Found this for a reasonable price locally.
thank god i'm tall and i spotted it early after it was posted for sale, had it been 54-56 cm it would have sold fast
so, a 60cm Merlin titanium fully equiped in 7400 Dura Ace. Even has Ti spindle and DA hubs on Mavic rims.
rebuild begins, it will get 7800 Dura Ace.

Question for you guys: looking at options for the fork and stem. Keep the fork and go quill stem or convert to threadless with modern stem ?

Depends on what you want to achieve.
Threadless is handy if you are not sure what stem length you want. Because they are so easy and cheap to change. But if you have the right length there isn't much benefit.
The stem you have is a bit ugly in my opinion but so are threadless adapters.
I went full carbon fork and bars with a threadless stem.
It's not as pretty as a quill but it works very well.

Keep the threaded headset. Virtually any stem would be an improvement. Those Merlins have very nice lines and look good with classic or "modern" stems.

I like the Syncros stem, but I came into this hobby thought mountain bikes. I'm guessing it'd at least sell for decent money if you hated it.

Is it for aesthetics or function? Is it worth the cost to you? Your decision. Very nice bike. If it were mine, I would go modern with a threadless headset/stem, compact, 31.8 bar, and carbon fork. I am in the process of doing that to a Lemond Tourmalet. I just acquired the fork from Spaghetti Legs. I also switched to, 6750 crankset, and the rest is 6600. It already had 4600 shifters and they stayed. It is a fair investment for whatever gain there is or isn't. It is something I wanted to do, saw an opportunity to do it at, IMO, a low cost, and went with it.

If the headtube can take a threadless headset, I'd go that route (if it were my bike).

I'm a big fan of the Nitto Tallux stem (the kind Rivendell sells - available here). Lots of height flexibility, plenty strong, very nice classic look. It's what I'd choose. But that's just me.

little update; spent some time removing scratches and all around polish, medium Scothbrite with WD-40 as a lube, looking good.
What a nicely made frame! The welds are the best i'seen on a Titanium frame, very nice details, and my god what a light frame.







now, the parts that came off this bike; full 7400 Dura Ace with 8 speed brifters

What came with it

next, what it's getting

next round of polishing coming up

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease! Change this stem and bar...it is "killing" the bike!

A 60cm Extralight, how sweet. Color me jealous, always wanted one.

Here is an example of a 20 year old bike that underwent a change from threaded to threadless with new fork, headset, stem, bars.

Bumping an old thread here, but I am curious how this build turned out.
I recently picked up an Extralight and trying to decide how I want to build it.
They are gorgeous frames.
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I built up my Merlin with mostly 11 speed Ultegra. It is a 99, crazy how a 25 year old bike is my favorite ride. Ignore the pedals and high stem, coming off an ACL surgery so the bike is set up for easy cruising.

My Extralight is my all-time favorite bicycle. I also pulled off 7400 Dura Ace and the original fork.

I would either buy a different classic quill stem (Cinelli 1A or Nitto) and use it with a classic 26.0/25.4 handlebar, or I would switch out the fork, headset and stem entirely. I did the latter and dropped more than a pound. Otherwise, the Kestrel fork is a good one - I'd keep it if you are staying quill.

Your best new carbon fork bet is the Columbus Minimal 1". Make sure the uncut steerer length is enough. There are places in Italy that have the best prices. You can buy them "ready to paint" if you want a matte finish without decals - which is also a little cheaper.

For the finish, they use dry extra fine burgundy Scotch Bright pads at the factory. Fine will work well enough. Medium is too much (but maybe okay if you are oiling them.)




I have since upgraded to an Alpha Q fork.

Nice bike! I am debating about stripping the paint and going with the polished titanium look. The fork I have on mine is a Look HSC 3 I think. Definitely feels a bit flexy compared to my steel bikes. How does that alpha q fork work out?

I feel like my Merlin takes any flex and puts it right into the wheels like a pogo stick.

The old fork was a Forte Pro all carbon with a 40mm rake. The Alpha Q has a 45mm rake that is a better match to my HTA. It is also stiffer. So the hands-off handling improved a tiny bit, but I don't know if a 150lbs rider benefits from the stiffness.

But I'm happy with it overall.



Bare Ti is great, but it will take some work to strip it off.