Advise for a rebuild needed! 1970/80's Merlin Road Racer

[mikeymustard]

Once you have a respray and make it look spanking you won't want to commute in all weathers, you'll "save it for best" and look for a tattier racer to commute on.
Then one day you'll feel sorry for the commuter and treat it to a respray, and then you'll not want to ride it in all weathers and, and........

 

[Spoosbikemission]

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Soooo respray happened and its beautiful.......

Now I want new wheels! This is addictive. Any recommendations on hubs/rims?

Collecting bits slowly all coming together

 

[Spoosbikemission]

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And some more pictures .... Sorry a little love!

 

[Spoosbikemission]

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Serial no. For those who have a knowledge of Merlin's and frame dates !

 

[Jamiedyer]

That looks really lovely!
How nice is that?
Don't really know which wheels to go with it but the rest of your parts will look great on it.
Who did the paint for you?

Jamie

 

[Spoosbikemission]

Hi! Thankyou,
A company called art attack who specialise in spray painting motorbikes and helmets in Plymouth which is where I am from and they recommended someone to shot blast it it's come out really good!

 

[Pionir]

Depending on the value of the frame, either respray (if it's worth it) or power coat it (if it's not worth much except the use you'll have out of it). There's a thread with reviews of powder coaters on here somewhere I think.

For a commuter bike the one thing I'd say is don't go retro on the tyres. Get some schwalbe Marathon Plus which are about as puncture proof as you'll get. Nothing worse than having to change an inner tube in the dark in the rain with cold fingers.

Oh and don't go fixie. Not even a flip flop. Unless you're a hipster.

 

[Cefnbikie]

The frames looks super now it is refinished. And a lovely set of components, too. The TA chainrings remind me of a a 47T/50T set-up I rode back in the 1960s. To me, the frame and components look too good to commute on.

 

[mikeymustard]

The frames looks super now it is refinished. And a lovely set of components, too. The TA chainrings remind me of a a 47T/50T set-up I rode back in the 1960s. To me, the frame and components look too good to commute on.

Very nice! I agree with Cefnbikie - far too good for a commuter! I refer you to my earlier post

 

[torqueless]

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Questions:
Are there any top tips, mistakes I could make easily?

Since you ask, I believe the maintenance-friendly convention is to orient the chainrings on the driveside crank in such a way that the crank is between two of the spider-arms, rather than being parallel with one spider-arm? I think it was like that in your 'before' picture at the top of the thread... but I won't be reporting you to the TA/Stronglight police..