Merckx bike geometry

[willcee]

hi, I have a chum who has an interest in buying a new alloy frame , and has tracked down one of Eddy's , and having shown it to me needs details on the geom. its listed as a 51 sloping, he has asked the seller for geom. details but they are very slow getting out the tape.. i cannot find anything other than the listing on the net.. seems its new but could be an older model from a few years back, anyone any ideas?? the frame is a TK8 HOM.. listed by planet x.. will

[Brucey]

sounds like NOS to me, they are £99 now and were a load more than that a few months ago.

Would Merckx cycles respond directly to a query from you?

Or maybe at that price just have a go, and sell it on if it doesn't fit?

cheers

[Mick F]

I bought a bike from Tensor Marketing mail order in 1982. Steel, 10sp, dropped 'bars, and very very very cheap!
http://tensormarketing.fm.alibaba.com/

In fact it was so cheap it might have been called a BSO, but quite nice to ride though very cheap and nasty made. Spot welded plate steel brake bridge, plate steel dropouts, crappy paintwork. The frame was probably gas pipe.

The frame was labeled in nice big letters along the downtube ....... Eddy Mercks.

[chocjohn9]

Yes, Merckx frames are measured in an odd way, rendering the numbers fairly useless. However, I can tell you that the biggest frame they do is a 54 which would fit me nicely me being 6 foot 1. The next size down is the 51 so if you are about 5 foot 8,9 or 10 then I'd say it would be a good bet. The smaller one to this would be the 48.

[Valbrona]

I would contact Merckx direct or the UK distributor or the North America distributor.

[chocjohn9]

I knew I'd seen it somewhere.... try here:

http://www.merlincycles.com/eddy-merckx ... 62670.html

Not the exact model but it should give you a good idea, if all else fails.

[willcee]

have emailed the Merckx UK distributor Jim Walker t'as I'Ride.. i'm wondering why there is nought on the net about the model.. and planet X have been very backward at coming out with any info, 4 days of waiting!!! for a sales operation a very poor show imo. i had already trawled across Merlins sizing at their site, and was still unsure, sounds as if its very steeply sloping and long for a 56 equivalent ..will

[willcee]

Update, Walker replied knows nought , EM hasn't replied.. eventually Planet X put the geo on site.. 51 sloping 54 top tube , ordered it.. arrived friday lunch time, will certainly do for a winter trainer.. described as black ..its same colour as Ford's Sea grey.
Its now fully built..the carbon fork i had painted gloss black, purchased on here its a 2013 one, Trek originally red, the seller had been on tour in US and had a prob with his own ,he bought these, did his cycle and i bought them, good as new.. having ridden it for a few hundred yards, i find the trail of this fork unsuitable, a bit too squirrelly for me.. well in this frame.. it looks good and weighs in at 19.5 lbs. the machine has a compact chainset 34.50 ,105 group, mavic wheels 25 tyres and room for 32's at the rear with guards, deep brakes, the fork issue is being investigated , maybe we'll look at a curved alloy.. pics when i get around to it.. will

[531colin]

Will....apologies if I'm doing that grandmother and eggs thing..
First thing to do is measure the offset of the existing fork
measure front centre
reverse the fork and measure again
offset is half the difference.
The huge majority of "race" forks are 45mm offset....you may struggle to buy anything different.

[willcee]

Colin, You're welcome, while i understand car geo fairly well having built many competition cars, i find Frame geo and the various permutations a bit of a black art, i go on feel, always have done and while i fully understand that not everyone has ''feel'' nor can they put into words what they feel on a test. i bow to superior knowledge.. pics attached.. will

[Brucey]

I agree with Colin, you need to measure the fork offset carefully. But from the pictures it looks like you don't have much fork offset there and you have a fairly steep head angle, and the result appears to be around 50-55mm trail.

If you are used to 65mm trail and fatter tyres then 55mm and skinny tyres will feel a bit twitchy. It will certainly take a fair bit of getting used to, and in fact you might never get used to it.

cheers

[willcee]

Had my first trip on the bike 15ml, as you see it, while i had the feeling that it was squirrelly at low speed ie less than 8 mph, when on the move it rode beautifully, however i ordered a winter fork Ambrosio 3k carbon which matched ,this is a winter clearance machine and the fact that the short race type fork that i had inserted was wrong..i fitted this new fork today, deep drop brake, 50mm instead of 45 offset, guard clearance and brase ons for stays.. and while i haven't yet had a decent run on the modded machine it looks good and a short ride proved good, without any unnatural traits.. pics when i get time. will

[531colin]

Probably won't make much difference.
Winter fork is longer, so the head angle will be a bit slacker > more trail (not much slacker...20mm longer is roughly a degree slacker)
greater offset > less trail
So not too different to the previous fork.

[willcee]

thanks all for your input, the fork has changed the feel completely. and it really rides well. pics attached. will

[Brucey]

it looks nicer, too!

cheers