I need to tell the story of this bike,

to tell the story this bike.


The top bike is a mid-seventies gaspipe Mercier that I took on as 'French as possible fixed gear' build. I thought I did a pretty decent job as the only non franco parts on the bike were the Lambert chain ring and the Sturmey FW converted to 3 speed fixed gear. She turned out to be a really nice riding and handling bike. I did some light touring on it and also did my best 200k brevet with.

On August 6, 2007, I had the bike loaded for a ride from my home in IL to the Fixed Gear Symposium in Traverse City, MI. I made just 13 miles when I was hit from behind by an 18 y/o kid traveling 45 mph. I heard, more than, felt impact. That is, until I finally quit sliding through gravel on the shoulder. I seem to recall thinking about the worst hit I took playing high school football and wishing this felt as good. Long story short, no life threatening injuries. Just lots of tissue damage, stitches and one destroyed bike.

While sitting back at home that evening, pumped full of Vicodin, three of my friends I was supposed to meet up in TC, showed up to see how I was doing, see how banged up I was, and if I was in decent enough shape to be driven to TC. Negatory on that last one. The guys knew how much I had put into the Mercier and they all showed up bearing bike parts, a Super Course frameset among them.

After I recovered enough to walk without the aid of crutches and could get past looking at the remains of the Mercier without shuddering, I stripped what was salvageable from it, which wasn't much, and began building up what I call the 'Phoenix'. The resulting Super Course turned out to surpass the Mercier in ride and handling and still works out for light fixed gear touring. However, the last 200k brevet ride I attempted two years ago on it resulted in my baling. I don't think I had recovered enough then for 200k.