(upbeat whooshing music)
- This is my Eddy Merckx Corsa Extra,
that I've lovingly restored and paid for with my own money.
Now why am I showing you this one then?
Well recently we showed you that excellent video,
well at least I think it was,
of the Corsa Corsa shop in Japan.
And the response underneath that video
was absolutely overwhelming and so many of you
want to see bikes from my own personal collection.
So this Eddy Merckx Corsa Extra is one of them.
I got it from the storage container
this morning at my own home and well,
I'm gonna show you it in all the glory.
So a little bit of background then about this bike.
Well, four years ago I saw it advertised on eBay,
there it was up for auction, Christmas Evening,
I thought why not chuck a cheeky bit in.
Oh dear, I ended up winning it.
Although it wasn't in the same state it's in now.
Instead it had been turned into a fixed wheel bike,
if you like, so it had flat handle bars.
It had a pair of deep section alloy wheels on there.
Off-color tires and it didn't really
look that good so I went up, relieved the seller
of it, came back and I thought,
what on Earth am I gonna actually do with this bike?
So I went to work.
I contacted my mate Allister of Fatcreations,
and I said to him, Ali I just want
a really plain paint job on this,
but make it look classy of course
'cause it is a Merckx, and he went to work
and this is the end result of it.
Just a plain blue but I think a plain colored
bike looks absolutely fantastic
because you could well go on vogue or on fashion,
or on point right now but this bike
will always look good in 25 years to come, say
whereas something with flip color paint
may or may not, who knows?
I'm not a fortune teller into the future.
But what about the frame there?
Well it's made from Columbus SLX tubing,
which was an absolute staple part of bike racing
for professionals back in its heydays.
So I'm estimating this bike is probably from
the late 80s to early 90s.
It does have a frame number underneath the bottom bracket.
But as of yet, I haven't even contacted the Merckx factory
to try and see what exact year it was from
because years ago, you used to have to do that,
but since then of course,
the Merckx brand has changed hands a few times,
which is quite sad really.
The greatest cyclist of all time, the brand is slowly
sort of dissolved, then re-given a new lease of life.
It's currently owned by the brand of Ridley.
So it's in size 57cm, and that's measured
center to center and of course it's got
the steel forks on there to match too.
What I absolutely love about this bike is the engraving.
So here, where the seat stays during the top and seat tube,
you've actually got the EM logo on there.
And it's shaped into a bicycle.
And also, on the brake bridge on the rear,
the Eddy Merckx, which has also been
embossed on there and filled in white.
Personally, I think it looks absolutely brilliant.
And the same can be said here, on the fork crane.
And the actual logos on the bike.
So the manufacturers name here, as well as up here,
where you've got Corsa Extra on the top tube,
that's all painted by hand.
So Ali down at Fatcreations,
again he did a fantastic job of doing that.
And when I dropped it off to him I was so excited
I was messaging him almost daily for updates of the bike.
Let's move on then to what exactly is fitted on the beauty.
I've fitted on this frame and forks
I've got a BBB threaded headset,
because of course this has got a quill stem on it.
And fitted inside of that headset,
is in fact cartridge bearings,
which at the time when this bike would've been used,
very unlikely would've had a cartridge bearing in there,
instead it would have had a loose ball bearing,
sort of something within a cage,
you'd have to periodically replace the grease in there,
and adjust because they have a tendency
to work themselves loose, however these ones
tend to be a little bit more reliable.
What've we got fitted then?
What about that quill stem?
It's a 3T stem it's in a whopping 14cm
because again, it's got to look period correct.
Back in those days, all the pros were
long, low, stretched out positions,
well maybe not that low, but,
stretched out and they looked absolutely spot on.
Fitted into that stem, is a pair of 3T
Grande Prix handlebars and they're 42cm wide
and they've got a fairly deep drop
on there, but nothing too extreme.
The bars themselves, they're wrapped in some
bike ribbon tape, which is a modern
equivalent of what would have been fitted,
so it's, well it's gotta stand up
to the test of time let's face it
because it's nice and hard wearing
the bar end plugs, I did away with the standard
what came with the bar tape and instead
I fitted some Supacaz bar end plugs instead
because they tend to hold in a little bit better
because you use an Alan key to actually tighten up
and expand the plug inside of them.
