For Sale: 1958 Mercian Road-Path fixed wheel bike

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  • Wow, i'm speachless. This thread comes up first when you type in google "1958 mercian path" ...

    that's a peculiarly precise thing to google for though. If you try 'mercian path frame' you still get the forum...

  • Vitriolic post above removed.

  • Inapropriate comment removed.
    No point going further with this imo. Someone behaved like a cunt.
    People have, and always will be joining this forum just for classifieds and there's no way of telling if they are buying for a profit or not.

  • I bought this bike from Mark and was not even aware it had been on the Forum previously. As to Malrees2 he has in the past bought items from me so this smells rather of double standards... I have to buy stock from somewhere. Its a really beautiful and special bike which I think has now found a new home.

  • I have removed my last 2 posts in this thread.
    I now know that the buyer did not buy this bike intending to sell it.
    He exchanged the bike for a Hetchins which Hilary was selling, and no money was involved in the swap.

  • I bought this bike from Mark and was not even aware it had been on the Forum previously. As to Malrees2 he has in the past bought items from me so this smells rather of double standards... I have to buy stock from somewhere. Its a really beautiful and special bike which I think has now found a new home.

    Hilary
    You may well have some other photos, but those with the bike when I sold it are not of Tom, but of Ron Owen. I don't see the 'double standards' but prefer to get the records of the bike straight if you are referring to the photos I provided.

  • Forum regulars attacking someone who is well known on the forum for something perfectly acceptable? Grow the fuck up.

    Hilary wasn't to know that he was only minutes in before someone else who wanted to buy the bike.
    He bought the bike and (as he mentioned above, he need stock) has added to it the value that he sees it deserves in the type of business he does. What he has done is not uncommon. Of course people don't like to see it but you can't be that blind to a practice that goes on around the world for hundreds of years.

    Would you prefer not to have someone who knows what he's taking about selling you some rare cycling parts then. You would rather have someone who cares nothing about the actual part he is selling and more about all the money that could be weedled out of a forum like this? I think Hilary is a great contributor to the community and it would be a shame to see him replaced

  • it would be a shame to see him replaced
    What exactly did you have in mind?

  • What do you mean?

    What I meant was that it would be a shame to be Hilary driven away and to be replace by someone who doesn't care as much and doesn't have the same priorities

  • This shows it is very easy to jump to false conclusions.

    The fact remains that this bike was in the market at £650. An enthusiast's price. It is now in the market for £1150. A collector's price.

    We will end up with fine bikes becoming part of heritage Britain.

  • What do you mean?

    What I meant was that it would be a shame to be Hilary driven away and to be replace by someone who doesn't care as much and doesn't have the same priorities

    Crossed wires. I assumed you meant you had plans to kill him.

  • looks great

  • how sad...but I guess we all profit from reselling at some point, just so mercenary in this case though. To buy or in this case exchange and instantly double the price to resell shows no appreciation for the bike or cycling just a coldhearted look at the bottom line..oh well..

  • I did not double the price of the Mercian - I swapped the bike for a Hetchins frame that was being freshly repainted... I have to make a living; my margins vary greatly from item to item but I still have to pay the mortgage at the end of the month and a gross margin is very different from a net margin... I cannot buy and sell simply for fun though I do generally enjoy what I do. I very much appreciate the bikes, frames and parts that pass through my hands and often spends hours doing research to discover exactly what have. A recent example id the Batavus Hennie Junkermann frame I have on my website - this I bought in Germany and was told at the time that it was a personal frame of Junkermann. You can never take this sort of thing at face value though... Certainly I could find no other frame like it... I have just discovered that it was built by Hugo Rickert, one of the top German framebuilders and was obviously built for Junkermann when he was riding for Batavus in the late 1960s. Team frames were often built by a rider's favourite framebuilder and were then badged and decaled in the Team colours. Merckx's frames were built by a variety of builders over nthe years – Masi, Colnago, De Rosa, Kessels etc None of this research just happens and this all takes time...

