Thursday, January 10, 2008

An interesting Merckx on eBay

One of the primary methods I've employed to decipher the Merckx serial number scheme is by setting up a search on eBay that mails me a listing of every new bike or frame on a daily basis. I've seen some great examples -- former team frames, NOS frames that have been sitting in a Belgian basement since they were built, new color schemes I hadn't seen before...all sorts of cool things.

Today I saw a listing for a frame in Motorola livery that I thought I'd share. Not because its some pedigreed frame, or particularly obscure, but because its being sold to benefit a fellow rider who was involved in a pretty terrible accident involving a drunk driver.

Seeing as how I get a ridiculous number of hits from people looking for Merckx info, I decided I'd post a link to the listing.

It actually is an interesting frame. Take note of the decals on it -- this isn't the standard Motorola decal package, but an earlier one that would typically be used for a solid, paneled or fade color scheme. Pointed liveries would typically have a different set of seat tube graphics, and those slanted letters -- well, I thought those were gone by the late 80's.

I've seen four or five of these Motorola frames with the odd decals. A couple of Corsa's, a Strada, and maybe a Corsa Extra as well, all in the C date code (1990/1991). My guess is they're early Motorola color scheme frames, prior to them nailing down the decal package. Or are they something else? No good answers here, but I think they're an interesting variant on a pretty popular color scheme.

Maybe one of you out there who's been looking for a Merckx of their own will find it there -- and help a rider in need at the same time.


Diablo Scott said...

Wow, it only brought $500. Should've been almost twice that I think, especially given the charitable angle.

Jeremy said...

Seriously. Much less interesting Corsa's routinely sell for $400+, frame ONLY. The only thing I can come up with for why this went so low is the size, which is a little large for the average person, and that the shipping would have to be handled by the buyer. But there are plenty of tall people out there, and the seller wasn't gouging anyone for shipping -- its a bike store!

Anonymous said...

Any help would be appreciated

Unknown said...

Hi, I have been asked to sell this bike by the family of a dead friend.

From my research it is a 1987-89 TEAM STUTTGART / COSTERMANS frame.
serial number = 4MS or S4M then 2866?

Any clarification as to what model.status it is/has would be appreciated. Also a fair value in USD.

Emerxil said...

S4M B2866 - Strada - 1988 or
C2866 - Strada - 1990.

Related Posts with Thumbnails