keith5101

Just interested to get any opinions, So I hear they are rebadged khs frames, but for the price of $300 plus tax, I would not mind having a second bike. My bike is being worked on at the present time (accident), so I have no bike to ride. it's been a week already and it kinda sucks taking public trans.

eddiebrannan

been discussed a bazillion times. search for endless pages of it.

cliff notes: far from great, but fine for the money. upgradable and perfectly rideable as is. many have said that the extra $150 or so to get a pista or similar would be well spent, but if you already have a better bike then this would probably make sense.

personal experience: a friend has one and on a quick tool around the block it felt ok.

tink20seven

i have to say it's not too shabby.
plenty of flex when you want it but sturdy enough to be called "tight"
the geometry feels good and the price is right.

then again, what do i know...

MLPROJECT

tink representin with the '**** WORK' stickers

AfterThisNap

That saddle makes my anus hurt just by looking at it. Is that the apside?

Check for the mercier on bikesdirect.com, you may get it a little cheaper. You will never do better for the money, and the frame is worth upgrading.

Phillio

If I could go back in time I might have gotten one of these rather
than go through all the stuff I went though with my conversion...
the conversion was fun to do though, I learned a bit more than
I would have buying a complete bike. Plus, my frame has pretty
lugs and has gotten me into lugs big time. My next step is having a
higher quality wheelset built. When I do upgrade my frame it's
gonna have to have some nice lugs, be it a track frame of road
with tight geometry.

I

nomadaselk

In doing some research, I spoke with the guy from Spicer. He confirmed that his stock steel frame is the exact import that EBay sellers are selling as Mercier and others. He said he would move down in price to $225 on the frame set alone (from $275) with $15 shipping (to Midwest). No guarantee of course, but that's what he told me for a single frame. In reading some posts here, the components on the EBay bikes can be total crap. Although some posts suggest that the frame is OK to nice. Peace.

-=(8)=-

I have one still in the box that I havent built yet.
I had a bunch of stuff shipped from Gene Spicer and
Dans Comp to put on when I build it. First look, unbuilt ,
looks to me to be well worth the 300 Samolians. After
I build it up Ill put up pics and a report.
I dont feel I made a mistake. (Yet ?? )

AfterThisNap

225 !? so for 75 dollars more on Ebay you get a wheelset, tires, tubes, a dura-ace cog and lockring, chain, crank, BB, pedals, headset,stem, handlebars, seatpost, saddle, and shipping? Good lawd. The mercier is looking better and better.

worker4youth

All the components, I repeat, ALL THE COMPONENTS on this Mercier is EXACTLY the same as the 2005 KHS Flite 100.

With the exception of the saddle.

MDRawk

Tink is fast on his Mercier.
Really Fast.
And this guy doesn't even train.

fordfasterr

tink, just out of curiosity, what size is your mercier frame ?

at least, what was the advertised size?

I am hoping I did not order the wrong one ! OUCH !

driven1

I just ordered one myself to ride to and from work. If it rides ok I plan on replacing the wheelset with something from IRO. I can use the wheelset that comes with the mercier for my current $20 (goodwill) fixed commuter bike. I hope its a nice bike for the money. But regardless, It has to be an improvement over my current ride.

fordfasterr

driven1, just curious...

how tall are you and what size mercier frame did you order ?

thanks =)



(I ordered mine based on stand-over height, since the c-c measurements seemed kind of small, I know track bikes are supposed to have a slightly higher BB and that may account for the smaller c-c measurements... but anyway..... ? )

seely

I was curious about sizing as well. They all seem either too big or too small for me... no in between!

NimbusRidesFixd

I got a mercier kilo tt bike from sprtymama on ebay for 322 bucks, and I LOVE this bike. I've put about 250 miles on it so far, and I don't know what people are talking about when they badmouth this bike. You need to tune the bike when you first buy it, by that I mean greasing the bearings on everything, fine-tighting the hubs and headset. It rides beautifully, and does have bad toe-overlap. I ride the 50cm frame, and I have a 30.75" inseam. Fits wonderfully. I don't get it, this bike is exactly like the KHS flite 100....people RAVE about that bike - and the kilo tt is BLACK (which is good)!! Why is this bike which is $200 less...getting badmouthed!?

Chad

hyperRevue

People rave about the KHS Flite 100?

DiegoFrogs

After only 250 miles, you haven't exactly experienced the entire lifetime of the components yet, and the shortness of said lifetime seems to be the greatest complaint.

seely

I'm guessing that the low life expectancy of components comes from people who buy a bike online and then don't adjust the hub bearings, headset properly, or take the time to tension and true the wheels. I have a sneaking suspicion that if I built up a Mercier/Windsor/KHS, the stuff would all last quite some time, since it would be put together right from the get go.

12XU

The only original part on my Kilo TT is the frame, and even the frame is altered (taken down to the bare steel and clearcoated). I needed a bike when I bought it; had I been as big of a bike snob then as I am now, there's no way in hell I would have bought it.

AfterThisNap

Word to that. Way back as a kid with a non-existant parts budget I became familiar with the practice of making crappy componenets last as long as possible, or extending their service life after they broke.
Thumbs up for exage/biopace!

keith5101

Thanks, for the input, if I do get it i'm gonna upgrade the handlebars, seat, and stem pretty much immediately. and then slap on a pair of time pedals. So I guess in the long run it's worth it as a backup bike for work.
I have a debernardi thron with deep v rims laced to suzue hubs with a sugino crankset and the rest nitto, with time pedals. But I got hit last week and the lbs are bending back the frame, and relacing the wheel right now. seeing that bike bent really hurt. I spent allot of time building that up..

worker4youth

Funny, when I was a kid, i would NEVER perform ANY maintenance (except flats...I had one tube that had 6 patches on it!), and NONE of the components failed on that BMX-style bike after 5 years of riding it almost every day. I even never once put a drop of oil on the chain. Believe me, I used to jump off curbs, skid the tires, fall of it, etc. Nothing ever failed...

AfterThisNap

Ah, I grew up on mountainbikes. My first real ride was quite the frankenmonster of bastard parts.

worker4youth

Those were the days? Weren't they? You didnt care about your bike, as long as it ran. You actually enjoyed what you had, instead of falling into the pit of upgraditis and maintenance. Ignorance is bliss.