Show Your "American Builders Only" Steel Rides
#301
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Totally shilling here, but I love my Soma San Marcos. And I'm selling it.
Soma San Marcos Randonneur/Touring
Soma San Marcos Randonneur/Touring
Also, buy a membership. Necessary to post an ad.
#302
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Well, here are a couple of stainless steel bikes built by one of my favorite American builders - myself!
Argento by trentschler2001, on Flickr
Columbus stainless tubes. Silver brazed. Phil hubs. White freewheel. by trentschler2001, on Flickr
Argento by trentschler2001, on Flickr
Columbus stainless tubes. Silver brazed. Phil hubs. White freewheel. by trentschler2001, on Flickr
#304
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Picked this one up a few years ago. NOS frame. Still in the queue to be built.
Last edited by satbuilder; 03-20-16 at 10:56 AM. Reason: .
#306
What??? Only 2 wheels?
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Don't think I posted this one in this thread. Carlsbad Masi:
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Real cyclists use toe clips.
With great bikes comes great responsibility.
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#309
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Bikes: Merz x 5 + Specialized Merz Allez x 2, Strawberry/Newlands/DiNucci/Ti x3, Gordon, Fuso/Moulton x2, Bornstein, Paisley,1958-74 Paramounts x3, 3rensho, 74 Moto TC, 73-78 Raleigh Pro's x5, Marinoni x2, 1960 Cinelli SC, 1980 Bianchi SC, PX-10 X 2
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My 1981 Greg Diamond, I am the original owner, Greg built and painted this for me. He was a lovely gent
531 DB with straight gauge down tube for stiffness. Double eyelets for racks and fenders
Cinelli Handlebars/Stem
Campy NR Headset
Campy NR Brakes
Campy high flange to 27" Mavic
Phil Wood Bottom Bracket
Campy seat post with Brooks Professional
Campy SR Pedals
TA Crankset 48, 37,26 and 13-21 freewheel
Had it built as sports touring bike. At the time I was riding centuries and going for long tours
I no longer ride this bike. If you have personal connection with Greg and those days in SB get in touch. Maybe we can work something out
531 DB with straight gauge down tube for stiffness. Double eyelets for racks and fenders
Cinelli Handlebars/Stem
Campy NR Headset
Campy NR Brakes
Campy high flange to 27" Mavic
Phil Wood Bottom Bracket
Campy seat post with Brooks Professional
Campy SR Pedals
TA Crankset 48, 37,26 and 13-21 freewheel
Had it built as sports touring bike. At the time I was riding centuries and going for long tours
I no longer ride this bike. If you have personal connection with Greg and those days in SB get in touch. Maybe we can work something out
#310
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Send me an email harmless.eccentric@gmail.com
#311
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#313
Senior Member
Not a lot of Merz bikes around. I picked up a weird Merz from Sellwood Cycle in Portland, OR, maybe 10yrs ago? It had Nervex Pro lugs, which I hadn't ever seen on a Merz, and a seatstay-mount generator braze-on, and tiny headlight wire tubes brazed on the sides of the top tube brake casing braze-ons. It's hard to describe, but the frame had a kind of slap-dash feel to it, like something I would build for myself if I were a framebuilder, but not for a customer. I don't mean that in a negative sense at all, it just had a homebrew feeling.
Jim Merz joined the Classic Rendezvous list a few years later, so I asked him about the frame and sent him the serial number. Turned out my hunch was right, it was one of the first frames Jim built, and he built it for himself as a commuter. It was more than homebrew, it was built from two crashed Raleigh Pro frames. Early on Jim would get trashed frames from Raleigh and play with them. His commuter was the front half a Pro frame with a trashed rear triangle attached to the rear half of a Pro frame with buckled top/downtubes. And he threw on a bunch o' braze-ons for lighting and such.
To Jim's credit, even though he was very excited to find out this sucker still existed, he didn't try to snatch it from my hands. But he did let me know that if I should ever think about selling it, he'd want to be first in line. I figured it couldn't ever mean more to me than it would to him (Jim's house in Malibu burned to the ground one wildfire season, and he lost just about everything), so I sold it to him right away. A while later we met for the first time at CR's Cirque. Jim had the bike with him, but he had taken the torch to it again to remove the weird bits, and then had Keith Anderson paint it for him. It looked incredible, and I immediately regretted selling it to him. Well, not really, but you know what I mean...
