Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

TECH NEWS

€14,000 EDDY70 steel racing bike launched to mark Eddy Merckx’s 70th birthday

Eddy Merckx Cycles reveal €14,000 EDDY70 steel race bike for founder’s 70th birthday

Eddy Merckx Cycles is celebrating the 70th birthday of its founder and namesake with the launch of the limited edition EDDY70 steel racing bike. Just 70 bikes will be produced and each will cost €14,000. And no, that isn’t a typo.

The EDDY70 has been designed and built to Eddy Merckx’s precise requirements, and the first bike built has been gifted to Eddy this week. The other 69 bikes will be delivered on 17 June, Eddy's birthday. The EDDY70 prefaces the launched of a new Heritage collection due in September this year. 

Eddy Merckx raced on a steel bike for the entirety of his career, racking up a staggering 525 race wins during his professional career, and it'll be interesting to see what more they have in the pipeline.

Said Eddy Merckx: "Everyone knows that I was always obsessively focused on the equipment that I rode on. That is still the case now. And as a result, I wanted only the best and most modern components and materials for this bike. The aim was absolutely to make a high performance, contemporary racing bike and not a replica of my old racing bike."

So rather than a nostalgic retro bike to trade on the company’s heritage, the EDDY70 is intended to be a high performance steel racing bike making the most of the latest advances in steel tubing. There has been a resurgence of performance steel bikes in recent years, the likes of the Genesis Volare and Condor Super Acciaio to name a couple of examples, that take the latest steel tubesets and create frames that offer a high level of performance and competitive weights.

The EDDY70 is constructed from Columbus XCr stainless steel tubing, and TIG welded in the Eddy Merckx Cycles workshop in Belgium and finished with a Columbus carbon fibre fork. Only the best parts can be fitted to such a frame, and so it’s a Campagnolo Super Record groupset and Bora Ultra 35 wheels, finished with the EDDY70 icon. The same icon is also applied to the Cinelli handlebars, seatpost and saddle.

“...Eddy Merckx Cycles is drawing on the past, but only in terms of the design and colour, as the new steel bikes cannot be compared with the race machines from Eddy’s glory years. These are neither retro bikes, nor something for fixie-lovers; they are ultramodern, state-of-the-art racing bikes, improved with the best Columbus steel alloys and designed for superior performance," says the company.

Each of the 70 bikes will be numbered and signed by Eddy himself, and you can even choose where on the frame he applies his signature. You can choose which number bike you want, but you’ll need to be quick because, even at the extremely high price, we expect them to sell quickly. To lay your hands on one of these limited edition, and ultimately very desirable bikes, you need to head to the special website, www.eddy70.com, to order one. The first bikes will be delivered on 17 June, Eddy’s birthday.

The rejuvenated Eddy Merckx Cycles bikes have gone down well with road.cc testers in 2014, both the SanRemo76 and EMX-1 getting very good reveiws. The latest models, since the launch of the EMX525 back in 2012, draw inspiration for their names from Eddy Merckx’s vast and all-conquering racing history. With the renewed interest in steel bikes, often as an alternative to carbon and aluminium, it appears a good time for the brand to move into steel, and we can't wait to see what else they have planned. 

David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes

Add new comment

19 comments

Avatar
LJM | 9 years ago
0 likes

Those of you who can't afford one will just have to console yourselves with International Ride Like Eddy Day (17th June, or July, I forget)... Or I've an MX-Leader and everything has a price  3

Avatar
guildwheeler | 9 years ago
0 likes

Nice looking bike but sadly out of reach £wise for most. Purely for the rich (all the gear...) boys who want a new exclusive toy.

Avatar
Flying Scot | 9 years ago
0 likes

It's nice, a top end bike, at top end money.

It's shame that the majority are unlikely to ever be ridden.

Avatar
truffy | 9 years ago
0 likes
bikeylikey wrote:

They are taking the p#*!s with the amount of money they're asking. What makes it worth that much? ...blah blah blah... What makes this one worth four times that? Sounds like a marketing scam.

The clue is in 'limited edition'  29

And as crazy-legs suggests, you need to differentiate between Euros and pounds. Currency conversion immediately drops four large.

