Nice bay Area Craigslist Bikes
 

Since I have no project bike at the moment, I was surfing craigslist, which usually doesn’t excite me much. But, these 2 bikes did. So I thought the appraisal forum might appreciate them. I especially like the Mercian, and if I had the money, I would be calling the seller. The Paramount has some great detail photos. This is also an example of West Coast pricing and wondered what you thought.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/bik/1741043016.html
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/bik/1740971932.html

This is what I think (sorry for the bells - more liek tubas- and whistles) :

The same guy selling the Mercian was selling a Jack Taylor Tour of Britain not too long ago, in beautiful shape. I believe he was asking in the $1200 range.

Got your subtle message ‘E’, I’ll call the California Dept. of Tourism to advise them that you won’t be visiting this year. Since you’re a fan of Cool J, some day you might want to visit LA and drive by his house there.

Now, about the Mercian. I was hoping someone would have added some history about them. I just added the Paramount ‘cause I know there are some fans here. I had never heard of Mercian before their name popped up on a Touring Forum thread about companies that were still producing lugged frames. I checked out their site and their frames are nice. I had no idea they went back to the 70’s.

I visit SoCal very often. For a 6 year period I used to spend a week there every six weeks for work (mainly in La Jolla, just south of LA, but several times I flew into Burbank and drove down 5.) I met my wife in Palm Springs (Palm Desert, actually, but you get the idea) and totally love Joshua Tree national park and the Salton Sea (not in the summer). So Arnold and the Cal Dept of Tourism should be more than happy with me :) (I am just not buying any bikes there at those prices, so the local flippers and the CA Dept of 'commerce' might have complaints). I really like California. So that's that.

Mercian (MErcy-ann) is a cool bike. One shop framebuilders in Derby UK (I know it sounds French, but it is English) and these guys survived for 60 years doing this. Still in bussiness. So they've been doing it right...

Thanks E! I had no idea they went back that far. Can't say that about many frame builders. i'm going to do somemore research on them. They have a touring frame called 'The King of Mercia' made of Reynolds 631 that i really like. At today's exchange rate, it would cost upwards of $1100 though. You can get a complete Surly LHT for that much.