I first met this bike c.1999 or so, when I saw it on campus locked up with a flat tire. It had the unusual last name of one of my student workers, and it turned out it was his uncle's bike that had been lent out to a friend. It was an intriguing little beast with mismatched head lugs. I knew it had a story behind it so I bought it. Allegedly, this was originally a Mercian that was struck by a car. The owner, a poor college student, brought it to Joe Azar's shop near the University of South Carolina campus and made some sort of arrangement with Mike Melton, who was affiliated with the place. As the story was told to me, Melton brazed in a new top and down tube and a new lower head lug (I suspect the original was damaged either in the accident or the repair), and owner did the clean up and filing and painting. When I got it, the only tubing sticker was for Vitus 172, and I've wondered if that was what was used for the repairs.
It's way too small for me, but one of my riding buddies had a girlfriend (now his wife) who wanted a vintage steel road bike, and I had a bunch of credit with Jim Cunningham at CyclArt because of a batch of vintage French tandem bits I had scored at the first Cirque du Cyclist in '98, so off it went to have dents filled, shifter bosses and bottle cages added and hunter green powder coat. When it returned I built it up and sold it to her for close to cost and she rode it semi-regularly until she got half-wheeled on a local benefit ride. She went to the ER and never rode the bike again, and it's been sitting with its taco-ed front wheel since 2009. I ran into her husband last week, and in the course of talking about cycling I mentioned I was looking for a bike for my 13-year-old son, and if his wife ever wanted to part with the green bike to please let me know. She decided to give it to us, and I picked it up today.
I think that's a Vagner DP crown with Nervex Professional lugs with what looks kinda like a Bocama 18 lower head lug. The dropouts are unmarked but look a little chunkier than Campagnolo units - which are what I would have expected, as Mercian used to be and maybe still is the Campagnolo distributor in the U.K. It's a 52 cm with a 54.5 cm top tube, with round-slightly oval-round chain stays and lots of clearance for puffier tires. I'm hoping the only bent things are the handlebars and the front rim, and I think I'll replace it and the intact rear with some CR-18s to allow fatter tires for the boy's use.
I can barely make out what appears to be the serial number - 51371, with a 5 for the builder number - and I don't know who had that number in '71, though I do know it was Derek Land's later on.
Apart from new rims and a new seat post, I think I'll look at brake options - and the classic Weinmann 999 center pull is not off the table - and I'll be transferring the MicroNew brifters from his converted MTB and generally setting it up for all road surfaces. I'm undecided on whether I'll track down a triple or if I'll just build it as a double with 38/47T chainrings. At least the powder coat is in good shape under all the dirt!
More to come as it happens!