Kilroy1988 

I hope everyone is well! I've stumbled into social media land after an absence this morning only to be shocked to read that Mercian Cycles in Derby, UK, has just announced its closure...

Mercian Cycles ceases trading and enters voluntary liquidation | road.cc

Here's a glass raised to all those blokes who're moving on from producing such fine frames and restorations for our community and best wishes to them in the future!

-Gregory

obrentharris 

Sad news indeed. Can we hold onto a glimmer of hope that the word "restructuring" in the announcement means they may yet rise from the ashes?
Brent

juvela

-----

Ay Caramba!


-----

jdawginsc 

I think in one article it talked about liquidating to help those involve transition to other things. That’s what it seemed to say.

I guess it is inevitable that there will only be five brands of bike eventually.

atsffan

Such a shame. Grant and Jane Mosley owned the business since 2002 and seemed to put their heart and soul into keeping it viable into the age of carbon and aluminum. Seemed like they had a reasonable amount of business, but they were running discounts of up to 20% on rework/resprays as well as discounting their in-stock framesets and bikes in the past year or two - I'm sure to generate cashflow. Grant was getting into his mid-60's and a struggling business and a retirement on the horizon had to play into the decision.
Such exquisite workmanship; I own a Mercian Vincitore (a '74 build date) that I bought new in Jan 1976 at age 18 for $200. Mom was not entirely pleased that $200 only bought the frameset and that I'd still need a few hundred dollars more to do the full build. Quick math shows that the frameset has cost me $4/year.
I'd just had Mercian respray it for me last August, it was actually less expensive to ship the frame from the US to the UK and have them do the respray than send it to a local painter. Their work was flawless.
End of an era of almost 80 years in business.

merziac

Ef, Ef, Ef, Ef!!!!!!

PhilFo 

Wow

ascherer 

I'm sad, it's no secret what a fan I am of Mercian. They had a great run, but whatever happens to the brand it's hard to imagine that traditional heart-brazed frames assembled by a single builder will be a part of our little corner of the cycling world.

noobinsf 

Oh, this is sad news. I had hoped to visit the shop one day. I’ll need to ride my 83 King of Mercia with the blue barber pole this weekend in honor.

steelbikeguy

The market for custom steel bikes is certainly not what it used to be, but it's still sad to hear this news.
Back in the early 90's, when I was living in the St. Louis area, the Maplewood Bike shop carried Mercian (or at least was a dealer). I was looking for a replacement for my Raleigh Gran Sport, and picked up a Mercian catalog at the shop. I ended up getting a frame from a small midwest builder, so no regrets, but I still have a spot in my heart for the Mercian brand and that barber pole seat tube!!



Steve in Peoria

Kabuki12

This is very sad to see. I have never ridden a Mercian but admired them . Doing business as a small niche company is difficult and it sounds like they have a debt to consider . It happens in a lot of different industries now. Us older folks are getting too old to be burdened with debt and / or stress. I have seen a major shift in manufacturing over the last ten years or so, some companies that I thought were rock solid were on the brink and had to do what these folks are doing. Us old school craftsman are watching the sunset of tradition . This is in all types of manufacturing with robotics , automation , and acquisitions. I do cutting tools for various industries so I've seen this across the board here in America , I'm pretty sure in other countries as well. My little shop of all manual equipment has been paid off for many years and I am able to rebuild or maintain my own equipment plus do all the work myself with a very low overhead. I stay busy enough and can make a decent supplement to my retirement income which keeps me here in Southern California. I love what I do and have a great relationship with some shops dating back to the early 80's. It is sad that some , like Mercian or Schwinn have not been as fortunate. Sail on Mercian.....

ascherer 

From my visit 30+ years ago.

bikingshearer 

Unfortunately, the article says the owners have entered "Voluntary Liquidation." Assuming that holds, and if no one wants to buy the entire operation lock, stock & barrel, the Mercian shop will be well and truly gone. I suppose the name might continue as one of the brands Bikes Direct, but . . . .

Andy_K 

This is terrible. Their continued use of open hearth brazing was like a window into the past with world class results. A light is going out.

Last year I posted something on a Facebook Mercian group about maybe sending my Vincitore back to Derby to be repainted. Someone replied that I better do it soon while they were still around. Sadly, I didn't.

rustystrings61 

I am deeply saddened to learn of this - but for me, Mercians and riding them and wanting to ride them are intertwined with a major health crisis and underestimated depression as a result.

Back in 2002, when I was still single, I decided I wanted to get a custom, bespoke road fixed-gear bike. I had already had (and sold) a Bianchi Pista, and all the contemporary purpose-built fixed bikes on the market were basically track bikes with brakes. Grant at Rivendell had been writing about what would become the Quickbeam for a while - but that wouldn't hit the market for at least another year or more. I wound up trawling Mercian's site and liking what I saw. One September morning around 6:00 a.m. I made my first intercontinental phone call and wound up speaking with Grant Moseley - and within minutes was placing my order.

