Mr. 66

Just adding this one to the group.
Built up Shimano 600 with XTR rd, in this picture it is on 105 hubs on blue Mavic (Reflex?) rims.

etherhuffer 

Just got this today. King Of Mercia in a sport touring geometry.

beicster 

I built this 91 King of Mercia over the last few days. I took it out for a ten miler this morning and it has a great ride. I can’t wait to get more time on it.

beicster 

. Nice! Mine is sport touring as well.

etherhuffer 

Really nice handling. Needs a big clean and tune up. Rear der is a Rapid Rise XT which works for me.

ascherer 

I really enjoy seeing everybody's Mercians in this thread. It looks like it's been 7 years since I last posted a picture of my '87 Professional, so:

Since this was taken I've swapped in a slightly larger small chainring, bigger cassette, and it's sporting a silver Impero.

Kilroy1988 

For the sake of posterity and in a bid to attract other folks to share their Mercians here, I'll add the 25" 1978 Vincitore to the mix!

-Gregory

Pcampeau

Well here’s another 25”. That’s a beautiful Vincitore you’ve been posting lately Kilroy1988, glad to see it show up here. Mine too is from 78 and it’s a Mercian….ummm, something (possibly Olympic?). I picked this up a couple of years ago and like yours, it’s a little larger than I’d like it to be. I can definitely ride it, though at this size it may not be one of my long distance bikes. I’ve assembled many parts to build it but not everything. I think I’ll just cobble the rest of the bits together from my parts bin for now and put a temporary build on it this spring. I want to ride it and test the fit to see if it’s worth having Mercian refinish it. If not, I’d like to find a Mercian that’s about an inch smaller. Maybe I’ll find a trading partner one day instead. Here it is for now.

Aubergine 

I found this old Mercian, an Olympic I believe, last year in a sad shape. The first five photos show the bike as I found it, with horribly stained paint and worn, dirty parts.










I really should use this Idéale saddle on a wet weather bike!


I did my best to clean the paint, but the stain was tenacious and I stopped rather than to damage the decals and remaining paint. To match the patina, I put on some similarly worn but functional parts. The Dura Ace crank also was replaced by a Nuovo Record crank that I had salvaged from a similarly beaten up bike. I also thought that a Suntour V GT derailleur fit this bike better than the Nuovo Record rear. I have plenty of other bikes with vintage Campy so this gave a bit more flexible gearing for Seattle's hills.



The end result was a delight, outside of the brakes (which are Universal 68 sidepulls). Comfortable and responsive, just as one would expect from a British 531 frame. But I do need to fix those brakes. I have a set of 61 center pulls on a different bike, and they are superb. I'd like to keep the 68s if I can get them to stop, but as it is another change is probably in the offing.

Loomite

Aubergine, you've reminded me that I wanted to post a picture of my KOM in it's latest configuration...with moustache bars! I have grown pretty fond of those bars.