NEWS FLASH ok, i sent a mssge to andy hampsten himself last week through his bike company-thanks for the reference on that- just sent me back a reply- well, not only did i send him the serial number etc. but i also sent some pics to him. he said that eddy merckx made him alot of frames (many many) and that he thought that this is probably the real deal!!! still havent heard back from the merckx factory but this is as good as it gets!!!! yay