Before, when I owned it; note the genuine Merz Tripelizer middle/granny ring:
After Jim got it back:
Jim Merz joined the Classic Rendezvous list a few years later, so I asked him about the frame and sent him the serial number. Turned out my hunch was right, it was one of the first frames Jim built, and he built it for himself as a commuter. It was more than homebrew, it was built from two crashed Raleigh Pro frames. Early on Jim would get trashed frames from Raleigh and play with them. His commuter was the front half a Pro frame with a trashed rear triangle attached to the rear half of a Pro frame with buckled top/downtubes. And he threw on a bunch o' braze-ons for lighting and such.
To Jim's credit, even though he was very excited to find out this sucker still existed, he didn't try to snatch it from my hands. But he did let me know that if I should ever think about selling it, he'd want to be first in line. I figured it couldn't ever mean more to me than it would to him (Jim's house in Malibu burned to the ground one wildfire season, and he lost just about everything), so I sold it to him right away. A while later we met for the first time at CR's Cirque. Jim had the bike with him, but he had taken the torch to it again to remove the weird bits, and then had Keith Anderson paint it for him. It looked incredible, and I immediately regretted selling it to him. Well, not really, but you know what I mean...
Before, when I owned it; note the genuine Merz Tripelizer middle/granny ring:
After Jim got it back:
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#314
Senior Member
Can't remember if I posted my Kelly Bone Stock geared build yet. Tig'd steel, but steel. light and fast. The frame color is a deep, dark blue that's very close to black. The blue's hard to see even in sunlight, so I to brighten these shot considerably to let some blue creep in.
I've also got the Bone Stock's sister or cousin, a Kelly Knobby-X, also tig'd. Just posted a coupla pix on the "C&V Gravel Grinder" thread, but here she is again. Chris calls this color "Toothpaste."
Kelly Bone Stock:
Kelly Knobby-X:
I've also got the Bone Stock's sister or cousin, a Kelly Knobby-X, also tig'd. Just posted a coupla pix on the "C&V Gravel Grinder" thread, but here she is again. Chris calls this color "Toothpaste."
Kelly Bone Stock:
Kelly Knobby-X:
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#315
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[QUOTE=pcb;18629667]Not a lot of Merz bikes around. I picked up a weird Merz from Sellwood Cycle in Portland, OR, maybe 10years ago
I do know exactly what you mean. Such a cool story, which does not surprise me. I like nothing better than hearing about these sort of fabulous creations coming full circle so to speak. It of course brings up many more questions, were you in PDX, how did you know about Jim, etc, yada, yada, more cool details please. If you follow my postings back to page 11, it just scratches the surface of this one , which was his first purpose built for himself and just like yours, is not really the same as when he built it. It also came from Sellwood cycles as did the other one that I actually got first.
I do know exactly what you mean. Such a cool story, which does not surprise me. I like nothing better than hearing about these sort of fabulous creations coming full circle so to speak. It of course brings up many more questions, were you in PDX, how did you know about Jim, etc, yada, yada, more cool details please. If you follow my postings back to page 11, it just scratches the surface of this one , which was his first purpose built for himself and just like yours, is not really the same as when he built it. It also came from Sellwood cycles as did the other one that I actually got first.
#316
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Not a lot of Merz bikes around. I picked up a weird Merz from Sellwood Cycle in Portland, OR, maybe 10yrs ago? It had Nervex Pro lugs, which I hadn't ever seen on a Merz, and a seatstay-mount generator braze-on, and tiny headlight wire tubes brazed on the sides of the top tube brake casing braze-ons. It's hard to describe, but the frame had a kind of slap-dash feel to it, like something I would build for myself if I were a framebuilder, but not for a customer. I don't mean that in a negative sense at all, it just had a homebrew feeling.
Jim Merz joined the Classic Rendezvous list a few years later, so I asked him about the frame and sent him the serial number. Turned out my hunch was right, it was one of the first frames Jim built, and he built it for himself as a commuter. It was more than homebrew, it was built from two crashed Raleigh Pro frames. Early on Jim would get trashed frames from Raleigh and play with them. His commuter was the front half a Pro frame with a trashed rear triangle attached to the rear half of a Pro frame with buckled top/downtubes. And he threw on a bunch o' braze-ons for lighting and such.
To Jim's credit, even though he was very excited to find out this sucker still existed, he didn't try to snatch it from my hands. But he did let me know that if I should ever think about selling it, he'd want to be first in line. I figured it couldn't ever mean more to me than it would to him (Jim's house in Malibu burned to the ground one wildfire season, and he lost just about everything), so I sold it to him right away. A while later we met for the first time at CR's Cirque. Jim had the bike with him, but he had taken the torch to it again to remove the weird bits, and then had Keith Anderson paint it for him. It looked incredible, and I immediately regretted selling it to him. Well, not really, but you know what I mean...