When the frame arrived the following January, I already had everything done - wheels built, "cockpit" assembled with shellacked bar tape, etc. My then-fiancee, now wife, captured the moment -



- and over the next year I started riding this bike more than any other. The local club riders got used to me riding fixed, and I fell in love with this bike. There were several folks who later told me they got fixed-gear Mercians after seeing mine, either in person or on the old fixedgeargallery site. Towards the end of 2003 I contacted Grant again, back in the days before the volume of inquiries about serial numbers led to a fee to find the information, and Jane sent me an email about the provenance of a battered Mercian Colorado I had acquired - which turned out to have once been a team-issued bike.

When I had my heart attack in 2004, my wife sent out prayer requests on the CR and iBOB lists, and somehow from there, both Mercian and Rivendell heard of my troubles, and both Grant Moseley and Grant Peterson dispatched little care packages and well-wishes - totally unexpected, but enormous in how much they lifted my spirits.

I had built up the old Colorado by that point, with an eye towards putting it on a trainer as part of my rehab. I was not supposed to be on a bike for a couple of months, but once, just once, when no one was looking, I snuck it out, threw a leg over the top tube and pushed off, rolling down the driveway, swinging up the little rise and turning and rolling back home to return the bike to the garage for a little while longer. I had wondered if I would ever be on a bike again, while at the same time telling everyone (while telling myself!) that I was going to recover and ride my fixed-gear Mercian lots and all over when I recovered.

I was blessed to have a good friend who willingly rode long, slow, very slow rides with me through the autumn and early winter. Slowly I built my strength up, initially riding a bike with very low gears, but always, always pointing towards riding fixed again. I took up mountain biking, and I remember being near tears when my heart monitor was signaling I was at maximum safe rate on the first climb. I kept going anyway. On the anniversary of my heart attack, the monitor crapped out and quick working while I was riding a single-speed in the woods.

I celebrated the anniversary of my quadruple bypass surgery by riding my Mercian Vincitore with a 70-in fixed-gear up the steepest, nastiest, harshest climb in the county. I was back.

My interactions with the folks at Mercian slowed as my life as a husband and father developed - though they were lovely when they sent me the transfers for a planned repaint of the Colorado (which may never happen), down to sending me the very last original yellow "Colorado" top tube transfer. The bikes remained, though - the Colorado turned out to be THE best, most confidence inspiring "fast" bike I've ever had, and the Vincitore has been a friend and companion on many long rides over all sorts of road surfaces - in fact, it is my very favorite bike of all time, and I plan on cherishing it forever.
















I genuinely hope everyone at Mercian who wants to keep working can land on their feet quickly and that everyone who wants to retire can do so comfortably. It's hard, coming on the heels of Waterford's closing, and the end of traditional open-hearth brazing is a sad thing to ponder.

unworthy1

adding my "RIP" to the chorus, just read this sad news on the CR list Digest and thought I'd share the "scoop" but it's not a scoop.
And not anything I'd want to share if I had any say in the matter...but alas...

nlerner

I really need to spend more riding time on my Mercian:

jdawginsc 

Sort of inspires me to get the stuck seatpost out of mine and get it on the road.

Great tribute @rustystrings61

ascherer 

In 1988 I was looking for a new bike. I'd ridden a Zeus Pro since '73 and I thought I wanted something perhaps less racy, but traditional. Maybe a touring frame? I was honeymooning with my first wife in the Southwest USA and we made a stop in Colorado Springs which was the center for Olympic training in the US. I guessed they might have some good bike shops and probably looked them up in the Yellow Pages (remember those?) I visited one which I think was called World Cycles. They showed me a 1987 Mercian Professional frame in my size. I was taken with the beautiful lugwork and finish. During our honeymoon we kept a diary of our travels, and I noted: "I bought a nice frame today." My ex wrote, more accurately: "From across the room, their eyes met. It was love at first sight." Prescient: she's gone, the bike is still here. I think it cost $800 but the records didn't survive the marriage either.

With a criterium frame the idea of a more relaxed setup was forgotten. I moved the NR components from my Zeus over, somewhere in the 90s I switched from tubulars, and 14 years ago I decided to enter the modern era and installed an Ultegra 6600 group. I still use that, except for the crankset which I replaced last year for lower gearing now that I ride it in the Catskills.
Maybe it's the familiarity born of riding 36 seasons on it, but I this is the bike I would keep if I could only have one. I literally smile every time I get on it, it's the benchmark I measure my others against.

chain_whipped

Could a picture be more humbling?
Those were the days.

noglider 

Open hearth brazing, really? You mean like in that 1945 video about how Raleigh made their bikes?

ascherer 

Each builder had a workbench along the outer wall of the shop. On the bench they had an array of bricks, some on the horizontal surface and some vertically stacked, forming a small hearth. They heated the entire joint with their torches and brazed the joints which I think had been pinned on a separate board corresponding to the style of frame they were building.

From their site:


The gentleman that built my frame was builder #5, Mr. Derek Land

rustystrings61 

Mr. Derek Land built my 2002 Vincitore; he also built the 1971 King of Mercia that was crashed in Columbia SC in the early 70s and rebuilt with new top and down tubes and a replacement lower head lug by Mike Melton, but that's another story.

jdawginsc 

Mr. Land built my Strada Speciale (I think that’s the model) as well.

tiger1964 

A bike I've only seen in print.

Cool building -- bonus points if your visit was in that Alfasud.