Bike Forums - Show Us Your Bikes Starting With M

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Show Us Your Bikes Starting With M

Here's your chance to show us your bikes alphabetically!

It goes like this: every fortnight I'll start a new thread with a new letter in alphabetical order. Post your classic and vintage bikes that correspond to that letter, eg; C = Cinelli, Carlton, Ciocc. M = Mercian, Masi, Motobecane. And so on and so forth. The letter of the fortnight should correspond with the marque, not the model. For example; you could post your Tommasini Prestige in the T thread, but not in the P thread. If you're not sure, take a look at the word on your downtube. There's a grey area with people's names - Bruce Gordon, Claud Butler, etc., but I'll leave it up to the owners which thread is preferred. Make sense?

So let's see your Mercians, Miyatas and Miele dishwashers...

Quote:

Originally Posted by qcpmsame (Post 21049092)

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...0cc74262b9.jpg
My 1980 Medici Pro Strada

Bill

Bill, are those tires 28mm - or bigger? Still looks like lots of room to the brake bolt, but how's clearance at the chainstays?

I'm thinking of going a little fatter than 23s or 25s for a few more gravel rides this summer. I'm shopping for tires.

That bike is still looking great, btw :)

DD

DD,
They are Vittoria Rallys, 25s, You might get 28s in, but the rear chain stay bridge would be the limiter. The seat stay bridge and front fork crown have plenty of clearance for larger tires (height and width.)

Thanks, that was last year's picture, it has green Newbaums tape now, grey Campag cable housings, and fresh Rallys mounted. I'm very grateful to you for everything SC:thumb:.

Bill

Well I have this odd duck Martelly bike. Didn't know what it was when I picked it up but others pointed me in Eddy Martens direction and he confirmed it's his.

https://pbase.com/jhuddle/image/169163524.jpg

https://pbase.com/jhuddle/image/168443382.jpg

https://pbase.com/jhuddle/image/168443386.jpg

All so nice. Here are mine!!!
1983 Mikkelsen Road Special and 1992 Merlin Titanium

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...03cccaf0a.jpeg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...fd2ae4436.jpeg

1980 Mars Exclusiv 3000

Mongoose IBOC Rockadile SX

'82 912

https://live.staticflickr.com/7886/3...8a1d7b53_b.jpg

I really like this one. Something special about it for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by qcpmsame (Post 21049105)

I see. Are they tubs? If they are, that's why I mistook them for 28s. They really look fat and cushy :)

You should post the new look. Always liked the way it came out with all the yellow; bet you're loving the ride. I am on mine more often than any of the others if that tells you anything.

DD

Quote:

Originally Posted by SurferRosa (Post 21049316)

'82 912

https://live.staticflickr.com/7886/3...8a1d7b53_b.jpg

I really like this one. Something special about it for me.

It's a sleeper, for sure - though I took a good look at it a couple weeks ago. Plus how can a bike go wrong with a black, gold and silver color scheme?

A most handsome ride.

DD

Mali 1991? - lovely retro MTB

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...71dff529eb.jpg

1992 Marin Bear Valley SE - I was hit by a car while riding this, frame got bent

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ac227baf4a.jpg

Merida Boston 1993 - built it for my mom, cockpit has changed since the photo

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9e793019d1.jpg

Mmm-mmm. So what did we see?

Magni
Maino
Mali
Malvern Star
Marin
Marinoni
Mariposa
Mars
Martelly
Masi
Massey Harris
McBain
McLean
MecaCycle
Medici
Meral
Mercian
Mercier
Merckx, Eddy
Merida
Merlin
Merz
Mesa, Raul
Metropole
Miele
Mikkelsen
Mirella
Miyata
Monark
Mondia
Mondonico
Mongoose
Montagner
Moser
Motobecane
Moulton
Muddy Fox
Murray

Quote:

Originally Posted by vp1337 (Post 21049348)

1992 Marin Bear Valley SE - I was hit by a car while riding this, frame got bent

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ac227baf4a.jpg

You know Thing?! How cool! ;)

As you all know, "M" stands for Australia which stands for Malvern Star. We love our Malvern Stars down here.

Here's mine. A 1938 version:

https://i.imgur.com/0Zfcmho.jpg

My 1983 Miyata Ridge Runner. Many magnificent miles made more manageable!

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ce572b1e50.jpg

M branded bare frames in the cue for building (for a long time).

1976 Mercian Olympic

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...fe613601d9.jpg

Early 80's Mercier Columbus SL tubing

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1a668907ac.jpg

1974 Motobecane Le Champion

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c837586fb4.jpg

1980 Motobecane Team Champion respray

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c72a1f9899.jpg

Motobecane bikes

1971 Motobecane Grand Record

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c7e873a55a.jpg

1972 Motobecane Le Champion eBay pic

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...747a5590d1.jpg

1974 Motobecane Grand Jubile

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...8aeb6fa95e.jpg

1980 Motobecane Grand Jubile

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a5bc8c2864.jpg

1982 Motobecane Team Champion

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...4c20f6ccf5.jpg

I also have a mid 70's Mondia Special and a 1985 Eddy Merckx.

verktyg :50:

First off is another Masi, this one is built at Rancho, possibly by Lippy or Ted Kirkbride. It may have been a custom considering the fender eyes and downtube decals.

Next up is my first Mondonico, a 52 mm frame, built up as I rode it from about 1998 through about 2015. I bought it about 1986 from a grad student in Denver who had wanted to race it in his spare time. He bought it new in Boulder, possibly from Vecchio's. The build as I got it was full Shimano 600 6207 2x7 friction shifted, with Mavic MA-40 clincher rims. They carried Conti Super Sport tires in 23 mm width, certainly upper end performance/training clinchers of the day. The Columbus sticker does not have any tubing designators on it, so it was either a leftover in Mondonico's shop, from before they used designators, or it was built as a tubing mix to suit Mondonico's preference or the importer's preference. I never liked the 600 derailleurs so I replaced them with Nuovo Record. Within the gear ranges of the time they worked as I expected, where the Shimanos did not. But in Colorado I did not warm up to the bike. I tried to bequest it to my wife, but the road-race handling did not suit her.

