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@thebaldingbuddha
It is with a heavy heart I am now selling my beloved and very RARE Merlin Metalworks Works CR Titanium 3/2.5 Road Bike custom build. I have moved away from road riding now and mainly doing CX, trails, and touring so this bike is not getting used anymore, and sad to see it just hanging on the wall.
Bit foolish of me to not sell this in the Summer but seeing if anyone is keen to take it now otherwise will try again in the Summer as I am in no hurry to sell this and not letting it go for peanuts.
The story goes like this...I was in search of a custom titanium frame as all the 60cm frames I was looking at were always designed in a very aggressive riding position and had tiny headtubes so ended up with spacers galore and the handling was all over the place.
In 2008 I found this beauty in Portsmouth. The bike was a custom build by Bike Lab in Poole. (see attached build sheet). The build costing him 4k+! Before this bike I owned a Litespeed and Serotta, both being titanium and this one by far was the best to ride. The taller headtube also allowed me to slam the stem with no issues and get the rigidity liveliness from the frame I wanted.
The owner was selling it as he had a recurring back issue so was not able to ride anymore. I couldn't believe how lucky I was to find it after so long and once I had it built up, it was an utter joy to ride, super comfortable and very fast, keeping up with a lot of riders on super aero bikes on my club run. You simply cant beat titanium, being a bike from 2006, it uses simpler classic shape tubing so remains timeless and you would think this was a bike from this year (bar the discs).
The photo attached of the bike shows the bike before I changed out the saddle, chainrings, and handlebars, all of which were only done a few months ago.
The specs below are:
2006 Merlin Custom Build - CR3/2.5 Titanium Frame. Enve Forks.
60cm eqv to XL or XXL Size.
Weight sub 9kg at 8.5kg with pedals and saddle.
Forks.
ENVE uncut 2.0 carbon fibre forks.
Groupset.
Full SRAM Force 11 Speed Groupset. Upgraded B.O.R Germany 50-34 Chainrings (less than 50 miles). Upgraded superlight ZTTO 11-32 SLR2 Cassette (218g).
Finishing Kit.
Thomson 31.4 straight black seatpost. Thomson X2 130mm -/+ 10 degrees black stem. Specialized Hover Expert 44cm bars.
Wheels.
Handbuilt 50mm Carbon Fibre rims, laced to black Hope RS4 hubs with black Sapim Spokes. 700x25mm Schwalbe Durano tyres.
The bike does not come with the Speedplay pedals, Brooks Saddle or titanium cages as shown. I will throw in a new Fizik saddle if you want.
Have the original receipt and Bike Lab Geometry Build sheet which will be provided at the sale. Also comes with spare set of vinyl transfers incase you want to strip it and shotblast it or polish it and reapply the decals.
Considering how rare this is and being a custom build I think £3000 for the full build is fair price.
Collection from Sydenham/Forest Hill.
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