Eddy Merckx Molteni Bike de Rosa Handmade The Bike of The Cycling Legend | eBay

I don't think the seller's tact of the high price proves authenticity will work out. But he also claims he will provide more info. Time will tell.

Yeah. He's going to have to do better than this to prove provenance.
"I know the story of this bike and if ask this expensive price, be sure that this bike is authentic. Have a nice day"

Hey, they can always run a DNA test on the remnants of dried sweat left under the top tube cable guides........
I suspect that even if it was indeed Eddy's, he might not even remember that particular bike as he must have owned and ridden hundreds through the years....

like they used to say in the Middle Ages, 'nuff arrows of Saint Sebastian to supply an entire regiment of archers. Or enough splinters of the cross to build a galleon.

When one sees anachronistic bits like the more modern skewer screws, one has to doubt the whole bike. Not to say that the bike is not original but much more has to be done to demonstrate provenance.

Still a very pretty machine, and it's orange enough!

If you are trying to sell something for $25,000 on an English speaking website, it might be a good idea to get someone who speaks English to write your ad.

The "non-English speaking" aspect doesn't concern me.

I have had many successfully completed transactions on Euro ebay sites.

On the other hand, they weren't to the tune of $25,000 either.

'course it's Eddy's, it's got his photo on the seat tube and everything.

My orange '74 Colnago is also Eddy's size, and I have a strong premonition that it was his. I'll sell mine for $23K.

Did anyone get the link to the full set of photos?

It is a bit nuts that he couldn't be bothered to include more than four photos in the Ebay listing...

Merckx Molteni Bike Photos by stratohiwatt | Photobucket

Yeah, but wheels are one thing that on a pro bike got changed out so often, on can give a pass on that but if you are going to ask the big price, then attending to that detail should be easy. If I was more inclined I would search out images of Eddy racing in 1974 and try to find visual equals to the milling on this bike. I did see one of the images of Eddy at I think the Worlds where his bike had something engraved into the top of the crown, so at least he is not promoting this as "The World's" bike. The geometry comment to me does not mean much as Merckx evidently was frequently searching for "better" geometry, no reason to expect that when Ugo started building that stopped, I could see Eddy asking Ugo to whip something up then it got tweaked based on request or feedback maybe a few times.

The primary image of the ebay auction showing a bike with white tape and the flickr shots showing blue tape... again it is the details that add or detract from the believability. Not scoring well yet. No BB underside shot? Lessons on how not to go about this.

In October, the pair of De Rosa Molteni were exposed in the Stalen Ros.
With mention of other racer names.
More recently, they have been for sale (or sold) on a french web site and located in Tourcoing

After watching "La Course en Tete" I'm thinking there were probably hundreds of bikes Merckx raced on, in '74 alone.

I have seen that same picture before, but cannot remember where.

A bit of web referencing brings up this:

Stalen Ros Klassieke Racefietsen

I am thinking that there appears to be a bicycle show or exhibition last year? It looks like quite a well attended annual exhibition.
Yes?

Searching for Miss "Goodbike".

1973 Eddy Merckx Molteni Bike Kessels Handmade | eBay

Same bike same seller, only $3000

Molteni made sausage. The title of this thread is Eddy's Molteni. Very clever.

The seller has three Merckx Molteni team bikes for sale. Only one is the stated Merckx ridden bike; the other two are supposed to be team mate bikes.

If the seller could provide some reasonable provenance for the bike it should sell for a large sum. But I don't foresee anyone paying that kind of money without solid proof.

I kind of like the smaller Kessels bike.

Elsewhere on ebay is a DeRosa made Eddy branded alleged team bike in Silver from 1978, I mentioned it earlier in another thread, I nike that one as much or more than anything presented by this seller so far. Also a solid minimum bid of almost $3K US desired, a price that might just be tolerated no matter the racing or team history.

I have this feeling that since the recession is kind of ending, those who sat on stuff for the duration are considering cashing out now.

Geez, for that price you think it would include the bolts for the Water bottle cage mounts.

Or at least a little sausage residue.

Such a bike! The Stuff of Dreams!

(The seller is dreaming.)

The saddle height is all wrong for this to be a bike Eddy rode,