markwebb

My new Mercian King of Mercia frame arrived this week: Shipped on Thursday from Derby UK and arrived at FedEx station for pick up on Friday here in Louisville KY USA.

Now if I was only that fast a rider : )

Serpico

OMG, F-Word--that's sweet!!

congrats

blandin

Beautiful frame, I really like that shade of blue. So then, what's your plan for the build?

markwebb

Thanks. I like that blue, too. It's called Ice Blue Pearl. It has a little irridescent pearl to it - it's not just a straight blue.

Well, my build plans changed over the last few days. I planned to go with Record and Chorus because I had a new Viner we built in September that I was selling. The Viner was Ultegra/DA. I put it on eBay at a price several hundred $$$ less than the current sale price of the bike on-line but I got no bids. So I am taking some of that group off and will use it on the Mercian. It's still all new components. I'll put the Viner up on eBay again, but at a reduced price and just include the headset/bars/stem/cranks/bb/seat post/seat/ front derailleur. The Mercian will be a DA/Ultegra build with a Campy Chorus headset and Nitto quill stem with Nitto Noodle bars. Thomson seat post. Mavic OP laced to Ultegra hubs. Very retro look with a lot of silver/chrome to go with the ice blue pearl frame.

blandin

Sounds great. Looking forward to pictures of the finished bike. Good luck with selling the Viner.

marqueemoon

I like Mercian's old school decals a little better, but otherwise ,WOW! That is going to be one sweet ride.

markwebb

Yes I agree the Mercian old school Gothic style letters were better than the new block style.

This bike is very understated in it's graphics - just a set of block decaling on seat and down tubes, a Reynolds 531 decal on seat tube, and small 531 decals on forks. Not a lot of pizazzz compared to the modern aluminum monstrosities (sp?) you see all pained and decaled up - but I guess they need that to sell those Taiwan generic aluminum frames. Mercian's beauty is in the workmanship - check out those lugs on my baby!!! And note that the lugs are outlined in a contrasting dark blue.

They do the brazing in an open hearth vs a big 'ole hot welding torch. And one person builds each bike from the beginning when the tubes are gathered and fitting started to the lugs.

And how about the painting and finishing: The decals are not really decals - they are transfers - varnish fix transfers with no vinyl "step" at the edges of the transfer. They are applied by adding a thin layer of transfer varnish to the area where the transfer is to be placed and once tacky the transfer is then applied in position and the backing tissue paper carefully wiped off with water. The excess varnish is then removed with solvents and wiped dry with a soft cloth. The transfers are then left to air dry for 48 hours.

The lug-lining is added by hand with a small pen-like device, carefully filled with the selected colour and lug lines followed to pick-out the lugs and finish the frame beautifully.

The frame is then given two coats of hard-wearing clear lacquer to protect the finished frame, before stoving in the oven once again.

I don't think they do that in Taiwan or China.

sirshane13

beautiful. nice macro of the top tube/seat tube joint. i wonder how she rides.

markwebb

I had a Mercian Pro a few years ago that was wonderful. In a weak moment I sold it. I bought this one based on my experiences with that first Mercian.