Avatar
PMK47 | 9 years ago
0 likes

A sound economics course teaches that "Demand determines all costs."

Avatar
Bikeylikey | 9 years ago
0 likes

They are taking the p#*!s with the amount of money they're asking. What makes it worth that much? You can get a Campag Super Record group for £1500, the Bora wheels for £1500 in Europe, fork don't know but cant' be more than £400, probably much less, finishing kit can't be more than £4-500. And those are retail, manufacturers get big discounts. All that means they must be asking at least ten thousand pounds for a steel frame. The top, most expensive builders don't ask for more than around £2,500 (e.g. Ricky Feather) in Columbus XCr, and that's for a very personalised, bespoke frame. What makes this one worth four times that? Sounds like a marketing scam.

Avatar
crazy-legs replied to Bikeylikey | 9 years ago
0 likes
bikeylikey wrote:

They are taking the p#*!s with the amount of money they're asking. What makes it worth that much? You can get a Campag Super Record group for £1500, the Bora wheels for £1500 in Europe, fork don't know but cant' be more than £400, probably much less, finishing kit can't be more than £4-500. And those are retail, manufacturers get big discounts. All that means they must be asking at least ten thousand pounds for a steel frame. The top, most expensive builders don't ask for more than around £2,500 (e.g. Ricky Feather) in Columbus XCr, and that's for a very personalised, bespoke frame. What makes this one worth four times that? Sounds like a marketing scam.

Good job they're not forcing you to buy one then...  29

It's 14000 Euros so about £10,000 which is about what a top end Pinarello can cost so actually when you factor in the exclusivity of it, not an unrealistic price.

I wouldn't buy one either but I can see why they'll sell out in a few hours.

Avatar
Baldy1alex | 9 years ago
0 likes

The only fault I can see with this is why the rear brake cable could not have been internally routed in top tube the extra gm's would have been far outweighed by the looks. My old special Ed. Merckx steel Corsa Extra has this with Columbus SLX tube set, at a lot less $s  35 but still its a LLLoovvlleeyy bike  24

Avatar
CygnusX1 | 9 years ago
0 likes

Our Hardman, who art in Belgium
Eddy be thy name
thy cobbles come,
thy hands are numb
from pavé
as it isn’t heaven.

Give us this day our limited edition Eddy70 bike (please!)

A-Merckx

Avatar
turboprannet | 9 years ago
0 likes

I'm sort of over it by now but you can PM me for my address to post the bike to. Cheers.

Avatar
bristol.bike | 9 years ago
0 likes

One of these in a Schwag grab would be very nice  4

Avatar
darrenleroy | 9 years ago
0 likes

But how much does it weigh?

Avatar
Yorky-M | 9 years ago
0 likes

for that £, i would need Eddy to take me for dinner and tell me how good a cyclist i was

Avatar
Simon.R | 9 years ago
0 likes

...and yet the date on the seat tube says June?

Avatar
turboprannet | 9 years ago
0 likes

it definitely said 16th July and 17th July when I commented, now I just look like an idiot.

Avatar
Kadinkski replied to turboprannet | 9 years ago
0 likes
turboprannet wrote:

it definitely said 16th July and 17th July when I commented, now I just look like an idiot.

Don't worry, its not you that looks like the idiot. His birthday is 17th June. http://www.eddy70.com

Avatar
David Arthur @d... replied to Kadinkski | 9 years ago
0 likes
Kadinkski wrote:
turboprannet wrote:

it definitely said 16th July and 17th July when I commented, now I just look like an idiot.

Don't worry, its not you that looks like the idiot. His birthday is 17th June. http://www.eddy70.com

It said July in the press release. I had no reason to doubt that, considering it's from his company, but I've just checked the internet and it does appear his birthday is actually June, so I'll just dive into the article to change it. You can all breathe a sigh of relief now

Avatar
timbola | 9 years ago
0 likes

Ha, ha ! Yes, indeed, interestingly exactly one month apart  1

Avatar
turboprannet | 9 years ago
0 likes

Eddy's so awesome he has two days for his birthday

Latest Comments