My 1936 Mercury Clunker retro-mod

[sandmangts]

Like many others I started riding off road on the trails of North Carolina on a 26 inch cruiser so I have always loved cruiser style bikes. I always wanted to do an homage to the Marin county Repack pioneers, I just needed a clean canvas to start with. I found it on Craigslist for practically nothing. Heres what I started with:

I knew I wanted a bike that would be a rider, period correctness would not be a consideration. First things first, had to clean up that headbadge:

Many months of research began, I knew I wanted gears, I saw a bike called clunkenstein on clunkers.net. It had a modern internal geared hub with a roller brake and a suspension fork. At that point the path was chosen. Here it is during test fitting and cold setting the frame and alignment.

I decided on a simple powder coat.
Nexus 8 speed hub with roller brake
Sturmey drum brake up front
Araya 7x front
Pro stock rear rim
Brooks Saddle
Magura Levers
Skull Skates bars
Dyno bmx stem
Ticino Cranks
Suntour XC pedals

There were plenty of challenges with fitting new parts on the old frame, the BB bmx adaptor had to be milled to fit along with the 13/16 aluminum rod seatpost, I went through 3 forks, 3 headsets, had to cut and mill the truss rods to fit but it all came together after 7 months.

I ended up going with a stronger fork because the original had a bent steerer. I have since located a correct replacement and I will be going back to the forged fork and truss rods but here is the current configuration.

I have been using this bike as my daily commuter for 3 weeks. I must say it is the most comfortable bike I own. Nice upright position and great gearing with strong braking.

And every now and then I get her dirty.

I have already bored the mtbr boys and ratrodbikes.com to death with this build so I figured I would do the same for you guys.

 

[albash82]

Thats wicked mate. I love how shiny it is!

 

[al]

Oh great!!

Now you've just made my life seem incomplete. :roll:

Fantastic build. Looks like a good rider too?

al.

 

[FST4RD]

That is sweet!
I've been keen to build something like this for ages!

 

[skinnyboy]

sweet!

 

[Malicious Afterthought]

I really like that.

 

[sandmangts]

Oh great!!

Now you've just made my life seem incomplete. :roll:

Fantastic build. Looks like a good rider too?

al.

Yep, it gets ridden every day, 7 miles to work on the street and then 9 miles of dirt through my local canyon on the way home. It weighs over 40 pounds but you wouldn't know it. The Nexus shifts very smoothly under pretty heavy load so the bike actually climbs very well and it is very steady and predictable and fast on the way down. The low bottom bracket means I get perfect leg extension so I can really put the power down and it makes the center of gravity low so it handles and turns great. The big tires are the key, plenty of cushioning and the Brooks b-17 is a great saddle.

Out of all the bikes I own I would choose this one to ride over all of them.

 

[lewis1641]

great build. looks amazing painted but i dont think i'd have been able to resist the temptation to keep the bare rusty steel frame on show!

 

[clockworkgazz]

stunning- love it

 

[ijeremy]

Too cool, so curious what that thing rides like off road!