Mercian King of Mercia - Retro Content!

[Theoldfm]

If you bought that frame for £35 in the mid-'80's I reckon you did well...
I paid almost twice that for a secondhand road frame, (not Mercian) at about the same time, and I thought I was doing well! Still got mine too, and the Cinelli criterium bars... and unlike me, you obviously put it all to it's intended use.

Also, looks like you got a classy, timeless colour-scheme into the bargain

It's strange how fashions change. I remember wanting to have the frame resprayed in a 'modern' colour scheme and have all of the relevant braze-on's fitted for the cable guides, water bottle etc. I am glad I could never afford it though now!

I did look into having the frame refinished at Mercian a couple of years ago but have come around to liking the used / patina look now. I also realised that the paint job would probably cost more than the frame is actually worth. I call it patina, every scratch tells a story (something like that anyway).

I will have to have a word with my Dad about how much we a actually paid for the frame - I remember that it was advertised for about £70 but that my Dad told us how he had bartered the seller down... That is exactly the sort of thing I tell my wife now though when I spend more than I am supposed to on upgrading my son's mountain bike... Or perhaps that is just me!

 

[torqueless]

I will have to have a word with my Dad about how much we a actually paid for the frame

Do it soon... them old-timers develop selective memory.. :? For instance, I've got a grimpeur's chance in a sprint of finding out exactly what happened to my little stash of '70's bike componentry that was left at my parents' place before they moved after retiring... all I know is that it is long-gone... :cry:

I like your renovation stategy. Do you know what year your frame was built?

 

[Theoldfm]

I will have to have a word with my Dad about how much we a actually paid for the frame

Do it soon... them old-timers develop selective memory.. :? For instance, I've got a grimpeur's chance in a sprint of finding out exactly what happened to my little stash of '70's bike componentry that was left at my parents' place before they moved after retiring... all I know is that it is long-gone... :cry:

I like your renovation stategy. Do you know what year your frame was built?

It is stamped 6 80 under the bottom bracket so i presume it is a 1980 frame...?

 

[Theoldfm]

A bit of an update.

Well, having spent the last couple of weeks hunting down a set of record brakes, having missed out on a few pairs I eventually thought blow it, I will buy these instead:

They hadn't even arrived before I spotted a really terrible advert on ebay for some record ones...

Which now look like this!!!

So I now have two sets of brakes... hmm

 

[Theoldfm]

Anyway, now that I was on a roll, I bid on another awful advert and won a set of GP4's with Campagnolo Record Hubs; which looked like this on the advert:

When I got them home, it turned out that they had been sprayed with some kind of grease, presumably to preserve them before being hung up in someones shed for 20 years...

After a bit of a clean they looked like this:

To say that I am pleased would be an understatement!

Just some tubs and pedals to go now before the Mercian King of Mercia hits the road (dry) again...

 

[Theoldfm]

Well, it was my birthday this week so I have had a nice pair of tubs delivered for the Mercian... very nearly there now!

Looking pretty good:

 

[Theoldfm]

 

[torqueless]

You run out of ways to say: "I like your bike" eventually, so I'll just say: I like your bike. If it were mine though, I couldn't put anything but a round seatpost in that seat tube.. I'll never get used to these new-fangled 'aerodynamic' ones..

Hope the weather improves by the time you get the chain and pedals on.. those wheels are so shiny the last thing you want is rain on your first ride..

 

[jCymbal]

What a nice frame and story.

 

[biggs682]

some very nice pics there and a great story