For many amateur cyclists racing in the 1970s, the figure of Eddy Merckx dominated thoughts as an example of the ultimate professional. There was much celebration around the Cannibal’s 80th birthday as fans looked back upon an amazing career that has not been surpassed in the decades since. An entertaining YouTube video reveals what might be the ultimate fan tribute to Eddy, something that clearly required exceptional skill and diligence.
There is a YouTube channel named “John’s Vintage Bike Garage,” in which John, who lives near Chicago, shows his impressive bike collection or takes viewers to vintage bike events. He was involved in the bicycle retail end of things and seems to love pretty much all old racing bikes. He is a real enthusiast, which makes up for video techniques that may be lacking a bit. Don’t expect fancy graphics, dramatic background music or tight scripting but there is plenty of authenticity to go with the camera waving, along with brow-furrowing effort to try to pronounce foreign names.
In a half hour video which John apparently posted in November 2024 but recently showed up again on YouTube, he travelled to Golden, Colorado to visit Rich Gangl at his workshop. Gangl was a talented road racer in the 1970s and in 1979 began building his own frames, but also inspired by Merckx he built up a truly remarkable tribute collection, the subject of the video.
In the car enthusiast world, there are “tribute” cars which allow people to live out their car dreams. If you loved the Highland Green Mustang in the film “Bullitt,” getting the original car would have cost you $3.7 million when it sold at auction in 2020 but you can buy a 1968 Mustang Fastback and with the right paint and accessories, you have your own Bullitt Mustang. Rich Gangl has done the equivalent of this with bicycles as he has recreated all the bicycles used by Eddy Merckx in his professional career. And where he was unable to find a period-correct Colnago or De Rosa to restore, he went even further and utilized his framebuilder skills to build the bicycles from scratch. The results, along with an impressive collection of jerseys and photos (many signed), is jaw-dropping if you are a vintage bicycle enthusiast.
The video begins with Mr. Gangl talking about his time as a racer and the people he knew from then. He is standing in his workshop and my understanding from the video is that he is no longer actively building for customers but only for his own enjoyment. The workshop is absolutely spotless—it looks like no bike was ever built there!–and includes areas for mitering, brazing and painting, all very orderly. He could do everything except for chroming.
The subject of the video is the Merckx tribute collection and Mr. Gangl has arranged the bicycles in the workshop and he and John go over each of them in chronological order, with each bike having an information signboard in front of it, with related photos nearby and the appropriate jersey behind.
In 1965 Eddy Merckx joined his first pro team, Solo Superia, captained by Rik van Looy. The beautiful bicycle shown by Mr. Gangl is an exact replica of the one Merckx would have ridden as made by Remi Claes back in the day but is actually made by Rich Gangl. The componentry, including New Old Stock parts from Campagnolo, is immaculate and the entire bike represents years of research to get everything just right. This attention to detail is manifested in every bike displayed, the only difference with the actual Merckx bikes is that Gangl has built them in his own frame size so that he can ride them all!
Merckx moved on to Peugeot so a PX-10 is present, then on to the Italian Faema/Faemino team, where Mr. Gangl has built exact replicas of the Masi Speciales used by Merckx. Then it is on to the iconic orange Molteni bikes built by Colnago and De Rosa before Merckx ended his career with the FIAT and C&A teams.
Clearly the pride of the collection is the precise replica of the Colnago track bike on which Merckx set his One Hour Record in 1972 in Mexico City. The replica is truly exact, with even the rims drilled to save weight. Mr. Gangl is clearly proud that the bicycle weighs only a fraction more than the 12 pounds of original due to the few extra grams of the tires he has used compared to the now-unobtainable ones of the Merckx bike. He even has reproduction Windsor stickers put on the bike in Mexico at the last minute, to the consternation of Ernesto Colnago.
Of course, no collection every seems to be quite complete and when Mr. Gangl found a photograph of Eddy Merckx on the Masi track bike he used for Six Day Races, he had to find a Masi frame to replicate that one as well, noting specific differences such as Merckx’s use of road handlebars rather than track ones.
For those interested in the vintage bicycle hobby, this video is a look at an impressive collection that is not a mere accumulation of bicycles but a focused one capturing a career of a great cyclist but also highlighting the dedication of a collector whose ability and skills far surpass what most of us could imagine. It is nicely captured here for posterity by a collector recognizing that Rich Gangl’s Merckx project is something quite special.
“A Tribute to Eddy Merckx: Every Bike He Raced”
A YouTube video by John’s Vintage Bike Garage
November 2024
34 minutes long.
- You can watch on YouTube HERE.
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