gr23932

Here is a picture of the Columbus decal on my latest find. What type of tubing is this Merckx made out of and where does it "rank" among the Columbus tubesets. I'll post pics of the actual bike once I clean it tomorrow and get some sleep. I drove 3 hours to get this bike when it normally takes 45 minutes ...... I was rear ended twice!!! What are the chances of that???? No damage to my car but the second car got messed up pretty bad. I'm glad I have a Jeep Grand Cherokee and not a small European car like he did.

Old Fat Guy

Merckx had proprietary Columbus tubing drawn for him. It's all good.

There are no bad Merckx bikes.

Hope you have better luck on the bike than in the car, and looking forward to detailed pictures.

gr23932

That's good to hear. This bike is really light and I just wanted to find out what type of tubing it had. Either way it is a Merckx and that's all that matters to me. On another post I saw a Merckx Strada also that seemd to have the same decal but I can't find it now. Well, I'm at work now so I'll probably post pics later in the evening or the aftrenoon to you guys. Today I took the little mazda to work since I just thought it was wierd that I got rear ended twice on the auto route. Let's hope these accidents don't tranfer over to the bike.

gr23932

Here are some pics of the complete bike. It has a Mirage group and it rides great. This is by far my new favorite bike I have. It seems to climb hills by itself. What year is it?? I suspect it to be a 1997, but who knows. I sent Eddy Merckx (the company) an email with the serial number, hopefully they'll get back to me. I know that the Mirage group is a budget one but the OG owner said he bought the frame by itself and then the Mirage groups since he didn't want to spend much more after the frame purchase. I suspect this is a good frame as I was told before, but just how good? Should I upgrade it or keep it as is. I personally like it the way it is. It's my first bike with Brifters (If that's what they are called). The one thing that has had me thinking was the label of "Strada." What does it mean when a bike is a "Strada". The reason I ask is because I've seen many other name brand Strada bikes along with Corsas. I'm a rookie still and hope it's not too much of a dumb question to be asking. I guess my curiousity got the better of me once I got the Moser which I'm also stoked about. It has a Corsa sticker just the same as this merckx on the tube decal. I'll pots pics later on today. Any help will as always be appreciated. Sorry for the so..so pictures. My camera phone acts up only when I need it....piece of SH#$!

T-Mar

Strada is Italian for road. In the case of the tubing, it would appear to be Columbus GARA, a plain gauge tubeset. This can be deduced by the writng the at the top of the decal, "Tubi Speciali Trafilati" which translates as special drawn tubing. This nomenclature was used only on the plain gauge tubesets such as AELLE and GARA. The butted tubests had the word "rinforzati". The CrMo designation indicates it is GARA as opposed to AELLE, which used CMn. GARA was typically used on lower, mid-range frames.

gr23932

Thanks T-Mar. You always have THE answer. Now, another thing that I'm curious is why the top tube is way smaller, diameter wise, than the downtube and seat tube? What's the reasoning behind this? Thanks again.

T-Mar

Based solely on the pics, it is hard for me to tell how much difference there is. Typically, a top tube is 1/8" smaller than the seat and down tubes, but GARA also came in an OR (off road) version which used oversize tubes. I'm not sure exactly how oversize they were, but since it was aimed primarily for ATB use, presumibly they were 1/8" larger than normal, making them 1/4" (25%) larger than the top tube.

It could be a complete GARA OR set or a custom mix of standard and OR. Using the OR seat and down tubes (and presumibly chain stays) would significantly stiffen the bottom bracket and rear triangle. Mating them with a standard GARA top tube and seat stays would ensure the ride remained comfortable. Employing heavier gauge down tubes and chainstays to stiffen up the bottom bracket area is an old trick. Using oversized tubes in these positions (and the seat tube) would be even more effective.