Mark, the engraving on the seatstay cap is 'EM'. fork crown says 'Eddy' on one side and 'Merkcx' on the other. Sorry for the so-so quality pics, not mine. I'd say 81 or 82 would be right, like you, but for me that's not actual knowledge, but intuition!
thanks,
Freek
2007/4/18, mark@sisuhome.com <mark@sisuhome.com>:
>
> Hi Freek.
>
> What is engraved on the seatstay caps? Is it "EM" or the Eddy Merckx
> signature or are they blank? I think the very early ones had the signature
> (80?) or nothing at all. Then in 81? it got changed
> to the roundey EM logo - roughly. Also the Eddy Merckx italic logo on the
> fork points to an earlier date as well. I'd say it's an 80/81.
>
> If it is a repaint they did a good job in color matching. It looks very
> similar in color to my Merckx Pista:
>
> http://sports.webshots.com/
>
> Good luck.
> Mark
> San francisco, CA
>
>
>
>
>
> On Wed Apr 18 14:43 , 'Freek Faro' <khun.freek@gmail.com> sent:
>
> >Good day all!
> >
> >My neighbor from the other side of our street, is bitten by the bug, and
> has
> >bought a classic Eddy Merckx bike. Now that both of us have been looking
> at
> >it longer and more close, questions arise.
> >
> > 1. It is most probably a respray, with the right decals at the wrong
> > places, and some wrong decals.
> > 2. It is a Merckx frame, it has all the right engravings.
> > 3. Rear derailleur is patent 84, but this frame looks older, cause of
> > the cable guides on top of the bb shell. OTOH, it has a braze-on fd.
> > 4. It looks a very well made frame, nice details like the short lugs,
> > it also has a nice compact but elegant look to it.
> >
> >So my question, what model frame is this, and what vintage can it be? And
> >any other observations of course, to give an idea of what we have here.
> >
> >Any thoughts are appreciated! Here is the link to the pics:
> >http://www.wooljersey.com/gallery/Freeks-racefietsen/merckx+corsa/
> >
> >greetings,
> >
> >Freek Faro
> >Rotterdam Netherlands