I’ve got a possible opportunity to buy a Merckx Arcobaleno frameset. I’ve never heard about this particular model before, did a bit of research and found a bit of info, but not much. Tubes are Columbus Neuron, again something I’m not familiar with.
If anyone has got some info/comments they’d like to share on the model/tubing etc it would be great. Cheers.
I think the frame looks awesome. Here it is:
That’s some fat tubing!
That old magazine article where the dude compares the different Columbus tubes thought Neuron was the stiffest:
http://www.habcycles.com/m7.html
He did go on to say it was pretty marginal, and probably more related to the builder than the type of tubes.
I say buy it.
If it’s stiffest, and those tubes are as fat as they look, I’d say this frame will be stiff as. I think there are nicer frames for retro builds Seb.
^ It won’t have a hideously awesome paint job though 
Looks are everything WTP.
If it were about ‘niceness’, we’d all be riding Look KG 191’s and Cinelli Lasers. Wait, they look awesome too…
Thanks Pinzo, that’s some really good info. Pete, good point about the stiffness. Given I ride a carbon bike that’s about 10-15 years more recent than this Merckx I reckon I’d deal with the stiffness OK. Also it’s a racing bike, so stiff is good.
If it’s the right size and price you can’t go wrong but as far as racing, 1" threaded bike id much prefer modern stuff for going fast around corners
Dude doesn’t want to sell it after all, faaaark
Thanks for the tips and ideas though.