New Bike - Mercian 653 Pro Lugless

Well, after almost 2 months trying to justify buying this bike I have gone and got it. It's a beauty (my opinion obviously). It was on Ebay originally, but got pulled when it didn't look like the owner was going to get what he thought it was worth.

The seller said that he bought it from the original owner who had only done 150 miles on it, and I believe him. Tread untouched on the tubs, no shoe rub on chainset, and brake blocks unworn. Even the Avocet computer on it works!!

It's a Mercian 653 Pro Lugless built in 1990, and it's full C-Record and original in every way. I paid a lot of money for it, but to me it's worth it and it will be used!! You can't tell from the pics, but it's a deep blue in colour with silver transfers.

See what you think.... a couple of pics attached

Oh Wow!!!

Whatever you paid it was worth it! That is absolutely stunning.

That's what I thought when I first saw it!!

I feel a bit of a fraud - every bike I have owned previously I have built up from scratch, but this one was exactly as I would have built it but already complete!!

The only thing I need to change are the pedals as I can't afford Time compatible shoes and cleats (which are probably rare as they stopped making the cleats for these pedals years ago).

I saw this on ebay - lovely - was the pick up in Wigston, Leicestershire?
Enjoy riding it - it's a stylish classic :xmas-cool:

I would say it is very acceptable to pay a lot of money for such a fine bike: distinctive, clean, rare and old world quality - awesome!

I notice it has the Campagnolo retro-friction shifters. Does anyone know how rare they are? I don't encounter them often.

Very pretty bike - I saw it on eBay and loved it - Mercian too -

Don't worry about the money, just enjoy it

(Remember the same money on a modern bike would probably only buy you something very average which would be worth a lot less once you wheeled it out of the shop )

Bloody nice that. It's how I remember road bikes should be.

Cheers all

- yep, it was the one from Wigston, really nice chap.

- I have some other friction Campag levers that I thought were Record, but comparing them to the ones on the Mercian I am not so sure now. Will post some close up pics of these as they are quite unusual. The first Campag syncro levers looked terrible!!

Gear lever.....

Matt, it could be both are c-Record I think. The retro-frictions like on your Mercian I have on a Batavus. The bike has a Super Record/c-Record mix. They are definitely no Super Record of course. Several times I found conventional friction levers on c-Record bikes. They look the same, but the retro-frictions have an additional mechanism in them as (or only the right one). The aim is to improve movement or feel of the movement in the lever, like with the Simplex retro-frictions.