Eddy Merckx Cycles
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| Private | |
| Industry | Bicycles |
| Founded | 1980 |
| Headquarters | Belgium |
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Key people
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Eddy Merckx (founder), Kurt Moons (CEO) |
| Products | Bicycle and Related Components |
| Website | eddymerckx.com |
S.A. Cycles Eddy Merckx Rijwielen N.V., better known as Eddy Merckx, is a Belgian brand of high end road bikes, founded by former professional road cyclist Eddy Merckx in 1980. It is considered to be one of the most prestigious bicycle brands in the world.
Eddy Merckx, who is generally considered to be the greatest cyclist of all time, founded his eponymous bicycle company on March 28, 1980. Merckx had retired as a professional rider a little under two years earlier, and he made the manufacturing of high-end road bikes his new professional challenge.
Merckx got the idea to build bikes from Ugo De Rosa, who headed the Italian bike manufacturer De Rosa, and who had built bikes for Merckx throughout his career. Prior to starting his company, Merckx went to Italy, and got trained in the art of making bikes by De Rosa for several weeks. Conversely, Ugo De Rosa visited Eddy Merckx in Belgium to get to know his first employees.
Merckx built his factory in what were formerly farm stables in Meise, a small town in the outskirts of Brussels, and went to live in farm house nextdoors. Later, the company moved to the bordering municipality of Zellik, where it remains until today.
Among his first employees were some of his former Molteni team mates, the team with which he won three of his five Tour de France victories, three of his five Giro d’Italia victories, and two of his three World Championships. Among these employees were Jos Huysmans, Edouard Janssens, and his former team manager, Bob Lelangue. After Merckx’ team mates retired in the recent past, the company has continued the tradition to hire former professional riders to work for the company in the different roles.
At first, Merckx specialized in making steel frames, then the industry standard. Later on, he successfully switched over to aluminium and, briefly, titanium. Today, all but one of his bikes are made of carbon fiber, the lightest and stiffest material to make bikes. Eddy Merckx himself has resigned from company management and sold all his shares. Current ownership of the company lies with Diepensteyn NV.
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Wikipedia