jjhabbs 

Here is my 1981 Strada Speciale. The frame was new old stock when I got it last year.

Loomite

Thanks! The 1980 Olympic is coming along nicely, I had the rear triangle spread to 133mm to take modern wheels, and also had a few braze-ons added. I'll post a picture here soon!

George in NoCal

Salamandrine 

Really beautiful bike. I love the trefoil lug cutouts. You will have to tell us more than that! Was it laying around an old shop? or did Mercian have it in the attic?

stormy_ll

i have pics but they come up massive, anyone know how i can make them smaller before killing the thread?

Salamandrine 

Hey stormy II, open them in an app an resize them to something reasonable before posting. Change resolution to (typically) 96 dpi and whatever size seems about right, 9 x 12 or something. Preview works if on a mac. I don't know what Windows uses these days, but there must be something.

Default digital camera and phone cam resolutions are generally too high to use on the interwebs these days, due largely to them needing to brag about megapixels.

Loomite

I had to resize mine to get them to post, the editor wouldn't allow anything bigger. However, they seem a lot smaller than other pictures I see posted. When I've tried to link to a third party photo server, I don't see anything! There's something about posting pic's I'm not getting.

George in NoCal

jjhabbs 

I purchased this on ebay from a shop just south of Madison. An older woman came in with two Mercian framesets still in a box!! When I got it I removed packing materials from the headtube and top tube!

Her husband now deceased purchased them both in 82 and they never built them up. She traded them even up for a nice cross bicycle. The shop put them on ebay. Yes this is truely new old stock. Well, Not any more, There is about 150 miles on it now.

steelbikeguy

dang.... I've got to spend more time on ebay!

That's an interesting story behind the frame. Hard to imagine buying two sweet Mercian frames and then not getting around to building them up. I hope it was just a matter of being distracted by family or other shiny toys instead of something tragic.

The frame looks great and you did a fine job of building it up. As noted, the lugs are something I don't recall seeing on a Mercian before, which certainly adds to the appeal. The "fastback" seatstay attachment is pretty nice too. Definitely a neat bike!


Steve in Peoria

tarwheel 

Great story, jjhabbs. The guy who originally ordered your Mercian had good taste. The red with silver panels and gold lining is a nice color combination, and you did a great build. British bikes have a certain style, and yours is classic.

tarwheel 

This thread is tempting me! I bought a new Bob Jackson direct from the factory about 7-8 years ago for a very good price because the value of the Dollar was very high vs the Pound. We are in the same situation now, and prices are very reasonable for Mercians, BJs and other British bikes. They will paint their bikes just about any color-decal combination for no extra cost, with modest upcharges for panels, barber pole stripes, etc. The paint on my BJ still looks like new after 15,000 miles of riding, mostly commuting.

Salamandrine 

Very cool jjhabbs.

Mercian still does that model. I looked at it when I ordered my Mercian, but the Strada Speciale seems to be intended to be a road racing style bike, and I wanted a tourer. Anyhow it would appear that little if anything has changed, except the old 531 stickers are cooler than the new reynolds stickers. They will do it in 631, 725 or 853 OS or regular size now, so that's a bit different.

tarwheel 

Do you have the King of Mercia model, Salamandrine? That's the one I have my eyes on. Very versatile model.

Salamandrine 

Yes I do, and it is quite versatile. It's quick enough to use as my everyday sport bike, but i can also take it camping.

tarwheel 

I don't see a photo of your Mercian in this thread. Get on the stick!

Salamandrine 

It's there, go back a page it's post 67. I guess it's kind of small. Full thread on the build here. I'll probably update the thread again after first camp trip in spring. Here's another one:

tarwheel 

Sweet. Color scheme is very similar to my Waterford Sport tourer.

Xcelr810

Here is my 1974 Mercian that I recently acquired at a garage sale. Score! Looks like it had been put away in the early 90's and collecting dust until I came along. I put a few days of elbow grease into it, cleaned and repacked the headset with new grease, polished aluminum, and carnuba waxed the original British racing green paint. Had a great time removing the old ooold glue from the rims to install new tires and will go to clinchers before I ever attempt glue. Being my first tubs I went the easy way with tufo tape. I love this bike and just went on my first ride yesterday. I still need to fine tune my adjustments for comfort and that old GT seat has left me with a pain in my rear. Even without a custom fitting, this Mercian rides like a dream. It just needed some love and attention. Wheels are true and everything is checked, tight, and lubed up well. I plan on getting a nice vintage seat to replace the current one. I would put on fenders but I live in Arizona and won't ever ride this baby in the rain! I am posting a pic I took yesterday in Tucson on my first ride. Showing the unedited pic too. I couldn't help playing with the image a bit.

