Kilroy1988 

Hello folks,

Up for sale is the 1978 Mercian Vincitore that I recently restored. It came to me with a broken rear dropout which gugie replaced for me and I then freshened up with some Rustoleum primer, enamel and clear coating. I did some additional touch up with blue enamel on the rest of the frame and the clear coat is very cloudy, so I had plans for Mercian to restore the frame at some point in the future. The adjuster screw on the non-drive side dropout is broken off inside the hole and will need to be drilled out or left as is. The hole on the new drive dropout is minty fresh and was masked off for the painting.

A fresh determination to move out of the country has my wife and I in a true cleaning/selling/saving mood, so here we are despite my intention to see this one through with a full restoration! I'm also honestly not riding much lately and purchased this frame and most of these parts before figuring out that would be a likely scenario.

I assume the frame is supposed to be measured to 25" but my most careful measurements reveal a seat tube length (center-to-top) that is apparently right around 24.75", which would be halfway between the traditional half-inch increments. Maybe I'm crazy but I'm confident it's slightly larger than a 24.5" frame. The top tube is 23" center-to-center and the standover height is approximately 34" with 700x25c tires fitted. It looks like there's enough space to fit up to about 32c tires but that'd be tight.

I lost one of the original Stronglight dustcaps on an early ride because it was only finger tightened due to the allen key being worn. I just bought two replacements. The rear derailleur is currently set to not go into the smallest cog because the chain slips and I believe that replacing the pulleys will solve the issue, so I've just purchased a new set of 10-tooth pulleys to do that but have not installed them. The brake pads are also a bit weak, so I'll be including four new Kool Stop pads that should fit without much of a hassle into the holders that are currently on the calipers. That all being said, a small bag with a two Stronglight dust caps, two new pulleys, four new brake pads, and a pair of dropout adjuster screws and springs will be included. Everything on the bicycle shown in the photos below is included except for the Brooks saddle and bottle cage. However, I will include the blue L'Eroica bidon plus a matching one to make a pair.

The revised asking price is $850 + actual price of shipping within the continental US. Please see post #6 for a note about a small (hard to notice) flat spot in the top tube that was only discovered after this advertisement was posted.

-Gregory

Sedgemop 

Oof. This became available sooner than expected.

Kilroy1988 

That's been life these days. I'm churning out job applications that could have me just about anywhere in Europe and almost certainly in an even smaller apartment than the one we've got now, and our first child is due in two weeks!

-Gregory

Classtime 

A beauty. Skipping on the small cog is likely due to a worn cog from the previous users maladjusted shifters. Maybe pop on another FW for local test rides?

Kilroy1988 

No, the chain is slipping off the lower pulley on the rear derailleur. It's staying on the freewheel just fine. Teeth look great.

-Gregory

Kilroy1988 

*Bump!* This is still for sale and sadly I noticed a bit of a flat spot on the non-drive side of the top tube while inspecting the bike earlier today! I can't imagine how it happened in my care and I obsess so much over viewing frames from the drive side that I have to assume it was there from the moment I got it and I just didn't realize it. It's closer to the seat tube than the head tube. It's slight enough that I 'm sure it doesn't affect the integrity of the frame for riding purposes, but without a replacement tube I wouldn't consider the frame worthy of the full restoration I had in mind - though I'll note that Mercian can and does often replace tubes at a fairly reasonable price if the frame were to go back to them.

So, the price is now $950 + shipping, otherwise as described in the first post. Thanks!

-Gregory

Kilroy1988 

A bump with a price reduction! The small flat spot in the top tube mentioned above is something I cannot photograph but it's there nonetheless, so that accounts for a $100 price drop. However, I've added back in some of the components I intended to keep. The price is now $850 + shipping. Cheers!

-Gregory