I have noticed during Eddy's Faema years, the head tube does seem slightly shorter than on his Molteni, or even later Fiat and C&A bikes. This could be as a result of a larger frame, or maybe a higher bracket height on his later frames........I believe he used 177.7 cranks......but maybe not in 68/69?
I believe it was me who first questioned the authenticity of the restored bike as in the photo of Alberto Masi......since then, thanks to the response from several on this list, I have learnt something new....that Merckx did ride a frame with the slotted chainstays.......and it does appear in a photo I've just uploaded to my flick site that he also used a steel Cinelli stem during his Faema years!
http://www.flickr.com/
Interesting stuff.....well it is if your a Merckx fan as I am.......
cheers
Kevin Sayles
Otley
West Yorkshire UK
>
>
> "I noticed the same thing. Different fork crown too. Guesses on the size
> difference between the two???
>
> Wayne"
> ____________________________________________________________________________
>
> It's remarkable the range of frame sizes Eddy appears to have used,
> judging by photos of his bikes. Of course he had a lot of frames made for
> him, and was continually messing with the geometry because of his bad
> back. The one in the pic with Alberto is odd, IMO, because it is
> attributed to 1969 - AFAIK, the Faema-decaled bikes were only used in '68,
> and by '69 had changed to "Eddy Merckx" decals? The one in the photo with
> Eddy looks very much on the small side for the Eddy bikes I've seen.
>
> Ed Granger
> Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA