molteni merckx question

[yeehawfactor]

while working at the shop today i was talking to one of the regulars who mentioned that he brought his old steel frame up from his parents house. since i love oldschool bikes, i questioned him about it. he said it's a molteni merckx, made by falcon, in decent condition. no rust, some blemishes, mainly where the previous owner, unaware of what the bike was, tried to put on a kickstand. he did say that the bike had a coat of black paint put on over top of the orange, which he said he has removed, with the original paint underneath mostly unharmed. i know that this is not worth as much as it could be, but what would be a fair offer? i'm going to see it tommorow, and really have no idea where to start. it seems that nos frames from the late 80s and early 90s on ebay routinely go in the $400 range. what might be a good place to start?

[Grant McLean]

It's likely a low end bike.

http://chuck.kichline.com/bikes/merckx/default.htm

There are british built "gas pipe" straight guage bikes that
were sold in the 70's that are crappy bikes not worth much
at all. The belgian made '80s frames are a world away
from the Falcon built bikes.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/vrbn-g-n.html

scroll down to "Merckx"

-g

[yeehawfactor]

thanks! i suppose that the dropouts would be a way to tell, right? i would assume that the falcon would not have campy dropouts. i could also assume that the nicer model would not say falcon anywhere on it, and would likely have a made in belgium sticker on it as well, correct?

[jerk]

a kickstand is not at all out of place on that bicycle.

jerk

[yeehawfactor]

it's a frameset, btw.

[Big Dan]

I had a 70's 531 Falcon with Campy dropouts and NR components that kicked a$$................ :p

[manet]

a kickstand is not at all out of place on that bicycle.

jerk


http://www.classicrendezvous.com/images/Spanish/Zeus/zeus2xS.jpg