1977 Mercian Road Bike Project

About time I made a thread for my Mercian project, a bike that will hopefully be with me for a long time. The frame is a 1977 Mercian, (according to the frame number, this hasn't been checked with Mercian) and looking at the old catalog's it doesn't appear to one specific model, instead it appears to have borrowed features from a few different models. It has no braze on's whatsoever. Hope you enjoy the build and all advice/comments are welcome.

Ready to go to colourtech, Dartford for a respray. On a first glance the paint didn't look too bad but it was hiding a few dodgy area's. After much deliberation I decided I liked the original paint too much to change it. I had it resprayed in the original silver with black lug lining.

Decals from Mercian

531 Decals from H Lloyd

1 Attachment

Does anyone know which replacement hoods would fit these brake levers?

They are Dura Ace first gen
http://velobase.com/ViewComponent.aspx?ID=797cbd43-92e4-42d8-be1e-3db3adaed4e8&Enum=118

I have a 76 mercian Olympic, that like yours has no bottle bosses. WishI'd added some when I got a respray ...

The levers look pretty standard size-wise, take a gamble on weinmann or dia compe if you can't get anything specifically for the levers.

damn.. interested in the pic's content but my eyes burst trying to see something in pics that small.

so, i'd advise to go to postimage.org, select your pics, choose the 800x600 option, and upload them. the rest is just embedding like you did with the small ones (direct link is what needs to be copied)

@skully do you have a picture of yours at all? I'm interested about the lack of brazeons as even in the earlier catalogue on the mercian website all the geared frames seem to have some at least. EDIT - have spotted it on the Mercian website, very nice.
Mine doesn't even have a 'pip' on the chain stay or any cable guides.

@hma I will sort some bigger pictures

And here she is back from Colourtech, they did a great job and it was a pleasure having a look around their workshop.

Cleaned the headset then had it reinstalled and a new bb installed by giant in Bromley.

if anyone really likes this i have a very similar newer version (1982) for sale

'82 version has braze on front derailleur and stamped seat stay caps / bb cups 531

moustache bars I think by monomaniac(tom), on Flickr

60cm, paint in superb condition (restored by ellis briggs 2 years ago), comes with headset £300
only selling because i bought a chrome version last year which i had restored but haven't collected it yet as i'm too skint until i sell this one!
Sorry to hijack

Wow that's very nice.

Wow that's very nice.

thanks, we both have great taste :)

Parts

The plan for the build is full first generation/7200 Dura Ace and I have the original parts from the bike where were this and a few bits of SR Royal (which I am replacing)

Bit's i've bought:

DA cranks (retrobike)
http://s27.postimg.org/7qxlzk3yb/photo_11.jpg

DA Hubs on A.V.A tubular rims with DA skewers (lfgss)
http://s30.postimg.org/62hiblnvl/photo_4.jpg

http://s30.postimg.org/51h9mh6w1/photo_17.jpg

Bit's I need;
Pedals
DA Seatpost (will use the SR Royal for the moment)
Bar tape. Am going to go for cotton. Need to select from the below colours. May go for grey.
A chain - recommendations?

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/NEWBAUMS-Cotton-Cloth-Handle-Bar-Tape-16-COLOUR-CHOICES-Made-in-U-S-A-/00/s/MTA2M1gxNjAw/z/ekcAAOxyAc1SRzvD/$T2eC16hHJHkFFmGsKkPZBSRzvCw-Vg~~60_1.JPG

Wipperman!

I'll post something of my Olympic. Has pip under DT for band on shifters, and cable stops on seattube and DS chainstay, so not too strange. Maybe yours built without front mech cabling for TT or something?

The fork crown is elegant. Nice paint, I used Colour Tech once, they were good.

As there's no gear apparatus apart from a hanger, I'd probably build it fixed.

You're right it would be the perfect horizontal drop out fixed. Having all the parts already though I will continue building it up geared. (Not to mention the cost of good fixed parts from the late 70's).

I also have a roberts track bike which fulfills my need for fixed vintage goodness.

DA Brakes

DA Mechs and shifters

Small Parts

Saddle

EDIT - Chain, bartape (black cotton) and hoods (gum dia compe) now ordered.

Stunning !! And lovely selection of parts too :)

Look forward to finished pics !!

Looking good. I used to have a '72 Olympic (I think), resprayed by Dave Russell:

Any updates on this?

Have some leather straps and a bit of tweaking to do but otherwise the Merc is getting there

Looks great!

Very nice indeed, did the tub carrier/strap come with the bike ? Finding one of these is just about impossible.

Just me but the rear brake guides are placed too close to each other.

Depend how much you want one, there's one here but a bit expensive at nearly £30!

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=191207483006

And to answer the question yes it can with it, was a bit rusty but it cleaned up really well

very nice