After we moved to Michigan I decided to rebuild and "blueprint" the bike with cold-setting, frame/fork alignment, and indexing - if I still didn't like it, it was going up for sale despite the "garage genius" aura of Mondonico. I refitted it for long rides in the rolling country hills of SE Michigan, with Record 53/39/30 triple and 13/29 cassette, a Racing Triple setup for it, custom Campy/Sapim CX/GP-4 wheels, a Stronglight A9, and Challenge 27 mm Parigi-Roubaix tubulars. I also cleaned and touched up the silver paint and waxed the frame. The bike came out in the beautiful shape you see here. The new wheels, cold-setting and frame alignment resulted in excellent handling and even a responsive but compliant ride - this is what Mondonico meant by "stage-race response and handling!" Loved it. I rode it a lot is SE Michigan - several metric centuries and many 45-mile loops on the roads between Ann Arbor, MI and Lansing, MI.

On one of our MUP rides Mrs. Road Fan yelled out "Look at the buck!" and I did, but I stayed on the path at that point. As I passed where the buck had entered the bike path I looked down the deer path to see if there were does following the buck. The road curved left and I did not! I had a 16 mph frontal collision with a, pile of river boulders which kinked the top and down tubes. My helmet was cracked in many places, but no concussion - Hurray for Giro! I walked the bike to the nearest town. I had the tubes replaced by Matt Assenmacher. He selected lighter tubes (per my request) and rebuilt it with less front-center (not my request) and the best set of decals he could find. I just finished re-assembling and tuning it all up - now it has the same Stronglight A9 headset, Veloce Ergopowers, a Chorus medium-cage 10 s rear mech, and a Centaur 50/34 Ultratorque chainset. I first built it with a Record 53/39 on a Record 102mm BB, but I wanted the deeper granny of the 50/34. The weight of the all-aluminum Compact is the same as the square-taper Record. Pedals are now MKS AW1 road platforms with toeclips/straps, replacing the Campy C-Record Strada that were on it. It took some work to get this all to work smoothly, because 50/34 with 13/29 rear is at the stated limit of the Campagnolo mid-reach derailleurs. With just a few short rides I can say it pedals very easily and climbs our short hill well, but the steering is quite quick. At the moment the tires are 21 mm Gommitalia Espresso tubulars, which seem to be latex and sit on the rim evenly and securely at 105 psi. I used Jantex tape to mount them. The frame should still clear 27 mm Parigi-Roubaix tubulars, but I'm not sure about 28's. The P-R tubulars are true to their stated width, and you still don't know what you'll get with clinchers. I need to add a "now" picture - I think with Assenmacher's paint and the all-silver build it's quite classic and nice. Oh, and I lost the black threadless stem you can see in the photo!

I don't have any good pictures of my 2005 Mondonico Futura Leggero ELOS handy at the moment, but I'll add them when I find them. I bought it while the other Mondonico was "laid up," from a private party who advertised on Paceline, fully built and ready to be fitted and ridden. What's technically interesting in this one is the ELOS tubeset. Columbus' strongest steel alloy Nivachrome, first over size diameters, and butting profiles something like .7-.4-.7 mm. Also it's a monostrut frame, so the brake bridge is like fork crown joining the two seatstays into a single strut that rises to join the seat lug. The most aggressive rides on it were along the Niagara River trails from Niagara-On-The-Lake, ON up-river nearly to Niagara Falls, ON, roughly a 35 mile loop and a 700 foot climb, if I recall correctly. With a compact and 13-26 it was wonderful - if any bike I have planes, it's this one.

Rounding out this set is not another M frame, but my 1980 Woodrup Giro set up for sport-touring: rear rack, 2x7 friction shifting, Conti Sprinters, Selle Anatomica saddle. As far as I can tell it is made from standard diameter Reynolds 531 with most likely the 8-5-8 TT and DT, .9-.6 seat tube. Good road compliance and some planing. It's ok with a small front bag - I cobbled on a Sunlight aluminum rack for the Northern Michigan supported tour and did two metrics in two consecutive days. I now have a taste for longer rides, but I need to start building through to next Spring! This picture is from about 2010, before I rebuilt it with a Racing Triple 3x7 with friction shifting, to better handle northern Michigan hills. This wheelset used the Shimano 600-6207 freewheel hubset from the original Mondonico build, and added a set of silver Sun CR-18 rims to house 32 mm wired-on Paselas. Those wheels are now on my Trek 610. With plastic fenders that's as large of a tire as I wanted to go, but without fenders it could most likely accept 38 mm tires. Always a smooth ride, we took her out on the Michigan paths a number of times. It rides great, shimmies a lot while descending with a rack trunk, not at all with a good-sized rear bag, and just a bit with the Sunlight rack and an old Rhode Gear front bag. I sold the frame to BF's Chris Wilson who enjoyed it well for several years, then he sold the frame, fork, and headset back to me a year or so back. Next build will involve going to indexed shifting, and attention to the frame: seatpost clamping, paint patching or upgrading, and then we'll see if it can become a randonneuse, perhaps taking the components from my Terraferma. I think I like 700c better than 650b.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...77b6d68b8f.jpg

1980 Masi GC
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7d4c2340cb.jpg

1984 (or so) Mondonico, Columbus tubing, tubulars, Campy 3x10.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f26684663.jpeg

Just for fun, 1980 Woodrup Giro