Before, when I owned it; note the genuine Merz Tripelizer middle/granny ring:
After Jim got it back:
Jim Merz joined the Classic Rendezvous list a few years later, so I asked him about the frame and sent him the serial number. Turned out my hunch was right, it was one of the first frames Jim built, and he built it for himself as a commuter. It was more than homebrew, it was built from two crashed Raleigh Pro frames. Early on Jim would get trashed frames from Raleigh and play with them. His commuter was the front half a Pro frame with a trashed rear triangle attached to the rear half of a Pro frame with buckled top/downtubes. And he threw on a bunch o' braze-ons for lighting and such.
To Jim's credit, even though he was very excited to find out this sucker still existed, he didn't try to snatch it from my hands. But he did let me know that if I should ever think about selling it, he'd want to be first in line. I figured it couldn't ever mean more to me than it would to him (Jim's house in Malibu burned to the ground one wildfire season, and he lost just about everything), so I sold it to him right away. A while later we met for the first time at CR's Cirque. Jim had the bike with him, but he had taken the torch to it again to remove the weird bits, and then had Keith Anderson paint it for him. It looked incredible, and I immediately regretted selling it to him. Well, not really, but you know what I mean...
Before, when I owned it; note the genuine Merz Tripelizer middle/granny ring:
After Jim got it back:
btw, love those White Bros cranks on the Kelly, looks hot. I'm thinking about the same for my Hunqapillar.
#317
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Thats an awesome story @pcb!
btw, love those White Bros cranks on the Kelly, looks hot. I'm thinking about the same for my Hunqapillar.
btw, love those White Bros cranks on the Kelly, looks hot. I'm thinking about the same for my Hunqapillar.
My favorite "modern" crankset by far. I have one that's destined for my Monstercross.
#318
Senior Member
Went back to read through your posts again, very cool you wound up with one of Jim's own bikes, too. And with his racks! He's mighty proud of those racks, with reason.
I've only spent a couple/few days in PDX, I discovered Sellwood's used bike listings on this thing called the internet. Being local to PDX, kinda makes sense they've had a bunch o' Merzes move through. It seems like a pretty cool shop from what I've seen on the interwebs. I bought one or two other bikes from them, and they sent me a Sellwood "Team S&M" cap.
I bought the Merz in '02, sold it to Jim in '09, saw it at Cirque in '10. I sold it to him for pretty much what it cost me, maybe $400 or so? I met him at Cirque, mentioned the frame, and without realizing I was the one that sold it to him, he said: "Yeah, some guy contacted me through CR and sold it to me for some ridiculously low price..." I told him I was, in fact, that same fool, and that if my finances were different I would have been happy to give it him for free. I think Jim's a great guy who's done a lot in and for the bike biz, so I didn't feel the need to profit from reuniting him with his frame.
Then he had to go make it all better and prettier and all... :^**
[QUOTE=merziac;18629912]
I've only spent a couple/few days in PDX, I discovered Sellwood's used bike listings on this thing called the internet. Being local to PDX, kinda makes sense they've had a bunch o' Merzes move through. It seems like a pretty cool shop from what I've seen on the interwebs. I bought one or two other bikes from them, and they sent me a Sellwood "Team S&M" cap.
I bought the Merz in '02, sold it to Jim in '09, saw it at Cirque in '10. I sold it to him for pretty much what it cost me, maybe $400 or so? I met him at Cirque, mentioned the frame, and without realizing I was the one that sold it to him, he said: "Yeah, some guy contacted me through CR and sold it to me for some ridiculously low price..." I told him I was, in fact, that same fool, and that if my finances were different I would have been happy to give it him for free. I think Jim's a great guy who's done a lot in and for the bike biz, so I didn't feel the need to profit from reuniting him with his frame.
Then he had to go make it all better and prettier and all... :^**
[QUOTE=merziac;18629912]
Not a lot of Merz bikes around. I picked up a weird Merz from Sellwood Cycle in Portland, OR, maybe 10years ago
I do know exactly what you mean. Such a cool story, which does not surprise me. I like nothing better than hearing about these sort of fabulous creations coming full circle so to speak. It of course brings up many more questions, were you in PDX, how did you know about Jim, etc, yada, yada, more cool details please. If you follow my postings back to page 11, it just scratches the surface of this one , which was his first purpose built for himself and just like yours, is not really the same as when he built it. It also came from Sellwood cycles as did the other one that I actually got first.
I do know exactly what you mean. Such a cool story, which does not surprise me. I like nothing better than hearing about these sort of fabulous creations coming full circle so to speak. It of course brings up many more questions, were you in PDX, how did you know about Jim, etc, yada, yada, more cool details please. If you follow my postings back to page 11, it just scratches the surface of this one , which was his first purpose built for himself and just like yours, is not really the same as when he built it. It also came from Sellwood cycles as did the other one that I actually got first.