There fitted onto the bars are a pair of
Shimano 600 aero break levers which
I know some of you are gonna give me some grief
once you see what brake calipers are fitted
but I'm ready for that abuse down there
in the comments section because I've got
justification for this very choice.
Right, I've mentioned the brake levers,
and also I mentioned about the calipers.
The calipers I've fitted on here
are Campagnolo Deltas and they're absolutely stunning.
When I tell you the price I bought them for,
brand new, back in about 1996, 1997,
it was 50 pounds.
A bike shop in the UK had an awful lot
of stock of them for some reason, were
flogging them at that absurd price, let's face it
so I thought why not, I've got to do it,
and actually when it came to building up this bike
I couldn't find them anywhere, and I searched
high and low throughout my parents house hoping
that they were still there and luckily,
and this is no word of a lie, they were
actually in the last old ice cream container
underneath the cupboard underneath their stairs
and I was absolutely overjoyed.
The language I shouted was quite fruitful,
but it was more than deserved.
Now, you're gonna be wondering why
on earth I've paired up a pair of Shimano
brake levers with Campagnolo.
The simple reason being, back in those days
when I was racing, I didn't like the feel
of the Campagnolo levers, and I simply couldn't
bring myself to try and adjust to them,
well 20 odd years later, so instead
I thought I'll put these Shimano 600 ones on,
that were just lying around at home,
so this bike really is built of all things
that were just simply well excess in my
own workshop, so that's why.
Now the breaking quality of these deltas,
it was given a bit of a hard time to be
perfectly honest, by many, many people out there
but once they are set up they're absolutely
amazing, because they've got a center pull
mechanism inside of it, and when you see
underneath these covers you're gonna be
absolutely amazed by the technology involved.
I once decided to try and clean them up,
and it took me about a week to build them
back together, and what's super impressive
about this too, is you can actually raise
and lower the height of the, so you can get
them so close and aerodynamic to your tires,
in fact I once had a pair of handmade tires
from Holland and the tires were slightly out of
shape and they even rubbed away on the underside
of the caliper there where a little bit of grit
was embedded into the tread, that's how close
you can get them to the caliper, and they
still look well, stunning, I'm sure you agree.
Now I asked for a bit of modification
to the brake pads on these calipers because
the original ones were really deep so you
didn't have to have the calipers set that
close to the actual side walls of the rim
so it took quite some time to actually
find something which looked as good as
the original brake shoes, so I can't remember
what these came from, I think they might be some
Scott mount-haus-er shoes, then I had to use
some spacers to get them in, but I still
importantly, in my opinion, used the
Campagnolo mounting bolts here
to actually hold them in place in the caliper.
Anything else just wouldn't have done, let's face it.
What about those wheels then?
Well these ones again, I built up one day
and I thought, I don't know ever what I'm gonna
use these for, but they are a pair of
Ambrosio Nemesis rims, so of course that's
recognizable here by the telltale brass valve
surrounding which is there I don't believe it's
there for actually what a lot of people think it's
there for, they think it's there to counter
the weight of the valve, if that was to counter
the weight of the valve, it would be opposite.
So, no, there will be a reason behind that,
who knows maybe one day I'll be able to
visit the Ambrosio factory and exactly
find out why or how they've done this.
But yeah, an interesting little fact for you.
Now the hubs themselves, they are Hope Pro 3,
so in case you didn't know, Hope is a UK brand,
and they still make really traditional looking hubs,
and I thought why not, lets just put these
on these wheels, because these wheels are
designed to be bomb proof, after all
they're named after the Hell of the north,
which is Parry Roo Bay, and then I used
some Sapim CX-Ray spokes, 'cause they're
ultra light and they're ultra stiff,
and they're ultra strong, and they also
have that sort of really nice
bladed appearance to them too.
Took me a while to build these wheels.
I wanted to get the exact right components.
What about the tires then?
Well I've gone for some Vittoria Evo Corsa SC
tubulars in a 23mm width, the reason being gum wall.
You cannot go wrong with gum wall
on a bicycle, and for a bicycle of this era,
that's exactly what it deserves.
Bottom bracket wise, I've got a Shimano BBR 60
in there, which is the second generation of the
hollowtech two outdoor bottom bracket
bearing type, so that means it's slightly
smaller in its diameter, and in doing so,
fits in perfectly with the bottom
bracket shell on this steel frame.
And I like it as well in the black.
Just find it looks a bit nicer than that
gray color they used to do.
