[CR]The Holy Grail - Eddy's Colnago

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From: "Feeken, Dirk" <dirk.feeken@sap.com>
To: "'Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org'" <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 11:43:50 +0200
Subject: [CR]The Holy Grail - Eddy's Colnago

Last week I managed to visit a very old bicycle shop whose owner has an interesting collection of old bikes according to rumors I've heard years ago. Unfortunately the old gentleman, probably in his 80s, told me that he has moved all the bikes to his home and almost nothing is left in the shop. But an orange bike hanging at the wall in a dark corner caught my attention. A Colnago Super with Nouvo Record components and Molteni colors in pretty good shape. And yes - it is the original Colnago ridden by Eddy Merckx. He got the bike from Eddy himself in the early 70s. Besides the very clean lugwork the most unusual feature is the mount of the front brake. The slotted washer which holds the brake spring is brazed directly to the fork crown and the whole brake is fixed without a visible nut. I assume the brake axle was shortened and fixed inside the fork crown to save a few grams. I tried to take some photos but the bike was fixed to the wall: http://home.t-online.de/home/dirk.feeken/colnago/colnago.html

In the shop I also found Kübler's original Tebag from the fifties, a completely gold plated (unlabeled) french beauty (Mafac, Simplex SLJ, Campagnolo mix), obviously made by one of the great constructeurs, and three NOS unridden gems: 80s Koga Myata Full Pro with Dura Ace AX, a top of the line 1980 SR equipped celeste Bianchi and a very early Colnago with NR components. Yes all three completely NOS unridden and with the original price tags hanging at the bars (but not for sale)

Dirk

BTW: Sorry that I don't name the shop or owner, but his bikes are not for sale and he made clear that he don't want to be bothered by calls of collectors. Ernest Colnago tries to get the Merckx Colnago from him for years.

--
Dirk Feeken
Heidelberg
Germany