It’s been quite a few years, but Eddy Merckx Bikes are back, rebooted with four new road, all-road & gravel bikes. With affordable prices, online customization, and even all-road & gravel options in steel, aluminum & carbon, these are the most accessible Merckx bikes yet.
Plus, to celebrate the reboot, all of the new carbon bikes are available in a new limited Eddy Merckx Retrosonic edition with styling inspired by a classic 1980s Merckx Panasonic team bike.
2024 Eddy Merckx Bikes reboot for Road, All-Road & Gravel
The newly updated 2024 Eddy Merckx Bikes range is a mix of newly refined bikes and some carry over models that we’ve seen evolves over the years.
Eddy Merckx 525 road race
Merckx carries over the same carbon 525 road race bike. One we’ve been keeping tabs on since it re-entered the race scene four and a half years ago. It was a solid aero all-rounder then, with its comfort-kinked seatstays. And still promises a balance of race-ready geometry and ultimate stiffness from the ultra-hi-mod carbon frame.
Eddy Merckx Mendrisio endurance road
A somewhat new road addition is the Merckx Mendrisio. In truth, a strikingly similar bike to the 5252, focused more on longer endurance road rides. The Mendrisio has almost exactly the same 525 geometry. Minus a tweak here & there. But it opts for a more compliant hi-mod carbon layup, a shallower seattube and round seatpost, and the option for 1-piece or conventional cockpits.
Eddy Merckx Mendrisio Pévèle all-road & gravel
Another new one is the Merckx Pévèle all-road to gravel bike. The all-road features similar styling to the endurance road Mendrisio. Merckx built the Pévèle to be lightweight, but a bit tougher and with more stable geometry. Plus all the mounting points you could need, and clearance for up to 42mm wide tires. Rooted in the old version of the Strasbourg, Merckx calls this new Pévèle their in-between bike. It’s a bike then, where you can use their online customization tool to build it more as road or gravel, depending on how you want to ride.
Eddy Merckx Strasbourg adventure gravel & bikepacking
Lastly, the long-running Strasbourg gravel bike gets a ground up overhaul to make it a modern gravel machine. Massive tire clearance up to 700 x 53mm. The Strasbourg borders on mountain bike territory. And you can even set it up with a gravel suspension fork. Its geometry is again more relaxed than the road race bikes with a lower center of gravity. But the Strasbourg retains a relatively steep head angle and low frame Stack for a quick handling ride quality. A 1x specific gravel bike, it also gets all of the adventure-ready bikepacking mounts & for fenders, too.
Limited Eddy Merckx Retrosonic edition carbon road & gravel bikes
In honor of the brand’s relaunch, Merckx have a new limited edition paint scheme dubbed Retrosonic. Developed as a “tribute to the legendary Panasonic cycling team that rode Eddy Merckx bikes in the 1980s“, the retro blue paintjob will be available on all of the 4 new carbon bikes. The limited edition Eddy Merckx Retrosonic finish will be available starting February 24th to coincide with the start of the spring’s cobblestone classics, at no additional charge.
During the first sketches, it already became clear that a ‘truthful interpretation’ would work very well. Of course, some tweaking was necessary, because the frame of our carbon bikes is simply different from the steel from the original Corsa road bike.
– Luc Doucé, Eddy Merckx Bikes designer/
What else is coming?
Beyond the current range of the four bikes above, there is also still the carry-over custom Merckx Corsa for road or gravel in titanium, steel or aluminum, made entirely in Belgium. They do ready-made geo or full custom, you just have to get in touch to figure out what you need.
In addition, Eddy Merckx Bikes says they will introduce 3 all-new bikes this coming year. “There will be sporty e-bikes and an addition in the performance segment. The cooperation with the UCI ProTour Team Flanders – Baloise will also be further anchored.” We’ll keep our eyes open to see what all that will entail.
Eddy Merckx Bikes – Pricing, availability & options
All of the revamped Eddy Merckx Bikes are available as separate framesets or customizable complete bikes. The top-tier 525 road frameset sells for 3500€, with complete customized Shimano 105 Di2 builds from 5000€. The Mendrisio frame is much more affordable at 2000€, with mechanical 105 builds from 2700€.
The all-road Pévèle brings it back up to 3000€ for a carbon frameset, and 105 mechanical completes from 3300€. While the carbon gravel Strasbourg starts at 2500€ for a frameset, and Rival 1×11 mechanical builds from just 3000€, if the Merckx site numbers add up correctly.
Both the Pévèle & Strasbourg are also offered in aluminum & steel framesets. That unquestionably helps lower the complete bike cost of entry as low as 1800€ with SRAM Apex 1×11.
All of the Merckx bikes are meant to be customized & ordered online, then delivered to your local bike shop for pick-up. That means you can adjust color or even semi-custom paint jobs to your liking, plus dial in fit with options like component sizing and cockpit style.
As a bonus this year of relaunching, Eddy Merckx Bikes offers the custom paint schemes at no additional cost in 2024. So there’s no reason not to get a one-of-a-kind Merckx bike. Then, built-to-order in Belgium by the Belgian Cycling Factory next to Ridleys. Therefore expect a bit of time from bike order to pick-up.
