Originally Posted by
JimR56
snip . . .
I know Merciers are not all that desirable to most serious bike enthusiasts, but frankly I'm not really a road bike connoisseur (not yet, anyway!). I look at bikes in general as functional and useful works of art. I could elaborate on that, but for my purposes here I just would say that I think this bike is beautiful (and has a sentimentality factor that's pretty strong for me), and I look forward to getting it tuned up and adjusted at my LBS, and riding it soon.
snip . . .
I agree with pretty much everything you said that bikes are functional and useful works of art but I'll disagree that vintage Merciers are not desirable to serious bike enthusiasts. Plenty of people love old French bikes and there are a lot of great Merciers. Yours is one of them.
This is my 70s Mercier 300 as I bought it; I have not yet restored mine:
