Is there any way to tell the age of a frame?

NativeTexan said:

I am refurbing an Eddy Merckx I have had for 15 years or so. I bought it used. Is there any way to know what year and model it might be? Several times I have been asked what year and model, to determine what parts might fit, I supose.

There appears to be a number on the bottom. Wher can you look it up, if this means anything?

I remember seeing wher some folks had some success by e-mailing Gita Bikes
gitabike.comsc loadpagez.cgiOpen ↗

(the US Distributor for Merckx); with the serial numbers to help ID a frame. Don't know if they would have any information on anything of that age, but it may be worth a shot.

also, try posting a pic here
http://www.bikeforums.net/forumdisplay.php?f=181

Thanks to both of you for those suggestions. I will post a picture on the other forum shortly.

I was happy to receive a reply this morning from Gita, the US distributor of Eddy Merckx bikes, that my frame is a 1985 with Italian thread BB, braze on FD adn 1" threaded headset, although they could not tell the model.

Thanks to you for pointing me in the right direction on this. Today I received the Campy SR brakes I bought off eBay and now the rebuilding can proceed apace. It might even be on the road this weekend, if everything goes together smoothly. Yippee!

hanks again!