"... Yes, it can happen to you ..."

This is not a cause for great worry - you got EM from the species in the economic assumption. Once. Not necessarily now.

- Eddy Merckx 3-Athlete: Reynolds 501 and the ability to use accessories from (a little) lower shelf - a chance for mass EM sales? Unfortunately, it failed, little was produced, the interest was poor ... and that is why the prices of this model are - varied
- characteristic: lugs as in title, R501, BB cover - tube, flat, guides under BB; break bridge - Gipiemme "cube"; chain bridge, slope fork crown...do you see the problem? yes: how to distinguish it from EM (Professional)? sticker on the top tube, sticker EDDY MERCKX (letters with "roofs"), sticker R501 - all these little things can be removed ... remaining - visible immediately - lugs.
- after the production of EM (Professional), "old" Eddy Merckx stickers were used.
- production: ~ Z400 --- ~ A1350 ( autumn 1984 - 86/87 )
t.b.c.

- Eddy Merckx Corsa early ( contractual name - markings on the BB cover: C preceded Corsa, X preceded Corsa Extra ): it - in fact - Eddy Merckx (Professional) modified version, with lugs and BB cover borrowed from EM 3-Athlete, 2 types of fork crown (flat at this time was mounted only on the Corsa).
- it's only "lugs with cut-outs" model with Campagnolo dropouts/forkouts.
- after the production "EM (Professional) late version" Corsa inherited the BB cover MI 4 (recess) and no chain bridge.
- "old" Eddy Merckx stickers were used.
- production: ~ Z4500 --- ~ A1500 ( autumn 1985 - 86/87 )

t.b.c.

- Eddy Merckx Strada early ( markings on BB cover: M --- note: this is not the same M from previous frames - see: Decoding of Eddy Merckx frames; and do not look at cadre.org - sorry, no offense).
- Strada is a simple continuation of the 3-Athlete production, Reynolds 501 has been changed to Columbus Cromor.
(it is difficult to distinguish these two models - without looking at the factory markings and visible Columbus / Reynolds stickers - until Strada lost the chain bridge, and then the break bridge was changed).
- "old" Eddy Merckx stickers were used.- production: ~ A1500 --- ~ B4000 ( 86/87 - 1989 ).