I rode a Merlin as my only road bike for eight years. It was amazing, they are super stable and responsive bikes. I have bombed hills at ~50 m.p.h and done 100 mile days, I never gave the bike a second thought. I would get another Tom Kellogg designed bike in a heartbeat. Especially one of those really hot Spectrum anniversary steel bikes.

The only reason I moved on is because eight years is a long time with the same bike for me and I wanted to check out vintage steel. I still have the frame and will probably never sell it, I might just want to ride it again someday.

Unfortunately I could not find any pictures of the bike built up. They must be on an old computer in my storage unit.

Here is the frame:

IMG_0700 by lelandgibson, on Flickr


I think it is from about 2000 or so because of the early campy carbon bits that were on it. I have seen other painted frames from the same era as well. They go pretty reasonably. The one thing I don't like about it is the integrated headset. Its just really hard to find parts for. you should watch for that as well as the BB.