Mercian Campionissimo 1969 build

This is my first attempt to build my own bike, so I'm hoping for comments from the experts.

I live in hilly north London, so I need gears I'm afraid - but five will do fine for me.

Unfortunately I have spunk'd all my money on paying Mercian for the renovation - see before and after pics below.

So, now I want to get it on the road as quickly as possible with cheap but reasonable quality parts.

Instead of 27 inch wheels I've bought some 700c weinmanns which means I'll need deep drop brakes (fingers crossed). The rear axle is 130mm, which means I'll probably have to lever apart the stays.

So far, I have also bought a bottom bracket and a no-brand quill stem and an old 1970s Shimano 600 rear mech, which I intend to use with a five-speed cassette.

I can't take much from my current bike as it is too modern. However, I'll be transferring the Brooks saddle over.

Anyway, here are the photos...

http://imgur.com/a/6XZfA#0

is the rear currently at 120? lovely colour, needs brown brooks, theres one on flickr the same(ish) colour with a brown brooks, looks ace
i'll try to find it edit found it

one of my favourites

Nice, but the brooks I've got is black. The rear is currently 126mm. Is it possible that I won't have to tamper with them to fit a 130?

Beautiful frame, look forward to seeing it built!

Just have to try to get 130 and if it wont fit youll have to get it set

My bob wont take a 130 at 126 as the casette hits the stays but many people have had much easier a time and just slotted the wheel right in

Wheels are a complete blind spot for me. Will it help that I'm only going to stick a five-speed cassette on the rear?

My 72 bob is designed for 27" x 126mm, and I run 27" 126mm 6spd, but have tried a 700c 130mm 8spd in there and it did fit, but it was fag paper tight between bottom cog and the chainstay.

So being safe I would say an 8spd 130mm hub running only 7spd with a spacer in the wrong place would defo be OK.

Well shouldn't be long before I can find out - although I'm finding it a pain getting hold of a reasonable quality 5 speed freewheel

Nice!! - how much did the respray cost? I have a King of Mercian boxed up and ready to go back, just deciding on what needs to be done

The paint job cost £120. But that's the cheapest possible - enamel racing green with no stripes or fancy bits. You could spend a lot more on those. I had to get them to add some braze-ons and fix a few things like the seat post as well, which pushed up the cost.

I've come across my first hitch. The front wheel doesn't seem to fit properly. The forks are the right width, but the axle seems to be too wide to go into the left drop out. The right drop out fits fine.

We're talking pretty small margins here. Does anyone think it would be a bad idea to file down the left drop out slightly so the axle fits?

bad idea, that's irreversible

aren't they stopgap wheels anyway? 27'' wheels can be found easily enough
the frame deserves it, please don't hurt it

is the gap not 100?

Good news on the fork - no irreversible filing required and the front wheel now runs straight and true. But it doesn't tuck all the way into the top of the fork (see image) is this safe? or will it take just one bump in the road to make the wheel crooked and send me flying?

http://i.imgur.com/fCk0b.jpg

^^ On some cheap/low end frames the dropouts aren't even equal, let alone filed to the same depth so you often seen them with the axle not tucked all the way in (otherwise wheel would rub horrifically). So long as both nuts are seated well against the dropouts (square to them) and the wheel is straight then likely no problem.

Thanks. BrickMan. The wheel is running fine, so I'll just tighten the QR bolts and hope for the best.

OK, I've put the headset together and stuck the fork to the frame. But here's another problem....

As you can see from the photos, the steerer is too short! There isn't enough space for the locknut to screw on. Is it possible that I have to sand the paint off the bottom of the steerer so that it slips up a bit more? If you look at the picture, you can see the exposed bit at the bottom of the steerer corresponds to about the amount of tube that I need to screw the locknut on.

Any suggestions welcomed!

http://i.imgur.com/w806R.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/SNWCJ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/IlQvI.jpg

yes that is possible, you've installed the headset wrong. The baseplate has to be all over the thicker part of the steerertube.

did Mercian paint over the crown race seat??

blimey.

This is a really classy looking frame - lovely.

Your crown race needs to be seated correctly on the crown fork.As you have mentioned your probably gunna have to remove some of that paint and then gently tap the crown race into place.

put the front wheel on, unscrew the top of the headset, bang the bike down on the front wheel until the race is flush with the crown.

Clownfish, Yes I'm not too happy with the way Mercian prepared the frame. It all looks great, but when I had trouble putting the BB in, I took it to my LBS where the mechanic looked it up and down and said they hadn't prepared the threads properly or removed paint on the steerer. I'm having to do work they should have done for me.

Anyway, thanks for the advice. I'm too scared I'll break something if I bang the crown race into place, so I'll scrub off the excess paint on the steerer and see how it goes.