Mercian build

I visited MERCIAN yesterday and ordered a new frame.

The idea is to build a 'road track' suitable for training rides at the Hippodrome d'Auteuil in Paris and for Sunday rides out into the country, maximum distance less than 100 miles. The bike shall be ridden on the road and not on an indoor track and I doubt that I shall ever spend more than one day in the saddle at anyone time. The idea of going for a Mercian was to try to recreate that old skool English track bike look. Specifically I am trying to make this bike look like a bike that could have been ridden in England in the 1970's, both on the road and at the race track.

So I thought I would start a thread where I could share and discuss the build.

lovely
how long do they reckon from start to finish? do they paint inhouse? are they building it up as well? what colour you getting? what lugs and track ends are they using? doyou get a choice?
dave

all your questions shall be answered

I ordered a Mercian in April.... They said it would take 20 weeks - so I'm waiting until september :-( I can't wait....

I hear what you are saying about the old school style, but that wasn't why I went for them... I just liked the idea that these old guys grab some steel tubing, cut it and braze it into lugs - a perfect simple steel frame - no fucking around with fluted seat posts etc (not saying any names eg. Bob Jackson). The simple can never go wrong or be out-dated.

Buddha, which frame-set did you go for? I got the Vigorelli in the cheapest steel - I couldn't afford any more than that. I'm going for White Pearl with no lug lining and plain white outlined mercian Block decals as I want a real monochrome finish. If anyone has had the chance to see Roberto's Merrcx ?? That is the look I'm going for with my Mercian.... Kind of modern and classic at the same time.

i'm getting a project in m head a bit like that too was thinking of a bj vigorelli if i cannot find anyhing else, i saw rob's mercx btw

@Stef

My girlfriend is getting a BJ built at the moment.... they have this weird fluted seat post thing.... I've never seen it on a steel frame before. It just doesn't look right. Also, when she went in the shop she asked if she could see a built up Vigorelli and they didn't have one, she asked if they had any brochures with pics... they don't do them, and she tried to look on the website and there is no picture there, just a blank space.

Compared to Mercian who have a nice, plain catalogue with all of the paint options and in-depth build descriptions and pictures - BJ just feels.... well, not as good as Mercian (shit, it's a BJ Vs. Mercian...)

This looks pretty clear to me

the only annoying thing is that you gotta imagine the colours but it's quite easy to find some net page with those colours

Stef This looks pretty clear to me

Fuck me - I stand corrected! It took me an age to find anything on that site.... Thanks for that - now my GF can see a picture of the frame she is getting.... The first thing that strikes me about the mercian and the BJ is that they look identical, but the BJ is £100 cheaper....

does the mercian come with a headset? coz the bj doesnt

Jonaent - check the end of the Japanese bikes thread for a pic of my (massive) BJ Vigorelli. I reckon BJ and Mercian are fairly similar quality, although I think Mercian have slightly better painters for fancy stuff. I have read about some quality control probs with BJ but I think that's not a problem any more.

Is the "fluted post" the seat tube (ie part of the frame)? It's weird that they offer that as anything other than an extra option. You could find more pictures of BJs on bikeforums.net or velospace by the way.

the-smiling-buddha I visited MERCIAN yesterday and ordered a new frame.

Wicked dude! I reckon you're going to have fun with imaginary build ups over the next few months! I guess they'll suggest something like 74 HT and 73-75 ST depending on your height and TT length. A high BB would be useful for clearance on the road and track. I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun on the bike when it's finished.

So I arrived and told them briefly what I wanted.

I came armed with a file of printouts and datasheets & I brought my laptop

to show them photos of the Mercian bikes that I liked and why I liked them

First we decided on the lugs.

I really liked the 'Strada Speciale' lugs so I went for these.

