour of his factory. A lot of interesting tidbits in this 8-minute long video and even though there’s no date listed, there are a few clues giving us an idea about the date of the video. The major clue is Johan Museeuw’s victory of the Paris Roubaix on an Eddy Merckx bike in 2002 (if I’m not mistaken). The highpoint in the video is finally, a glimpse of Eddy with the 1972 Hour Record bike. I was surprised to see this and it’s an addition to the previous Merckx Mondays Hour Record saga. Read more below.

Last week I received an email from none other than John Cardiel. Attached was a link to the ripped movie file of La Course en Tête, or Head Of the Field. The documentary is sub-titled and contains an hour and forty minutes of footage from Eddy Merckx’s professional career. One section in particular caught my attention; footage from the Cannibal’s hour record in Mexico City on October 25th, 1972. Perfect for a Merckx Mondays!

I’ve ripped the five minutes of footage from this section and as a continuation to the Merckx Mondays entry on Eddy’s hour record bike, I’ve posted it below. Enjoy.

I was planning on making another lengthy Merckx Mondays post today, but got caught up in the previous post, so It’ll have to wait until next week. As a point of departure from my normal vintage language, today I’m posting a special 2006 Carbon Fiber AXM road bike. This roadie comes from Yippin Yahoo on Velospace with a nice little back-story attached to it.

Doing the weekly Merckx Mondays post has been a lot of fun. People from all-over have emailed me with Eddy Merckx bikes they’ve found online, or even bikes from their own stables. This one in particular has been sent my way on multiple occasions. It’s my old Eddy Merckx Chromor pista from the early 90’s. I took these pictures a little over a year ago so I apologize if you’ve already seen them. Since this bike gets emailed to me so often, I figured it’s time to post it up. Even though it’s made from a lower-end Columbus tubeset, the ride was surprisingly nice.

droooooool

Part of owning a pursuit or a low-pro track bike is the question you have to ask yourself; “Should I put riser bars on it and make it more comfortable for street riding?”. As I’ve said before, I have 0 issues with people doing this and when you come across a wicked pursuit frame, much less a Merckx pursuit, you better ride that thing!

Here we go, another Merckx Mondays!

Last week’s Merckx Mondays documented the question “who has Eddy Merckx’s hour record bike?“. This week I’m taking a less controversial approach and showcasing my 1996 Dura Ace-equipped MX-Leader Eddy Merckx road bike.

At first when Jeremy and I were discussing the history and controversy over Eddy Merckx’s hour record bike I wanted to make a post that took a stab at laying out the facts. Then I realized how massive a feat this would be. There were guys who spent their entire adulthood painstakingly researching the subject and studying every subtle nuance in historical records. Was I even close to achieving a level of documentation worthy of even citing their work? Sure. Why not. So here we go, a very special Merckx Mondays.