If y'all wanna see pics just scroll down. The story how I got is kinda fun.

I was chatting with a customer and I mentioned that if he needed to get ahold of me tomorrow I wouldn't be available tomorrow since I was going to a bike show. I blabbed on a bit about how I started fixing up old bikes during the pandemic and I enjoyed the challenge of getting hopeless piles of poo back in working order and the wife nudged him and said "Tell Jim about your old bike! You wanna get rid of it. Maybe he would be interested". In my head, "Great. Another Schwinn Varsity someone wants to offload."

We kept chatting and he told me he bought the bike in the late 70s after he had a couple of good months at work so he wanted to upgrade his current road bike. He went to a bike shop and there was a ~2 year old Merz that caught his eye. After a substantial amount of 1970s dollars he bought it. Me - "A Merz!? Why yes, I'm interested!" He also mentioned he had racks for it and I became VERY interested. I agreed to swing by his house last night to check it out.

Well, he wheeled it out and I sank a bit. He mentioned it had been stored under his parents deck and saw quite a bit of weather exposure. That was obvious but it was complete and had a bunch of Campy and the Mafac cantis were cool AF. (I overlooked the Alivio RD and WTB platform pedals). I might have paid too much but at the end of the day, I have a Merz from the second owner. I wish Jim was still here to comment (I'll PM him and maybe he'll answer) but the thoughts of y'all are welcome. Pics are in as-found condition

** = It's rough but still suits my 'embrace the patina' ethos. Racks possibly built by Mr Merz?