1993 Merlin Mountain

Seen that Ash's (Vinevo) other Merlin frame is being put to good use. This one's the 1993 frame I've just bought, so not here yet.

I've thought about them before but never got around to buying one. As I'm not the most patient person (to put it mildly) and, with there being no steel HT's around that I liked, I thought it was a good opportunity to pick one up. It's a build for my other brother. With the crack I'm just not in the mood to look at the Manitou at the moment and anyway, it will never be a "normal" bike where you can ride it where and how you like.

I've a good idea what it's going to look like, although exact components depends on what turns up. I'm just not going to spend an age getting them together, bikes are to be ridden. That doesn't mean it won't look good, hopefully. Subdued and classy I guess you could say the plan is. Not a whole lot of colour but just enough to stop it looking grey and bland. We'll see how it goes.

Have some nice parts here but still have a good long list of things I still need, (hint, hint, see my wanted posts!).

Just a pic that Ash took for now, you know what they look like anyway.

Hey Skynet, you'll enjoy this project. They are very rewarding to build/ ride.

This is my Merlin build:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=311912&p=2334508#p2334508

I'm also in Kent so have to hook up for a Ti ride some time

Re:

All ready for dispatch!

That's good. My brother's probably dropping the hubs and rims off tomorrow for building. 32H NOS WI Trackers and NOS Araya 395 Teams. The front is a 395 Team, the rear is a 395 Team XC, the Team does weight 395 as you'd expect by the name but the Team XC is 421g.

Sorted out the rear mech and picked up a pair of Smoke & Darts from Germany.

subscribing. LOve a good Merlin build and you never seem to disappoint.

My brother wants thumb shifters, so I picked these up recently. Not sure if they're NOS but there's not a mark on them, the metal's still shiny and the plastic covers haven't lifted, unlike most. Cost a bit more than beaten up ones but still less than Pauls Thumbies and bar end shifters, so not too bad.

The plan is to use these NOS White Industries cranks that I bought at the same time as the Tracker Hubs. Not the cheap Sugino versions, the Made in the USA CNC'ed jobbies. Like all WI stuff they're very nicely finished, which I didn't capture too well in this snap. Not seen new ones come up before although I'm sure they must have.

Although they're quite angular they're not so beefy that they'll look out of place, at least I hope, we'll see.

Very nice parts!!! Looking forward to seeing this progress

Re:

With the frame being grey I don't want everything silver or it will end up looking a bit bland. So Black Paul levers and Joes Cantis for a bit of contrast.

Had bought them a while back for my Storm Attitude but that can wait. The Paul's are modern Canti Levers but, other than their name, not sure they've changed, look the same as Love Levers. Not cleaned up the Joes yet (just mainly tape residue) and, yes, have both pairs.

Very interesting....I can say that I have a similar project in parallel...1990/91 Merlin Mountain.