    But what many do not appreciate is the time it takes to buy and sell the bikes, parts etc - this last week I have driven over 500 miles and spent two and a half days sourcing the bikes and parts that you all want... And this lot will take probably ten days to sort, clean, research, photograph, write descriptions and list... And that's before they are sold...

  • Hilary, no one is blaming you.
    Timing (bike on your website one month after sale on the forum) and the fact that metrocammell dibbed first but someone (apparently) was quicker with a pm (and we have to believe that he didn't offer more for it) can lead to a false conclusions.
    Of course no one is expecting you to run a charity, you have to make a profit. Your prices in general seem to be fair. I don't care, and no one should, how much profit you're making if the final selling price is acceptable to us.
    I still don't think that a guy who bought if off the forum did a right thing. It's hard to believe that he intended to keep the bike considering that he sold it straight away.
    Ok, he was quicker with a pm. Why he didn't offer the bike back to metrocammell if he changed his mind soon after he bought it? (because he make a profit selling it)

  • This threads probably gone on long enough but sometimes it's worth defending a point, it seems that Hilary swapped the bike in question rather than bought it. A freshly painted Hetchins can go for a pretty penny too. Give the man a break

    99% of the items on Hilary's website reflect a real honesty - fair prices on often very rare items that are obviously sourced with years of amassed knowledge. Try finding the same prices on other so called 'specialist reseller' websites and I think you'll agree.

  • i am clearly not in the know about how this all played out, just felt sad for the guy who dibbed first lost out when he really would of loved and cherished that bike. thats why my earlier post was a bit sharp. I have no truck with you making a profit, everyone on here buys, resells makes a bit and you do it full time so like you said you have to make a living and you clearly know your stuff as all the articles that you have wrote for other sites would indicate.

    I did not double the price of the Mercian - I swapped the bike for a Hetchins frame that was being freshly repainted... I have to make a living; my margins vary greatly from item to item but I still have to pay the mortgage at the end of the month and a gross margin is very different from a net margin... I cannot buy and sell simply for fun though I do generally enjoy what I do. I very much appreciate the bikes, frames and parts that pass through my hands and often spends hours doing research to discover exactly what have. A recent example id the Batavus Hennie Junkermann frame I have on my website - this I bought in Germany and was told at the time that it was a personal frame of Junkermann. You can never take this sort of thing at face value though... Certainly I could find no other frame like it... I have just discovered that it was built by Hugo Rickert, one of the top German framebuilders and was obviously built for Junkermann when he was riding for Batavus in the late 1960s. Team frames were often built by a rider's favourite framebuilder and were then badged and decaled in the Team colours. Merckx's frames were built by a variety of builders over nthe years – Masi, Colnago, De Rosa, Kessels etc None of this research just happens and this all takes time...

    But what many do not appreciate is the time it takes to buy and sell the bikes, parts etc - this last week I have driven over 500 miles and spent two and a half days sourcing the bikes and parts that you all want... And this lot will take probably ten days to sort, clean, research, photograph, write descriptions and list... And that's before they are sold...

  • Good to read that. Dont blame Hillary, but the guy who bought it to resell it or using it as trade tool.

    Hillary why dont you sell me the bike at more fair price?

  • My heart still cries out when i see that bike...

  • What a dog.

  • I don't see Hilary doing anything wrong here... this forum seems to act like it's owed the world, at a discount, if Hilary was trying to sell it at an inflated price on here then, yes, feel aggrieved, but he is not.

    It's also how he makes his living, and draws upon the knowledge and contacts built upon 30 or 40 years in the bike community, who hear can claim anywhere near that legitimacy?

  • Hilary is a girls name

  • Useful dredge, well done.

  • Hilary is a girls name

    Fail. Hillary is a girl's name.

  • rw101 is a girls name

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For Sale: 1958 Mercian Road-Path fixed wheel bike

Posted by Avatar for malrees2 @malrees2

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