Need help identifying Mercier
 

Hey guys, just wondering if anyone would be kind enough to help me figure out more about my bike. A friend of mine gave it to me because it was too small for him. It's 51cm c-t and 53cm tt. Thank you!

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=513893http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=513894

A drive side pic of the bike with details of the parts (derailleurs, cranks, etc.) would be a big help. You do get the award for the best seat tube graphic of the day. Very cool seat tube graphic of a rider. The bike is pretty much worth owning just for that sticker.

The bike is old but the brake levers and saddle are not.

Isn't that the universal signal in the peloton for, "I have a flat"?

Never seen anything like it, and it's a very cool graphic - and in great shape.

Yeah, I love the tube graphic. It adds so much character to the bike. Here are a few more pictures - don't know much about bikes, so let me know if you need more.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=513899http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=513900http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=513901http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=513902

Someone will come along who can ID the bike. It is a lovely old bike in need of some TLC. The crank is new; the huret allvit rear derailleur may be as old as the bike; the front derailleur is new. Probably a low end bike given the stamped steel drop outs and the rear derailleur but the thing to keep in mind is that even a lower end European bike like this is a very fine bicycle well worth keeping up. The rust is troubling. You will want to do some work to get on top of it.

This is a neat bike.

Generally it's easy with Mercier cause what we mainly ever see are just 3 models: the 300 (all 531DB) the 200 (3-main tubes plain gauge 531) and the 100 (which is what I THINK we see here: a hi-tensile thinner than gaspipe but still plain gauge plain steel) with "fancy" lugs and graphics. The Simplex dropouts are stamped but have some dimension to them...all around sort of what the UO-8 aspires to but Mercier gave you more at around that price-point.
There COULD be other models that were "in-betweeners" in which case I'd say this COULD be something like a "150"...:)
BTW, that graphic of the rider with hand raised is probably Raymond Poulidor, long time Mercier pro rider and very popular in France.

Well, it's not bottom of the line. I've seen other Mercier from this apparent era that are lower end. They have painted, generic, stamped dropouts with dual eyelets. Consequently, I'm leaning towards a Mercier 200. It could also be, as my esteemed colleague points out, an in between model, depending on the exact era. This isn't the typical boom era livery that we see, as they don't have the foil stickers with Pou-Pou all over them (sorry, could resist. For those who don't know Pou-Pou was Raymond Poulidor's nickname).