excavations, sorry again: Eddy Merckx spent most of the year 1979 on "training" at Ugo de Rosa, building frames was only one of several skills that he had to learn then; the main framebuilder in EMC was to be Johan Vranckx (then 16 years old...), who also passed the training at de Rosa (2 months). There is no evidence that the frames they built at de Rosa's then were later sold under the brand name "Eddy Merckx". (there is, however, such a possibility). The EMC factory started on March 28, 1980 (the 40th anniversary is imminent), the first bikes were available in mid-April. The first series (which should probably be called "prototypes") did not have serial numbers (that is, marks on the right side of the BB cover), some did not have any marks.All frames had long lugs, 2 types of SSC ("signature" and empty flat) and 2 types of BB cover ("Eddy Merckx" and "=") were used. The pace of bicycle construction was not high (as it was at the beginning of the activity), only 6-7 people were employed, the factory did not have a paint shop yet and the plans were to debut the brand in TdF 1980 (team Marc - IWC - v.r.d.). Probably in the summer, serial numbers appeared on the EMC framework - they can probably be included in the "trial" series; the letter denoting the series (E, Z, A, etc.) has not been added yet, but some early copies have the letter V next to the serial number. All frames are already marked with seat tube (c-c) length (I know 1 exception), the absolute majority have a worker code (A,G,B, maybe ".") - these markings were placed on the left side of the BB cover (exceptionally - in the middle of the shield).The frame design elements were the same as in the "prototype" series, but all SSCs were "signature". The highest (known to me) number of this series is 967. There are many indications that the end of this series coincides with the end of 1980. The next series got its letter code - E (in each "letter" series 9999 frames were produced). The initial copies of the E series did not differ from the "trial" one. The details were changed soon: the old BB cover designs ("Eddy Merckx" and "=") were replaced by the new "MI 6 grooves". similarly SSC "signature" was changed to "EM logo" and long lugs were changed to short - all these changes were made to ~E500-600 (there are earlier copies with new, short lugs). The "old" parts were also used later (e.g. BB cover "=" was mounted on Corsa and 3-Athlete in 85/86 !). The first "white" catalogue contains photos from this "transition period".
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