A fantastic 'Molteni orange' machine, as used by Eddy Merckx
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1973 Colnago Super Pantografata in 'Molteni orange' on eBay(Image credit: diggers158 / eBay)
The bike’s Campagnolo Nuovo Record brake levers – drilled, with milled Colnago ace-of-clubs logo and pantograph details(Image credit: diggers158 / eBay)
Molteni’s Eddy Merckx – on his Colnago Super – leads Roger De Vlaeminck (Brooklyn) at the 1973 Paris-Roubaix(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
The bike’s beautiful 'pantographed' Campagnolo Nuovo Record seatpost(Image credit: diggers158 / eBay)
Colnagos don’t get much better than this 1973 Colnago Super Pantografata(Image credit: diggers158 / eBay)
Up next in our series of fantastic eBay finds is this superb Campagnolo-equipped Colnago Super Pantografata bike from 1973 adorned in the famous orange colour of five-time Tour de France winner Eddy Merckx's Molteni squad, and used by the team that year.
From what we understand, Molteni's Colnago Super frames in 1973 were in fact badged as Eddy Merckx frames during a time when 'The Cannibal' was beginning to find his way towards establishing his own bike company after he retired in 1978, but as a rider was more exacting than most.
Merckx and bike-company founder Ernesto Colnago worked closely together on the design of the bikes Merckx used while he was at Molteni. Perhaps most important of all is the fact that Colnago was actually the head mechanic at the team during that time.
The following year, however, the team's Eddy Merckx-badged bikes were made by De Rosa, while Colnago continued to provide frames to the Italian Scic team and, from 1975, the Kas and Zonca-Santini squads.
The 'Pantografata' part of the name of this special-edition Super frame refers to the diamond shapes of a pantograph parallelogram drawing instrument, and multi-coloured, 'rainbow jersey' diamonds appear all over the bike, alongside Colnago's playing-card ace-of-clubs logo.
According to a tech piece on Cyclingnews back in 2014 about a 1972 Colnago Super Pantografata, the pantograph-etching work carried out on the frames and the Cinelli and Campagnolo components was all done in-house by Colnago.
Molteni’s Eddy Merckx – on his Colnago Super – leads Roger De Vlaeminck (Brooklyn) at the 1973 Paris-Roubaix (Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
The seller's photographs of the bike – listed on eBay.co.uk for £5,995 (US$7,400) – show 'pantographed' milled slots on the seat pin, stem, and the drilled Campagnolo Nuovo record brake levers, while the Colnago ace-of-clubs logo features on the chainset, stem, seatpost and levers.
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The bike’s Campagnolo Nuovo Record brake levers – drilled, with milled Colnago ace-of-clubs logo and pantograph details (Image credit: diggers158 / eBay)
It comes as the factory specification – Columbus steel tubing with a Campagnolo Nuovo Record groupset and seatpost, and Cinelli handlebars, stem and saddle, while the wheels are Nisi rims with Nuovo Record hubs – and it has new inner cables, handlebar tape and brake hoods and period-correct Clement tubulars.
For anyone with £6,000 burning a hole in their pocket, it doesn't get much better than this.
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