Team Quick Step will ride new Eddy Merckx EMX-7 carbon flagship bikes come the 2011 season to replace the EMX-5 model used to briefly earn the yellow, green and polka dot jerseys in this year's Tour de France.
Compared to the EMX-5, the new EMX-7 boasts a more modern set of features, including a tapered 1-1/8 to 1-1/2in front end, wide-format press-fit bottom bracket and an integrated seatmast. Internal cable routing and a few aerodynamic shapes on the down tube, seat tube, fork blades and seatstays have been added for good measure.
Stiffness increases as well, partially due to the asymmetrical chainstays and larger tube sizes that the tapered front end and wider bottom bracket allow but also because of the more advanced fibre blend company engineers have integrated into the design – including extra-stiff pitch-type carbon fibres in select areas.
The new Eddy Merckx EMX-7 uses a press-fit bottom bracket that allows for a bigger down tube and more widely-set chainstays than the old EMX-5
Eddy Merckx will offer the EMX-7 in three colours for 2011, along with a limited edition 'Eddy Merckx Anniversary' complete bike to celebrate The Cannibal's 525 career race victories. In addition to special paint, the bike will come equipped with a unique set of Lightweight wheels with each of those victories written on the sidewalls. Rounding out the build is a Campagnolo Super Record group.
This limited edition version of the EMX-7 celebrates each of the Cannibal's 525 victories
Last year's EMX-5 also gets a redo, inheriting many of the design features incorporated into the EMX-7. Changes include a press-fit bottom bracket, tapered front end and internal cable routing, but it retains the same steady geometry that has long marked Eddy Merckx machines.
Eddy Merckx has redesigned the EMX-5, adding features included on the new EMX-7
Long-distance recreational riders haven't been ignored, either, with the slightly more upright EMX-3 gaining a tapered 1-1/8 to 1-1/4in front end and all-new carbon fork, plus revised front triangle tube shapes.
The EMX-3 has also been updated; this is the women's-specific EFX-3