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#319
Senior Member
Thanks, Jim's a good dude, deserves some blasts from his past.
The White crank kinda fell in my lap on ebay. Well, not really, that means I bid on it and won. The Knobby-X is an older one with bent chainstays, and it's tough trying to use cross-stock 34/36t inner chainrings. The drive-side crank has to sit way outboard for the inner ring to clear the stays, so the Q gets high and the chainline gets wonky. I really didn't want to go triple, I'm too lazy to shift 3 rings these days, and I didn't want to try to work a double on an ATB crank. All the double cranks I was sitting on were 110bcd, so 34t was the smallest I could use. I tried setting up a 110/74bcd triple with a 30t granny/42t middle ring and a chainguard in place of the outer ring, but the shifting sucked.
So I was thinking about maybe finding a TA Pro 5 Vis crank, when the White popped up on ebay. It's a 46/30, and the 30 is smaller enough to minimize the chainline probs, and it shifts easy, and it's a boutique-ey blingy thing that meshes OK with the Paul brakes and Chris King headset and Thomson post and etc, etc, etc. I did also get a White triple just in case the double didn't work out, but didn't have to use it.
I think I have a pic with the Ultegra double/triple chainguard contraption. Looked OK, but wasn't fun to shift:
The White crank kinda fell in my lap on ebay. Well, not really, that means I bid on it and won. The Knobby-X is an older one with bent chainstays, and it's tough trying to use cross-stock 34/36t inner chainrings. The drive-side crank has to sit way outboard for the inner ring to clear the stays, so the Q gets high and the chainline gets wonky. I really didn't want to go triple, I'm too lazy to shift 3 rings these days, and I didn't want to try to work a double on an ATB crank. All the double cranks I was sitting on were 110bcd, so 34t was the smallest I could use. I tried setting up a 110/74bcd triple with a 30t granny/42t middle ring and a chainguard in place of the outer ring, but the shifting sucked.
So I was thinking about maybe finding a TA Pro 5 Vis crank, when the White popped up on ebay. It's a 46/30, and the 30 is smaller enough to minimize the chainline probs, and it shifts easy, and it's a boutique-ey blingy thing that meshes OK with the Paul brakes and Chris King headset and Thomson post and etc, etc, etc. I did also get a White triple just in case the double didn't work out, but didn't have to use it.
I think I have a pic with the Ultegra double/triple chainguard contraption. Looked OK, but wasn't fun to shift:
Thats an awesome story @pcb!
btw, love those White Bros cranks on the Kelly, looks hot. I'm thinking about the same for my Hunqapillar.
btw, love those White Bros cranks on the Kelly, looks hot. I'm thinking about the same for my Hunqapillar.
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#320
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Bikes: Merz x 5 + Specialized Merz Allez x 2, Strawberry/Newlands/DiNucci/Ti x3, Gordon, Fuso/Moulton x2, Bornstein, Paisley,1958-74 Paramounts x3, 3rensho, 74 Moto TC, 73-78 Raleigh Pro's x5, Marinoni x2, 1960 Cinelli SC, 1980 Bianchi SC, PX-10 X 2
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Thanx for another chapter pcb, I love it, although I would not have let it go but good on ya and I know Jim is a happy guy getting it back.
#321
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Bikes: Merz x 5 + Specialized Merz Allez x 2, Strawberry/Newlands/DiNucci/Ti x3, Gordon, Fuso/Moulton x2, Bornstein, Paisley,1958-74 Paramounts x3, 3rensho, 74 Moto TC, 73-78 Raleigh Pro's x5, Marinoni x2, 1960 Cinelli SC, 1980 Bianchi SC, PX-10 X 2
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[QUOTE=pcb;18637183]Thanks, Jim's a good dude, deserves some blasts from his past.
Agreed, so my next question is aside from a keen eye and very good taste, how did you know to buy one?
Agreed, so my next question is aside from a keen eye and very good taste, how did you know to buy one?
#323
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#324
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#325
hi
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I can't remember if I've shared this yet or not, but here is the first 2016 picture of my Ted Wojcik roadie. Ya don't see too many of these.
It is all nearly DuraAce 7700, Cooks E2 crank with Real rings. Running tubular (1st bike tubular) on Velocity Escapes.
The bike is light, fast, and comfortable! Impeccable welds. Reynolds 853.
2016-03-26_06-00-15
It is all nearly DuraAce 7700, Cooks E2 crank with Real rings. Running tubular (1st bike tubular) on Velocity Escapes.
The bike is light, fast, and comfortable! Impeccable welds. Reynolds 853.
2016-03-26_06-00-15