Eddy Merckx Corsa Extra Team 7-11

Here she is - my Eddy Merckx resprayed and built up.  I've had her since about 1993 when I bought her off a friend who'd raced her for a couple of years.  She became my good training/second race bike, equipped with a mix of Campag and Mavic parts.  But the years took their toll on her as she became more of a training bike and eventually a winter bike - and as we all know, General Winter destroys bikes.  The last straw was when I lent her to someone who had had his bike stolen and he treated her with contempt. When I eventually managed to get her back, she had huge scratches all over, a dent in the top tube and the seatpost rammed all the way down.  But it is such a classy frame that I couldn't face binning her so I took her to local framebuilder Ellis Briggs who did a beautiful (if pricey) and almost spot-on new paint job in her original 7-11 team colours - this was the team bike of the early 90s 7-11 American pro team, as ridden in all the great European races by Sean Yates, Andy Hampsten, Steve Bauer etc.

She's now put together with a mix of old and new bits.  Frame is Columbus SLX, the main rival to Reynolds 753 in its day.  It's meant to have spiral internal ribs like rifling that make it stiffer.  Wheels are Open Pro on Record hubs, circa 2004.  Brakes are Record from about 1998, and rear mech Record Titanium 9 speed from 2000ish.  It just says 'Campagnolo' on the brakes, no mention of Record.  Campag never used to put the gruppo name on components, way too vulgar.  You had to know the subtle difference between components to identify groupset - for example, the brakes have hidden bolts.  Front mech is Chorus, I think, the last remaining component from my first real race bike, my Brian Rourke 653 from 1988.  The mech still works (sort of).  The chainset is Record too, although mid 2000s vintage - if you know your onions, you can tell this from the distance by the the hidden bolt in the crank arm (although they started to do this with late model Chorus cranks too).  The seatpost is mid-90s - no name but it has the very distinctive Record neck.  Headset Record 2010.  Stem is Cinelli (new? I think Cinelli have quietly started making quill stems again to compete with the thriving NOS market) and bars Deda - good old fashioned 1" quill stem, 26mm diameter bars - not an oversized tube in sight.  Levers are early 2000s Veloce, not a top groupset, but at the risk of sounding like an old git, I think they built stuff better then - they're solid quality.  The saddle is a San Marco Concor Lite, a classic saddle that San Marco have started making again as it is the saddle of choice of Mr Armstrong.  The ride is supreme steel, jingly and tingly and with Merckx rail-like handling.  However, it has built up a lot lighter than it used to be, because of the newer, lighter components; I bet it's under 20lbs.  You could race this bike any day of the week and it would not be a liability.