Mercier full Columbus 1979(?)
 

Hello everyone,
I just came accross this Mercier bike and was wondering if you could give me a better idea of the quality of the bike and how much is worth it.
Is currently in France and it's on sale for 200€. I tried to do some searches around but I can't seem to find any other with the "M" logo on the fork like this one.

Any help will be much appreciated!

Thank you!

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f47e78b10f.png
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...45a0b79eb6.png
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1b4e6b4648.png
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...9678c12f3d.png
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...624f699ea0.png
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...0e4c8a2952.png

If that bike became available to me for that price, I would already own it, quick release decals and all. Expect remarkable ride quality!

Thanks for the reply! I can’t seem to find a clear match online for the model, any ideas? Also any clue of the actual value of it?

Thank you

The bike looks to be in reasonably good shape and it is a fairly high end model. Other than that, I have no persona experience with the exact bike. But I do have a lot of experience with high end French bikes, and my thoughts on them are mostly positive.

As for value, I would jump at the chance to buy it for $250.00 Canadian (you can do any monetary conversion to represent that value in your currency) but be prepared to pay up to $300. If I were offering it for sale, I would want $450 CND but be prepared to go as low as $350 CND.

The bike has, as mentioned, a quality frame/fork combination and the Shimano 600 Arabesque group is one of my favorites. I recently bought this full Shimano 600 Arabesque Velo Sport for $70.00 CND, knowing that I could get $200.00 just for the component group. I really have no need to sell the group and, once harvested, I plan to tuck the component group away for an upcoming build.. However, if someone offered my $250.00 CND for the complete bike, I would help him (or a very tall her) load it into their car...
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...884dd5b76a.jpg

Should you choose to buy the bike, you would be wise to replace the grease in the bottom bracket, head set and wheel hubs. Bikes, that have been unused or stored for many years tend to have worn out (deteriorated) grease in each of these cavities, this being the most extreme example of how badly grease (now rust colored powder) can deteriorate...
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...21168eac93.jpg

That's awesome to know thank you!
This specific bike the seller is saying was fully stripped down to the frame and put back together which makes me feel more confident about it.
The question I still have in my mind is the price of transport to Paris so I can get it that's why I was trying to work out the market value for it.

That bottom bracket looks incredibly bad :twitchy:

Very nice bike the 600 components and fork date it to about a couple years newer than 79 to the early 80's or so as for value i would agree it i worth more than the current asking price.

That bike is worth 200 pounds sterling all day long even at the post Truss value of the British pound. Plus the bike will surely last longer than a head of lettuce, right? :)

:lol: Surely won’t take long until the lettuce price beat the deal of this bike!

Thanks for all the answers. I’m trying to get a sense of how much the transport to Paris will cost. I feel like if it gets the price too close to the 350€ I would sadly let this one go!

For a price to ship, measure the size of the box, length + height + width = total size (Note: the smaller the box, the lower the cost to ship). Now figure out total weight. Go to FedEx, or Purlator or even your post office (bike has to be completely disassembled for post office and be under the max size allowed. Here is a picture of how much I cut a box down to fit a Peugeot PX10. This one, a few years ago, set me back $226.00 CND to ship from Canada to Japan...
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6d1b485627.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...061c7be030.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...475a5b011e.jpg

I pack like this when the buyer seeks the lowest shipping cost. Were I to just use a full size box, the cost to ship would have been $600.00+ CND. The problem, when buying, is that the seller might not want to spend three to four hours of his or her time to fit the bike into the smallest box possible.

This is a very impressive packing job! Unfortunately, I don't think the seller is willing to get all this work done. He's now asking me for an extra 50€ just to pack the bike...That plus transport I don't see it making up to my budget sadly.

This might be a stupid question but does anyone know any transport service in Frace that would take the bike mounted?

I was just trying to do some research on the bike and tried to find similar models with the same components and they all seem to have a different fork mark than the one on this bike I posted
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f4bd73e4b8.png
This one has a "M" instead the Mercier logo as I found on the other ones online
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...8fea421dd6.png


Could this be a replacement fork or not the original one? or is it normal to have such differences in the same models? :foo:

It looks like the same "M" as in the word "Mercier" on the other fork. I'd guess they just had different fork crowns at different times. It could be a replacement from a different Mercier frame, but I'd suspect it's original.

Just putting a guess out there. To me it looks like, with single bottle cage and under bb cables, 1983. The fork, well, gosh another guess, looks to be an update.