Originally Posted by Thylacine
As I actually know what 1000 bucks buys you - from a raw materials, labour, jigging, quality of production, disbursement etc etc standpoint, believe me when I say you want TIG at that price. The quality is much better.
However, if you think a Mercian is just a more sensible option than say a Kirk or a Sachs or a Eisentraut because it's cheaper, then you're kidding yourself. If you've got a spare moment, here's a good example. Check out 'sorebutt's' (from the roadie forum) 'Traut vs this close up pic of the Mercian you mentioned.
While I have to agree that TIG would give you better quality tubing for the price than lugged, I don't like the way you are dissing Mercian. Mercian makes very nice frames in traditional way, like a lot of other British builders. They are not boutique builders like Sachs or Vanilla, but they are doing this for 60 years, they know what they are doing.
And that photo of mercian doesn't do any justice.
