CyclesMakaron happy new year Jacek, and may your 2026 be full of interesting EM finds :)

Can you identify the year for this Titane Merckx?

Serial number is : H4717

Does this make it a Meise built ti Merckx rather than a Litespeed built one?

And does this paint/colour scheme have a name or code?

And finally, was there a particular make/model of carbon fork that Merckx sold with their Titane frames from this era? I can't see any branding on the fork in the pic, and have no idea if that is the original one or not.

Thanks in advance
Dan

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...dae1c2a800.jpg

Hoping our resident EM expert is just on an extended holiday :)

After a bit of further research I can part answer some of my own questions on the above bike, which is currently on its way to me in London from Luxembourg, whoopee:)

I dont know the exact date but the bike is called a 'millenium' so thats a bit of a clue to around the year 2000;)

I've got a 1996 ti Merckx which is one of the ones built by Litespeed to Eddy's specs, but as this is one of the later ones I'm sure this is a Meise Belguim built Titane.

The seller kindly sent me further pics and one of them has a decal which states 'Litespeed titanium custom tubing built by Eddy Merckx', which seems to confirm its a Belgium built one.

As for what fork was spec'd with this, the Merckx 2000 catalogue says the fork was not included, and I could not see a list of options Merckx themselves supplied, so guess it would have been from one of prominent carbon fork makers of that time, Time, Look, or Easton maybe.

I've looked through some of the old EM catalogues and the 2000 catalogue has the same oversized tubing and approx geometry on the Titane model, with the beefy downtube and seat stays attaching a few inches below the seatlug on the seat tube. However in that 2000 catalogue the frame is not painted and is polished ti, and the Titane model is badged a Millenium 3.

Mine above is obvs painted over the ti, and just has Millenium on the top tube, so is mine the Millenium 1 version? I cant seem to find any pics of Millenium 2?? So still unsure of the exact year so hoping CyclesMakaron can help with that.

I've just got to wait a week or two for the frame to arrive before I can inspect it up close, and it will be interesting to compare againlst my 96 version, and I'll report back on any differences between the frames on things like tyre clearances. My 96 can accommodate a 30c tyre in the rear for example, which was very accommodating for the era, so will be interesting to see if that is the same with the later version, I suspect 28c is more likely.

I'm back. You figured it out perfectly – it's a Belgian production made from American tubes – 1999. The ‘Millennium’ inscription is unusual and seems to have nothing to do with the American Millennium 3 – produced a few years later and with a different geometry.

Fork off
 

Botty and Jacek ,I havnt got any of my bikes that had them on so can’t check shape but the other high end fork of that era was the Kestrel

Thanks both :thumb:

Yes my 96 Litespeed built Merckx came with one of those Kestrel forks. I actually replaced the Kestrel.fork on that with a Columbus Max fork, as I preferred the ride feel and the looks of the shiny chome Max one.

In fact the Kestrel carbon fork had a steel steerer so if i recall there was hardly any difference in weight, so the Max.fork was a no-brainer for me.

And so in truth I'm likely to remove the carbon fork from this Titane and replace that with a Columbus Max fork too, and remove aheadset and stem and replace with a gunmetal 3ttt bars and quill stem that will further improve the looks imo.

I love a bit of carbon but a max fork will go great on that and give a nice positive front end ,that Smokey 3T stuff just looked/looks so great ,I know we all love cinelli blah blah blah but in the 90’s others at least looked like they were making an effort

OK, maybe this has been covered before in this forum but there were many manufacturers licensed by Eddy Merckx to make frames with his name on them. Here are a few that I have and some others. These all predate Eddy's own factory which started in 1980. Eddy also rode DeRosas on the Molteni team, after Colnago.