I wanted cut away lugs to emphasis lightness and speed

I also really like the shot in seat stays on the strada frame

once again because they emphasis speed

on the seat tube to hold the seat post I asked for a MERCIAN AK seat lug

which is much sleaker than the one shown in the photo above

I checked that all these options were avaliable from Mercian in the ' 70s

i want a flambouyant lime coloured frame hmmm !!! with dayglo orange decals

This

[code]http://www.hubjub.co.uk/gaansari/scorcherpage.htm[/code] was built by Mercian, bit blingy, but I like the basic set up.

What's wrong with fluted seat posts???

Not a fluted seatPOST, but a fluted seatTUBE - My Girl is getting a custom Pista built at BJ and that was one of the options she chose because it makes the bike more compact. I was just surprised, as I have never seen that on a steel frame.... perhaps I have on an old Dolan Track maybe... not sure

'Strada' means 'road' in Italian

so having decided on the 'Strada Speciale' frame

i.e a road frame

(because of the beautiful lugs and shot in seat stays)

I then had to turn this frame into a 'road track' frame

First I had to specify the drop outs as 'track ends' as this is going to be a 'fixed'

Then immediately I had to decide on whether to 'chrome' or not to 'chrome'

Well I wanted chrome because I don't want paint chips on the drop outs

In chrome MERCIAN do whole stays, half stays, quarter stays or just the drop outs

For a track bike I thought

Just the drop out in chrome would be most appropriate

They then match the forks to the rear to give the bike 'balance'

like this

Next we deleted all the braze on and mounts

So that the frame is completely clean

The only concession this bike makes to practicality over style

In a front fork drilling for a brake

So now we have a MERCIAN 'Strada Speciale' built as a 'road track' with chrome track drop outs

and no mounts or braze ons

NEXT the geometry.

You're gonna do 100 mile rides with no bottle cages? I'd suggest at least one set of bottle bosses just to make summer riding bearable. Carrying loads of water on your back sucks after a while.

Momentum You're gonna do 100 mile rides with no bottle cages? I'd suggest at least one set of bottle bosses just to make summer riding bearable. Carrying loads of water on your back sucks after a while.

Bottles...@*?!!!!

bottles are for 'sensible' people who ride 'touring bikes'

& I ain't racing anyone so I can stop at the 'shops' and buy water

and because I am 'London' I don't really 'do' country

I ain't going nowhere that ain't got any shops

in anycase 100 miles is going to be about the absolute bloody maximum

most of the time I'll be riding this on an outdoor track

if it becomes an issue though

these are uber*cool

you can get some seat bottle holders, they have a nice retro feel

haha too late

I hadn't thought of it before, but them seat bottle holders do look cool , I am going to get some of them ...;) these fit in perfectly with the ethos of this bike.

This is a track bike that can be used on the road, not a road bike that has been brought to the track.

Ha ha. Well if it don't look cool, it an't worth it! ;)

Keep us posted on the geometory buddha,

Have you seen these seat claps / lugs? (strawberry bikes dave pointed me to them)

Never seen those before Tommy, they are a bit different, MERCIAN do there own Alan Key seat lug

this lug will look sweet with shot in stays

SIZE

So next up was frame size and frame geometry

For some background, I ride an off the peg 54cm

EAI bareknuckle with a 74° seat tube and a 75° head tube

For this Mercian use an adjustable jig

a tape measure

& an experienced eye

all measurement are taken centre to centre

Mercian go by the KOPS method

K.O.P.S. (Knee Over Pedal Spindle)

To start with they fix the saddle height

This came down to

How much seat post do you want visible

& what style of bars and stem do you intend to use

For twenty years I have been riding small frames

with long seat posts & riser bars

For a fixed with a pista stem and bars

I can afford to go higher in the frame

So I went for a shorter seat post length of around 12 cm or so

The shorter seat post is not out of keeping with a 1970’s period

We adjusted the jig for a comfortable stand over

And the proceeded to increase the height of the frame

Until we found the point that felt most comfortable in the leg

This gave me a 55.5 cm seat tube

A full 1.5cm on what I have at present

(MERCIAN 'Strada Speciale' built as a 1970's 'road track' with chrome track drop outs & 55.5 cm seat tube)