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Test ride an alloy Eddy Merckx and you could win a jersey signed by The Cannibal

Written by Tyler Benedict
8 Comments
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The Eddy Merckx camp is making a big deal of their alloy road bikes, putting their ride quality and performance on par with carbon fiber frames. As an incentive for you to test ride one and see for yourself, they’re giving away 10 autographed Demarchi cotton cycling jerseys signed by Eddy himself.

The offer is open to U.S. residents only. To enter to win one of the jerseys, just test ride any (or all) of their aluminum bikes before May 4, 2016, and submit a photo of you with the bike online. Their alloy models include the Strasbourg gravel bike, the men’s Blockhaus road bike and the women’s Montreal. So, why push premium alloy? Here’s what they have to say:

Just as Eddy himself never compromised, so we will not accept a sub-par product to hit a defined price point. By choosing for ultra-high quality alloy frames for our Prestige Alloy line instead of affordable carbon, we stick true to our philosophy of only offering top level workmanship. These bikes offer double-pass welds with tubing that has been formed in three stages (no hydroforming) to make a frame worthy of the very best groupsets the market has to offer.

Prize value is $199 each. Enter the contest here, full terms and conditions here.
Tyler Benedict
11,282 articles

Tyler Benedict is the Founder of Bikerumor.com, where he’s been writing about the latest bikes, components, and cycling technology for almost two decades. Prior to that, Tyler launched and built multiple sports nutrition brands and consumer goods companies, mostly as an excuse to travel and ride in new places.

Based in North Carolina, Tyler also loves the Vanlife & family adventure travel and is always on the lookout for the next shiny new part and off-grid adventure.

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TomM
TomM
8 years ago

Would be great to see Merckx scandium frames return. I still ride my Team SC from 2004 sometimes. It’s a nearly perfect bike and would compare favorably to many carbon bikes in 2016.

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Antipodean_eleven
Antipodean_eleven
8 years ago
Reply to  TomM

@JBikes Not at all… when done well.

@Craig, the wall variation issue is mostly overcome by custom drawing the ‘raw’ tube with the appropriate butting where the meal thins out the most, ensuring an even wall thickness. Multistage forming is often the best call for complex forms but is mostly used in sheet stamping, forging etc. As Hydroforming requires tooled steel moulds, similar to those used for carbon, doing multi stage forms I suspect would be rather and expensive undertaking. probably also, when weighing up the set up costs, the move to carbon makes more sense for the given cost vs. return.

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JBikes
JBikes
8 years ago

Is hydroformijg a poor method of tube manipulation? Seems implied. Also seems implied that one can’t hydroform in multiple steps/stages

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Craig
Craig
8 years ago
Reply to  JBikes

@JBikes. My understanding is that hydroforming can be susceptible to tube wall thickness becoming uneven. I think this is one reason why multi-stage forming is increasingly used when forming radical shapes as small increments in shaping is easier to control the wall thickness. As far as hydro-forming being a poor method I’m sure whatever method is used, (i.e., mechanical manipulation, air pressure, and variation of heat) it can be done well or poor if used in an ideal or non-ideal context. Technically, double-pass welds are not a good idea on aluminium, so to me, stating no-hydroforming in these frames would not at all influence my buying decision. I’d be concerned about weight and looks….

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Antipodean_eleven
Antipodean_eleven
8 years ago
Reply to  Craig

@JBikes, no not at all… if done right.

@Craig, the wall thickness variation is overcome by custom butting the ‘raw’ tube that is used. By adding more butting where the metal stretches the most, there is a much greater evenness in the finished wall section, unless of course that wall section is also designed to have butting through it.

Double pass etc., mostly used in things like stamping and forging, I would imagine to be insanely expensive as multiple tools are needed; hydroforming requires tooled steel dies similar to injection or carbon moulding. I would imagine. if looking at a multi pass hyrdoform, the option of carbon would seem a better option considering the cost vs. return vs. performance equation.

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Antipodean_eleven
Antipodean_eleven
8 years ago
Reply to  Antipodean_eleven

Oh… and mechanical forming, drawing, butting etc. is far far more cost effective than hydroforming, so “has been formed in three stages (no hydroforming)…” I think is more a statement of ‘marketgineeering’ that honestly I feel makes them look ‘cheaper’, not higher quality 🙂

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anonymous
anonymous
8 years ago

The tooling for hydroforming is expensive, although not as expensive as forging tooling. That doesn’t mean cost per piece is expensive, just like forging is actually fairly economical if you have the volume.

It means whatever factory these are made at, they probably don’t have tube hydroforming machines.

And yes, mechanical forming has better control over wall thickness, because hydroforming has to expand and stretch the metal. You have to compensate for this during butting, and probably factor in a larger margin of error. Even if you butt to compensate, wall thickness might not be even all around depending on how it stretches to a non-round shape. On the other hand, hydroforming gives you a lot more control over the shape.

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JBikes
JBikes
8 years ago

My question was facetious. Hydroforming is as good or better than manual manipulation unless all one wants/needs is simple shapes and normal butting. Wall thickness? That is more easily controlled and final stresses are lower. Hydroforming can be done is small stages as well, but likely needs not be if controlled well and as Anti said, probably not cost effective.

My questions were more poking fun at their sales material. Probably good bikes, but their marketing is meh.

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