1. 1970 Faemino team bike. Mine didn't come this way, but I chose to restore it this way. A one year only bike made for the Faemino team in 1970 by Giuseppe Pela
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...2616ff6caa.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...adabff8549.jpg
2. 1973 Colnago Molteni team bike. Again, I chose to restore it this way.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ddb1d47d63.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...79e15e75ac.jpg
3. 1977 Kessels Fiat Team bike. Original paint on this one.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9ac9ede1ea.jpg
Here's my buddy's 1978 Kessels C&A team bike. Eddy's last team. Again, original paint. Note yellow panel instead of blue.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6c80d6bda5.jpg




Some more variations. A Green Kessels
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e070a2c67f.jpg
And a purple one


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7a86a39cb8.jpg
Some may be familiar with the Molteni replica bikes made by Falcon of England. They made some water-pipe bikes and some out of 531.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e49fc34c30.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c63f06848.jpeg
Bob Freeman

Always nerve wracking getting a bike in the post from another country, but the Titane arrived in one piece. Not done proper fitting or ride on it yet as I'm going to be changing things and its Euro/USA wired and the brakes are the wrong way round with left lever front and right lever rear. I'm now hard wired the UK way, and don't fancy relearning that in London traffic.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...549b435f2d.jpg
So just changed saddle, tyres and put in a stem horizotal to top tube in for a pic so I can note some of the details on this frame, and specific differences to my 96 Litespeed built Merckx EX.

Apart from the obvious difference in the shapes of the tubing, downtubes especially, I also note this Titane has a 1 1/18 steerer rather than the 1 inch on the EX. It still retains a 70mm BB shell so appears to still be using a Italian thread BB like the EX and most other Merckx's.

Decals confirning Belgium built status, but Litespeed tube origin, and original paint, and non drive side top tube has a decal with the great man's signature.
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...db3e1bd2c3.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...0cb28dc934.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...922210d7c3.jpg
It has 25c tyres here, but I borrowed some wheels from another bike to check and 28c fit in the frame and under the Dura Ace 7700 calipers, which is a big relief as thats my preferred size, so that's what it will end up with. I don't think any wider tyres than 28c will fit in the rear triangle or under those vintage 7700 calipers.

And the Titane comes with a Merckx seatpost collar rather than the pinch bolt on the EX.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...806920c82d.jpg
And finally, back when I purchased my EX back in 2019 Jacek noticed that the headtube decal on that Litespeed built one had the world champ stripes OVER the Belgium stripes, rather than the other way around like it was on my other and every other Meise built Merckx. I hadn't even noticed that.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...60931258e9.jpg
This was perhaps indicating it was built elsewhere in the world and not belguim. That theory seems pretty legit as the Titane is built with the same Litespeed tubing as the EX but is a Meise built one and has the Belgium stripe over the WC stripes.. And its not a decal its a lovely metal headtube badge.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...fe3a546c14.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1247306a46.jpg
Also this later ti version has the downtube bosses on the headtube which my EX did not, and is a good feature and prevents cable.rub on head tube paint.

And finally I have been unable to identify the fork. I have actually warmed to the idea of keeping it as I like the profile and shape, and on reflection a regular steel fork, even a Max one may look a bit small and out of place next to that beefy downtube. I will start a build thread on this bike as I don't know exactly what I'm doing with it yet, so I won't clutter up this thread with that, but any help identifying the fork would be useful. It might just be a cheapy no name generic one and not much to go on to identify it.

It has full carbon steerer and alu dropouts, the outside of the fork blades is quite distinctive and flat, maybe aero for the time? And the only other distinguishing feature if the shape of the back of the fork around the the brake bolt, that looks quite different to most forks. It looked similar but not exact to how some Time.forks looked, but I searched various carbon forks from the late 90s/early 2000s but could not see any exact matches, but if anyone recognises this please say, thanks.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...673020cda7.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...4994db7753.jpg

Normal service resumed [phew]
 

Botty ,dunno where I read it ,but world bands over belgie was a request from the U.S importer and I think for all the frames but maybe hadn’t gone on for years [was Gita always the importer ? ]