Lets take it to the drive train then shall we?
Well, I've fitted to this bike a pretty rare,
well at least I think it is, pro-light
one piece billeted aluminum casette,
it's in 12-23, don't really need the 11
on this bike, 'cause I don't really
ride it very often, in fact, I only ever
ride it when there's guaranteed no chance
of rain, and its gonna be on an almost
dust free road, 'cause I just simply don't
want to destroy this bike.
I know, I know, bikes are made to be ridden,
but I do ride it, I'm just very careful
about where I ride it.
So that cassette weighs in, probably just
over 100 grams and I bought it for the pricey
sum of just £1.99 from Ebay.
Someone had listed it incorrectly, get in.
Always like a bit of result like that.
Right, lets get on then.
So probably the most controversial bit
of the bike, and I know you are watching this
and thinking, why has he done that?
Right yeah, I've put Shimano onto a bike
with Campagnolo, I've put Shimano onto this bike,
I know loads of you out there won't be liking it
because this group set is the 7900 model,
its probably not the most aesthetically pleasing
model of Dura-ace that's ever come out,
but again it was just lying around at home,
and one day maybe I'll put a different group set on it
but, and this is my big, big but here,
I want the bike to work, and loads of those
old period correct parts, in my opinion,
don't work quite correctly, they'll be
seven speed or eight speed, something like that
and if I want to take this bike one day
up Mount Ventoux, or something like that,
I can do it, alright maybe not
with a 23 cassette on there, but if I put
a 25 or a 26 cassette on there, I'll be able
to do that, whereas many of those older
group sets, they didn't have gearing as low as that.
I hope I'm getting my point across
just why I've chose it, I want it to work,
if and when I do ride it.
Right so, I've got that across.
And we've got Shimano Dure-Ace 7900 chain set
on there too, and that comes in 172.5mm cranks,
and it's got 53-39 chain rings.
Right, the front mech then.
I've thrown a little spanner into the works here
'cause I didn't have one of these 7900 ones
laying around, and well I wanted something
maybe a little bit more polished because
eventually, I guess ill put some more
polished components onto the rest of the bike,
but either sides are fit Shimano 105-5700
front derailleur, used some acetone, which is
a great product if you want to do something like this.
What did I do though?
I removed the logos.
Just give them a little polish and off it came,
and the result I think is pretty nice.
Nice mirrored finished front neck.
Then those pedals, iconic to many out there,
my heroes rode them, Greg Lemond, Laurent Fignon,
Pedro Delgado, top three in fact
at the '89 Tour De France, those are the time
pro magnesium pedals, you can't get those cleats anymore.
Now they're a two part cleat, the back one
was always brass, the front originally brass
or aluminum I believe, I know someone who got
some forged out of brass, or at least I think
they were forged out of brass.
Then they went to plastic, the plastic ones
didn't last very long, still got some of those
aluminum ones lying around though somewhere.
Great pedal, it was like riding on ice initially,
loads and loads of flow.
Saddle wise, I've opted for a turbo in white.
Of course, you've gotta put white saddle with
white bar tape haven't you?
It's the rules, after all.
Certainly in my bike vault.
Now, these saddles quite often they used
to get a little bit mucky, many of you
will remember, because the dye from Lycra shorts
quite often ran and it would kind of stain it,
which wasn't the most attractive look,
with this one, brand new old stock,
so it's still looking all good,
and then the seat post, originally I wanted
to get a Campagnolo fluted one.
I do have one lying around at home,
but unfortunately, it was all scratched up where
someone once put it in and out of a frame,
and didn't pay a lot of attention,
and I couldn't bear to put it onto a bike
which was brand new looking, so instead,
I managed to pick up a cheap copy
of one somewhere and I think it still
looks alright personally.
Now what about the finishing touches then?
Because there's a few on here that
I wanna point out, and there's a couple of things
which I do actually need to replace.
Annoyingly, these rubber grommets or
little bits of rubber washers I guess
you could call them, which are around
the brake adjusters, cause they tend to perish
and this bike like I say has been away
in storage for a while now, embarrassingly.
And to replace them, it does mean you
actually have to take out the brake cables,
you've got to undo the mounting bolt,
which is inside underneath this plate,
and that's a three and a half millimeter Alan key.
Imagine trying to find one of those in a rush.
You aren't gonna find one, I keep mine
under lock and key.
