eBay Finds: Replica 7-Eleven team-edition Eddy Merckx Corsa Extra bike

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This 'eBay Find' of a replica 7-Eleven team-edition Eddy Merckx bike – made up of a reissued 2007 Corsa Extra frame with a mixture of eight-speed Campagnolo Super Record and Record components – is certainly going to get late 1980s and early 1990s fans of professional cycling salivating.

Check out the 7-Eleven Merckx bike on eBay here

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Not too long ago, we featured among Cyclingnews' eBay Finds a similar Eddy Merckx Corsa Extra frameset – but in Motorola team colours. People readily remember Merckx's bike company's long-time association with Motorola, but in the team's previous guise as 7-Eleven, they also rode on Merckx bikes for the 1989 and 1990 seasons – the last two years with the convenience store as the squad's main sponsor.

The bike brand Huffy is perhaps better remembered as the supplier of bikes to 7-Eleven, but those frames in the 1980s were often, under the paintwork, built by a number of more renowned framebuilders.

Eddy Merckx, then, was considered somewhat of a more serious option, and in 1989 and 1990 the team rode on the steel Corsa Extra model, built with Columbus SLX tubing, but steel would later give way – for most professional riders, at least – to aluminium, titanium and then carbon-fibre frame materials.

During those two seasons on their Eddy Merckx machines, 7-Eleven's victories included Norwegian Dag Otto Lauritzen's overall win at the 1989 Tour de Trump, 1990 stage wins at the Tour de Suisse and Critérium International courtesy of Andy Hampsten and Ron Kiefel, respectively, and, appropriately, the 1989 GP Eddy Merckx time trial, won by Britain's Sean Yates.

According to the seller, this frame is a limited-edition 2007 re-release of the Corsa Extra, and it has been built up with a full Campagnolo groupset, including eight-speed bar-end shifters and an 'Eddy Merckx' pantographed Campagnolo chainset.

Other details include a Merckx edition Cinelli stem and seatpin, on which sits a 2007 Selle Italia Flite saddle in 'Italian Tricolore' colours – which of course just happen to be the same colours as the 7-Eleven team's kit and bikes – and custom red Velocity clincher rims with Campagnolo hubs and green Michelin Axial Pro Light tyres.

If some of those newer items of finishing kit aren't quite up your alley, the US-based seller is prepared to part with the frame only – size 59cm – for US$1,600 (£1,270), while the complete package as pictured will set you back US$3,400 (£2,700).

We're constantly on the lookout for unique and rare cycling relics on eBay. If you have any suggestions or leads, please send them to cyclingnews@cyclingnews.com with 'eBay Finds' in the subject line.