1974 Mercian. I think Olympic? That is based off the lugs and staring at every old Mercian image I could find. Let me know if you think it is a different model. Thanks.

Red label 36 spoke Fiamme rims
campagnolo nuovo record front and rear derailleur and shifters dated 1972
campagnolo mystery hubs? Still researching large flange and circle holes.
campagnolo dropouts
Stronglight 93 cranks.
Atom 700 pedals with a cage from france on one side and italy on the other.
weinmann 500 brakes and pads
new Kenda volare 700x22 tubulars.
SR stem.
mystery handlebars and seatpost
silca impero frame pump
Ugly uncomfortable GT seat, possibly early 90's mtb
90's blackburn rack.

I had fun telling my grandpa that the only thing American on the bike was the trailer bearing grease.

Xcelr810

Great bike! Black and Gold? I need a seat like yours! Dreaming about a Brooks 67 unless I discover some other comfy old school seat. May even try a new school Charge Scoop but wont have the most vintage look anymore.

Salamandrine 

I'd say Score! is correct. You will be happy to know that I paid more than 100x that for my new Mercian (including parts. I got something for that: lots of the parts on it are American. 'Merican Mercian...

The hubs on your bike are Campagnolo Tipo high flange. I always loved the way those hubs looked. They were the 'Chorus' of the time, a notch down from Record but still quite nice.

Xcelr810

Oh wow they are the Tipo high flange! Thanks for that tip. I think the Mercian is worth every penny, no matter how many pennys! Is yours a recent year? I love the story of Mercian bicycles. Such a neat classic lug maker

Salamandrine 

Tipo, yeah. They are pretty distinctive and also typical of that period. I suppose there could be lookalikes but I've never seen one. Should have a campy logo in the middle.

I would suggest you take some of that money you saved and get yourself a Brooks B17 (or Pro or whatever), and a more stylin' rear rack. And a cooler H20 bottle cage while you're at it.... None of these suggestions are life or death - except perhaps the saddle - but something to consider. I don't find tubulars to be particularly inconvenient, but that's all I rode for decades. Changing a flat is way faster, but fixing a flat obviously takes longer. Back then, high performance clinchers did not exist so there was no choice.

RE you question: my Mercian is a new 2016 model I had made. See post #90 just above.

Loomite

Finished my rebuild of the 1980 Olympic, see post #74)! Here are a few pics:

Headtube.jpg

Detail1.jpg

Overallshot3.jpg

DSCN1718.jpg

Apologies for the poor quality of this shot, but it shows the Brooks Swallow I recently scored, which really works on this bike!

DSCN1713.jpg

Here's my stable now, (I never realized how difficult it is to shoot a picture of three bikes at one time!)

Here's a link to my blog with more details:

https://georgebike.blogspot.com/2017/...n-olympic.html

Cheers!

GailT

I picked up a 1979 Mercian on Craig's List last week. I've ordered the serial number look up from Mercian (they increased the price for lookups to 16.67 pounds). The bike is in good shape - some small chips and scratches in the paint especially along the chain stay, and I'm wondering if I should try to get touch-up paint or just wash and wax the frame. It has a mix of components - modolo speedy breaks, Campanollo Nuovo Record derailleur, Stronglight 105 bis crankset, Ideale speciale competion 90 saddle. My plan is to start by replacing the tires, brake hoods and break pads (with KoolStop salmon pads based on recommendations in an old thread). Not sure yet what other changes I should make, This is my first CL purchase, and my first road bike purchase since my Cannondale ST600 that I bought new in 1991, so I'm reading the forum looking for advice on cleaning and updating this bike.

kc0yef 

Mercian liked the rebuild was resprayed at the factory

Jame's 1975 Superlight - Mercian

An album

https://imgur.com/gallery/iUkcl


some pics

rustystrings61 

Updated photos of my Mercians from post no. 53 -

[IMG]Mid-October, 2017 by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]

2002 Mercian Vincitore built by Derek Land, now with auxiliary rivet in the nose of the B17 to compensate for torn leather around the original right side nose rivet; also, the c.1997 Carradice Nelson has been freshly washed and re-proofed. Here's the album of this bike's history from when I got it in January '03 to the present.


This is my 1982 Colorado built by George Bryan for the Harvest/The Spoke/Mercian team that gave us Marianne Martin. It still wears mongrel parts, but they're nicer mongrel parts -

[IMG]Current incarnation by Russ Fitzgerald, on Flickr[/IMG]

- and this bike's gallery, including the tiny blurry pix that convinced me I had to have it, is here.