Thinking about that, actually I don't know
where it is, anyway, that's by the by,
but importantly, trying to actually get
these cables to fit into the mounts
on the tube wasn't easy.
I had to really look quite, well,
for ages in fact, I remember going into
bike shops and going through their feral box
and finding something that actually fit inside
of them because its a totally different fitting
to what's on modern frames.
And then, I finished off the outer cable
with these Eddie Merckx rubber frame protectors
which I think look absolutely brilliant
just because it's got his logo on it.
Okay, its got the new logo on it,
but it's still got the Merckx logo on it too.
Now down there on the chains there,
you can see I've got a self adhesive
chrome chainstay protector which is because
many of these frames around these times
did actually come with chrome rear ends.
This one didn't, but they came with chrome ends
not only to look absolutely fantastic but also
protect against any chain slap on there.
I'm kinda glad that mine didn't come with
a chrome rear end because that would have
required a lot more maintenance in the long run
because they tend to become a little bit pitted,
and not look good if you don't take a lot of
care of it, and like I say, this ones been in
storage for a while, so in my case,
it wouldn't have looked that good by now.
I've got an Eddie Merckx bottle on there of course
because you have to, he's the greatest of all time.
I don't know if I've already said that but he is.
His record will never ever be smashed.
And there's something I'd actually really
like to point out its the 108 number here.
So, sadly, I lost a friend of mine during the 2011
Giro D'Italia, Wouter Weylandt, and the frame
it came with a frame number mount holder here
on the top tube so I thought,
well its a Belgian frame and this is a really
fitting tribute to a friend of mine who I lost.
Now other finishing touches include this chain
capture down here, so it's from K-Edge,
alright it doesn't look great, but I simply don't want
to risk damaging this paintwork, if the chain was
to dislodge and find it's way onto the bottom
bracket shell down there, 'cause that would make
one awful looking mess of this bike.
Now one of my own little modifications,
or hack, which I've done underneath the bottom
bracket shelf here, is to actually run a thin
bit of black tubing, so it's line a liner
for the gear cables to run through in order
to get slightly better shifting and also
protect the paintwork there too.
Yeah, I'm really fussy about these things.
Gear levers, well, down here on the down tube
many of you, maybe the first time you've
actually seen something like this, and I don't
mean that as an insult but, these things were
absolutely treacherous to race with.
The thought of putting your hand down there
into the front wheel when the race was on,
yeah it did happen from time to time
with some people out there.
These Shimano Dure-Ace 7900 ones.
They actually fit in perfectly with this
group set and well, they're indexed.
So, there's no fumbling around hoping you're
in the right gear, click, you're in the right gear.
Spot on.
Seat binder bolt, it's gotta be Campagnolo hasn't it?
Also, importantly too to protect that paintwork,
I've got some little rubber donuts on the inner
rear break cable here on the top tube,
just to stop it from banging and doing away
with any of the paint, which was such a common
problem with bikes back in the day.
Right, what about my measurements then?
Well from the top of the saddle, to the center
at the bottom bracket, that's 79.5cm.
Tip of the saddle to the center of the handlebars,
59.5cm, remember it's all about having
a long reach on one of these bikes.
What about the weight then?
I've never done it up until this very moment,
I was a little bit nervous and I'm struggling
a little bit, it does weigh 9.79kg,
which was probably about right for bikes
back then in the day, probably even lighter
because remember it's got modern components on it
in some cases, of course the saddle that weighs
a fair bit as does the seat post.
Those break calipers and those pedals, they weigh
an awful lot compared to modern day components.
Right then, what about the moment
you've all been waiting for?
The free hub sound check.
Some of you are really gonna like this one.
(Bike tire clicks and spins)
Right, I do hope you've enjoyed checking out
my Eddie Merckx Corsa Extra with me,
its a bike which was built with passion
as well as, well, quite a few old spare parts
I had laying around at home, but nonetheless,
I think its an absolute beauty of a bike,
and it always gives me a smile when I look
at it and also when I ride it.
And I hope you've enjoyed that.
Now remember to like and share this video
with your friends, give it a big old thumbs up
and don't forget too to check out the GCN Shop
at shop.globalcyclingnetwork.com
and now for another great video, this time
Corsa Corsa which was a bike shop in Japan
where I went to check out.
And when I showed the owner of this bike,
he absolutely loved it, click just down here.