We just finished detailing a stunning mid-nineties Eddy Merckx Strada OS made with oversized Columbus Brain tubes, produced exclusively for Karel Mintjens, a Flemish furniture maker. This rare piece of history is ready to hit the roads again.
Who was Karel Mintjens?
Karel Mintjens was a very decent amateur cyclist who became good friends with Eddy Merckx through his youngest brother, Frans. Frans Mintjens was one of the lieutenants of Eddy Merckx from 1969-1977, riding along his side at the Faema, Molteni and Fiat era.
Karel Mintjens and his brothers took over the family business producing high quality oak furniture. After his cycling career, Karel Mintjens started a local cycling team, riding blue Eddy Merckx bikes labelled with the company logo ‘Karel Mintjens’. Karel Mintjens bikes are nowadays considered real collector’s items amongst Belgian and international connaisseurs because only about 250 of these bikes were made over 2 decades. With some luck, you might find versions with different steel tubes, titan, aluminium or even carbon fibre. The Mintjens family tended to give them away to their customers on special occasions. So if you come across one, make sure to buy it since it is worth saving!
Specs
We built the bike with one of my favorite group sets of all time, the 8-speed Sachs New Success.
Are you curious why we mounted a Campagnolo crankset or do you want to find out more about the history of Sachs New Success? Read our dedicated blog post here.
- Brand: Karel Mintjens by Eddy Merckx
- Model: Strada O.S.
- Tubing: Columbus Brain Oversized
- Frame height / Seat tube length: 59 cc
- Top tube length:
- Wheelbase:
- Weight:
- Year of production: mid nineties
- Groupset: Sachs New Success 8-speed
- Wheels: Fir Aria
Hi,
I have one of these bikes, its almost as it left the factory only the pedals changed as I could not get on with the clip on’s, the bike was an auction prize at the Karel Mintjens factory, I found this article as I was thinking of selling the bike, any idea of their value would be appreciated.