Portland 1970s bikes
 

Back in the 1970s in Portland, Oregon more than anything I wanted a bike built by one of the Portland holy three: Jim Merz, Mark DeNucci or Bruce Gordon. At the time I could not afford one of their bikes. In 1982 I purchased my beloved TREK 710 frame which was pretty darn close. Jump forward 40+ years and I doubted I would ever find one of their previously owned bikes to fit my 5'3" (and shrinking every year). Jim Merz shared on his FB an ad for one of his bikes for sale at a Portland LBS only 40 mins from my home. I rushed over and as of a week ago it is mine,mine,mine. It's in amazing shape. 50cm frame, Colombus SL and mostly Campy Record mechs. I couldn't be happier with it.
My question: is there anyone out there who owns or has owned a bike built by all three: Merz, DeNucci and Gordon?



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photo credit James Mason
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50cm frame, Colombus SL and mostly Campy Record mechs. I couldn't be happier with it.
My question: is there anyone out there who owns or has owned a bike built by all three: Merz, DeNucci and Gordon?

:thumb: Great score, glad you got that one, it had been there for quite awhile.

I have 5 Merz's, 4 Strawberry's with two having been built by DiNucci, Andy Newlands started Strawberry and hired DiNucci, Andy is actually one of the original triad and still in business.

DiNucci eventually worked for Merz as well then also went out on his own, he and Merz went to Specialized, Merz was first and DiNucci followed.

I met Jim when I was in HS and like you could never afford one until about 10 years ago.

Gordon was not a PDX builder, he was in Eugene for 10 years, hung out and rode with the others as the photo shows. He came from Calif. and went back after.

I have one of his from this time as well.

@Mikier

Here's my daily driver at Crater Lake yesterday. ;)

And cleaned up before it went.


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@Mikier

Merz and Newlands both employed numerous other builders at the time as well and many were also instrumental in the success and fantastic work they all did.

The pool was deep and many jumped in, all leading to PDX being the framebuilding epicenter it still is today.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...3a8e787f09.jpg
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Wow... wonderful collection. Would love to see them in person sometime. I live on Sauvie Island.
PS Do you know if Merz logoed stuff is still being sold (hat, water bottle)?
Thanks
Michael

Tx, that ain't all.....

No Merz gear, it was always thin on the ground, I don't think he made that much.

The silver Merz came from Sauvie island, original owner, great guy, great deal.

I immediately thought of @merziac when the question was asked. :thumb: Ne plus ultra of PDX builder collections. Merziac, do you know of any other collections as extensive as yours? Did Velocult have anything similar while they were around?

Well it depends on how you look at it, Sky had a fantastic very early touring with racks and mostly non Campy components that got sold off separately when he bailed. Price was out of my comfort zone @ $2500? so.....

And he had a warehouse full of crazy rare bizarre Ritcheys, and so many other MTB's, road, track and off the wall stuff it was mind boggling that went to the Pro's Closet

He had a couple of other Merz consignments along the way and I'm sure somebody has more than me but I don't know about them at this point.

We saw the most recent one that sold last week or so and Justyne at BR also had the other frame awhile back that I passed/missed so she may be the current Merz whisperer but shes flipping them, again, so....

That looks like a great little front rack, is it branded?

Depends on which bike you're talking about. If you meanmerziac 's, then yes those are Merz brand.

Note how the front doesn't attach to the dropout, so it doesn't stiffen the lower curved part of the fork against acting as suspension on bumpy road. Connecting to the top of the steerer is structurally efficient.

F and R both attach with precision, custom-sized clamps that don't need any braze-on on the frame/fork. Total show-off move! But in a good way, I am a fan.
Each rack was made to fit a particular frame/fork, and is very unlikely to fit on any other.

Large diameter thinwall steel, very good stiffness-to-weight and strength-to-weight ratios. We all know that now, but back when Jim started doing those, no one else had anything similar. (Bruce Gordon racks came along later.)

Mark B

Glad you brought this up. I was at one of the Velocult shows with TW189, the light green one. Tony Pereira and Ira Ryan were looking at and studying it, was surprised when Ira said he had never thought of that.

As you pointed out Gordon racks came along later, after he hung out with Jim while working in Eugene, Jim started building his very early on in his run. ;)

I guess low rider racks accomplish this with their mid to upper fork mounts but it seems like there are almost no other good options. It also seems to me that Jim's mounting setup ties the whole front end together very cohesively, spreading the load around so it utilizes the entire front of the bike, assume this is what you meant by "efficient".

I took this bike to Eroica the first time I went in 2017, rode the short whimpy route but there was a pretty good hardpack gravel downhill at one point so I pointed the bike down and let it rip, the faster I went, the more stable it was, I was flat out in high gear flying down it. No load on the front but it was amazing how well it handled and rode.