Eddie Merckx 80's (needs some help!!!)

This if I am not mistaken a Merckx Golden Eagle, as I have an idential one which I am currently converting to a period fixie, I also have two others, a Molteni replica of the same vintage and a six month old LXM with Record groupset which is my summer bike

As a bit of background the early Merckx's like the Golden Eagle were a badge engineered product from the British Falcon factory and were designed by a renown British frame builder called Ernie Clements. My Golden Eagle was bought for me new by my dad in around 1980, nice to see another one has survived.
My Fixie is going to run 1980's Campag record hubs with Mavic Tubular rims, Athena crank and record front brake (just in case) Vintage Cinelli bars, Nuovo Record seatpost and Bianchi saddle, I am using some straight forks on mine from a Dave Marsh frame I have, whole bike finished off with latest generation Merckx bar tape

your frame looks a little dull, cut and polish will bring it up as new,the enamel is 10 feet thick and as hard as bell metal ! will post mine as soon as finished

definitley a piece of cycling history worth using, only other Golden Eagle I have ever seen

Simon

Granted, it may not be a fancy-steel frame, but it's a classic touring design. That funny lug on the right fork blade is for a headlamp; and the midget fenders are the coolest thing ever.

Big fatso tires make it comfortable. Bolt-on wheels are somewhat harder to steal. And you've got lugs to attach racks, both front and rear.

You'll need a new chain, obviously. And from the parts I can see, I'm guessing the ones that deserve replacement soonest are the brakes and levers (the suicide levers - so '70s). And in the last photo, it looks like there's rust on the rear rim, which means it's steel; that means that the wheels will be way heavier than they need to be. If that's the case (you can see if a magnet attaches to the rims), then upgrading to aluminum wheels will make it a much easier ride, since you'll be hauling less weight around.

It's hard to tell; does the rear wheel have 5 gears, or 6? If it's 5, then the hub spacing is probably 120mm, which would make fixie-fication pretty easy just by swapping out the wheel. If it's 6, then the spacing is probably 126mm (the '80s 6/7-speed road standard), where wheels are harder to come by. However, you could then goose it up to 7 gears, if you wanted.

If you could go through and list the parts on the bike (if not the models, at least by manufacturer), we may be able to give you better advice. It looks like a Huret rear derailleur, but that's as much as I can make out.

You might want to haul it into your local bike shop to have them take a look, and get a chain fitted. They'll probably be amazed to see something like this rolling around; at any rate, having a friendly relationship with your local bike shops is invaluable when you're getting an oldster working again.

In case I hadn't made myself clear, I definitely think this would be way cooler as a geared bike than as Yet Another Fixie. I think this has the potential to be a really slick townie bike, with racks for hauling stuff around (and maybe doing a long tour someday).

Leave it as is. It's not a really nice Merckx or anything so I wouldn't be worried about desecrating a beautiful frame. But I also don't think it's worth converting.

That brazed on reflector holder probably means it's a hi-ten frame (heavier and cheaper), you'd probably want to replace the fork or saw off the braze on. Then you'd probably want to repaint the frame. Then it wouldn't say Merckx and you'd just have a cheap hi-ten frame with road dropouts. You'd need a new wheelset, or to have the rear wheel rebuilt.

If you've got a lot of fixed gear parts around, then a conversion would be practical. If not, I think a new Mercier Kilo TT or Winsor The Hour from bikesdirect.com would be a better choice for a starter fixed gear. (I've been riding fixed for 8 years and I love my Kilo, even with the stock wheels)

Sorry about the double post