Been Given a Mercian!

Hello chaps,

I was hoping someone might be able to throw some light on this bike's identity. I've just been given it by an elderly family friend who has hung up his cycle clips for the last time, due to having just had a triple bypass. Up until about 10 years ago he was doing over 8,000 miles a year on it.

He emailed me a little while ago saying that he wanted to give me his 'old Claud Butler' but it turns out he has completely forgotten that the CB had been chopped in for this bike some time ago. All the better for me

Anyway, it's been very well used in its time: I doubt any parts except the Weinmann brake calipers are original. There's a Shimano Sora rear mech, Campag front, Shimano twist-grips (apparently the drops were substituted for straights very early on).

The numbers stamped in the bottom bracket are:

5
1194
82

Anyone know the significance of this?

Annoyingly, the frame has a Refurbished 531 sticker on it so I guess Mercian have had it back sometime in its life, I was hoping that it was a Competition on instead but I guess you can't have everything ;-)

Here are a few pictures:

Contact Mercian - they are pretty good about aftercare on their frames. They'll be able to tell you exactly what it is.

Looks like a clean up and a few small nice shiny components and she'll be good for another 8000 a year for another few decades.

Cheers for that tip, I've sent them an email and will see what comes of it.

When I get a spare hour or two I'm going to strip it down, clean the frame and treat/refinish any rusty areas before rebuilding with some period components, including dropped handlebars.

BFN!

Why doesn't anyone ever give me a bike?

Regardless of my sour grapes congrats to you. Looks like the frame is in very nice shape so it will probably clean up beautifully. With the braze on cable guides, but nutted front brake, guessing it to be late 70s to early 80s?

I was told by Mercian the year is the last two numbers, this would make yours a 1982 but they will confirm this.

The "5" is the id number for the chap who built the frame.
Each builder at Mercians has his own number.

Thanks for the help chaps - very interesting.

I've not had a reply from Mercian yet but there's no rush. I guess if the 82 and 5 are accounted for then the 1194 is a model or serial number.

I'm happy that it's an '80s bike, like every other one in my collection!!! I just need a few hours spare to dismantle it and clean it up.

All the best...

Have you looked at their web site?
http://www.merciancycles.co.uk/frames/22/king-of-mercia

bagpuss":21z9gltd said:

Have you looked at their web site?
http://www.merciancycles.co.uk/frames/22/king-of-mercia

Click to expand...

Oh - yes, I had but I didn't notice the striking resemblance between my bike and the King of Mercia! Looks like mine is one of those but in 531 which I guess was equivalent to 725 in 1982. Cheers for that!

I'm looking forward to comparing it to my Raleigh frames of the same era.

As an aside, does anyone know what the difference is between race and touring geometry? I've seen Raleigh brochures referring to a frames with 72 degree geometry but I don't know what that means...

Tourers are much more stable steering and longer wheelbase - so they need a bit more of a lean and haul on the bars to turn. That's not a bad thing if you have 4 panniers on it.