So much has been written about the cannibal Eddy Merckx and that is normally because Eddy was the greatest, little chance that anyone will match his palmares ever.
Ook als producent van racefietsen heeft Eddy met zijn eigen merk Eddy Merckx , een succesrijke carrière opgebouwd al is dit niet zonder stoot of slag gegaan en sedert 2017 werd het merk overgenomen door Ridley Bikes.
Foundation of Eddy Merckx bicycles
After his successful career, Eddy Merckx fell into a black hole, as is more common with sports people when they stop and it was thanks to his friend, frame builder and entrepreneur Ugo De Rosa that Eddy scrambled out of the black hole.
Eddy had known Ugo De Rosa for many years through his collaboration with Molteni where he built the bicycles for the cannibal. In a factory in Meise, de woonplaats van Eddy, gaf Ugo zijn kennis door aan Eddy’s framebouwers en al vlug waren de eerste racefietsen van het merk Eddy Merckx klaar.
The sponsoring of a cycling team started immediately, with none other than Patrick Lefevere as sports director. The modest Marc (Zeepcentrale) Vrd team achieved both small and big successes, for example 2 stages in the Tour de France were won: the 16th stage by Jos De Schoenmaecker and the 18th stage by Ludo Loos.
The same year Eddy Merckx also sponsored the IWC-Imex team for which Patrick Sercu drove. However, little information can be found about this. Extra information is therefore welcome.
In 1982 the cycling team Capri Sonne with sports director Walter Godefroot and assistant sports director Patrick Lefevere, was sponsored and here too victories were booked, the most important were Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne by Gregor Braun and the 17th stage in the Tour de France by Peter Winnen.
Al vlug volgden andere wielerploegen zoals het Spaanse Kelme, Europe Decor – Boule d’Or, Panasonic, TV blad – Perlav, Hitachi, 7 eleven, Motorola, Domo – Farm Frites, Quick Step.
So many well-known riders who rode an Eddy Merckx bicycle: Eric Vanderaerden, Patrick Sercu, Eddy Planckaert, Claude Criquelion, Andy Hampsten, Lance Armstrong, Chris Boardman, Johan Museeuw, Richard Virenque, and so on.
You can find all cycling teams that Eddy Merckx ever sponsored on the following link> all teams that rode with Eddy Merckx bicycles
In 2008 verkocht Eddy Merckx het merendeel van zijn aandelen. In 2017 werd Eddy Merckx Cycles tenslotte overgenomen door Ridley Bikes waarbij de twee bedrijven werden samengevoegd tot één nieuwe groep, genaamd “Belgian Cycling Factory”. Meteen werd ook een nieuw logo gekozen.
Main steel vintage Eddy Merckx racing bikes
We are not talking about aluminum or titanium bicycles here and certainly not about carbon bicycles, but about the classic steel bikes. Below you will find the most important and most sought after Eddy Merckx bicycles for collectors. We will return to these models later in separate articles.
- Eddy Merckx Corsa Extra: this was the top model and was used by the professional riders
- Eddy Merckx Corsa
- Eddy Merckx Strada
- Eddy Merckx Criterium
- Eddy Merckx Century TSX
- Eddy Merckx Grand Prix
- Eddy Merckx Corsa Extra 10th anniversary
Cheap bikes with decals from Eddy Merckx
Many bicycles have also been made with decals from Eddy Merckx with a portrait of the champion. Most of those bikes were even in Molteni orange. These bikes were not made in the Eddy Merckx factory and came on the market when Eddy was still cycling.
Hij leende dus (niet gratis natuurlijk 😉 ) met andere woorden zijn naam aan enkele fietsproducenten: Dangre – Starnord uit Valenciennes, Falcon Cycles in Engeland en Kessels uit Oostende.
Only Kessels from Ostend made high-quality Merckx bicycles (more info about the collaboration between Eddy Merckx and Kessels). Both others sold Merckx bicycles from a lower to very low level, equipped with components from the cheaper class.
At that time there were even children's racing bikes with Eddy Merckx decals on the market.
Je kan duidelijk zien dat bovenstaande fiets een zeer ordinaire fiets is, toch laten kopers zich wel eens vangen en denken ook sommige verkopers dat ze een echte waardevolle Eddy Merckx fiets in handen hebben. Soms kom je zelfs een advertentie tegen waarin staat dat de kannibaal er zelf mee heeft gereden 😀
A very good website where you get an explanation on how to identify an Eddy Merckx frame and find out which model and from what year the bike is, is www.cadre.org/Merckx/. You will also find plenty of photos of Eddy Merckx bicycles.
New steel Eddy Merckx bicycles
For a few years now, new Eddy Merckx steel bicycles have been brought onto the market by Belgian Cycling Factory, these are bicycles made of high-quality steel that has much better properties than the previous types of steel.
For the cannibal's 70th birthday, a new steel model called the Eddy70 was launched. Only 70 copies were made and the bicycle refers to the year 1969 when Eddy rode for Faema. The bicycle therefore has a retro look in the typical white and red colors of Faema but with modern components.
Hieronder het promo filmpje wanneer de fiets uitkwam. Een exemplaar kost wel €14.000
In 2019 reed Oliver Naesen op een stalen Eddy Merckx Corsa Road Rim, de laatste etappe van de Tour de France met aankomst op de Champs-Elysées.
