95 or maybe 96 ritchey tubed frame pure ritchey ss build

so here it is this project is going to be a ss winter bike and its gonna be mostly ritchey brand parts A/there cheapish parts B/the frame is ritchey tubed and dropouts so here goes the frame is at the powder coaters as of this afternoon and here's a before pic

got some more parts in so the build is gonna hopfully go like this

frame. nice light steel with ritchey dropouts going white
forks. surly 1x1 forks in white
rims. ritchey wcs girder rims 32h
hubs. hope pro2 f+r in black 32h
aheadset. ritchey wcs logic 11/8th
QR's ritchey logic
stem. richey 4axis wcs stem in 90mm
bars. ritchey wcs bars in carbon


thats it so far but you can guess what the theme is

Is it a Merlin, or similar? What was wrong with its existing forks? They might be Ritchey as well, perhaps.

i only got the frame from the seller and it was his pic but they where ritchey tripple butted cro-mo forks fitted still havn't got a clue what it is no one has any evidence as to what it is :cry: :cry: :cry: but i should get the frame back tomorrow and it'll be gloss white to match the forks

It looks quite like a Merlin WCS, and the seat clamp is exactly the same. What does that seat tube sticker say? And was there a serial number visible on the bb before the repaint?

If it is a Merlin WCS, that’s a frame that got 5/5 scores in magazine tests.

i picked the frame up from the powdercoaters on the way home for a little money its now this loverly gloss white

the frame number is ym97010153 if you can bring a pic up of the frame your on about with decals that would be great antony

I'm afraid I haven't got an electronic photo of one CK, but as I say the seat clamp is exactly the same as a 98 Merlin WCS that I have in this Total Bike test article that I have here, and the cable routing is exactly the same too. It had a Merlin decal on the down tube, nothing on the top tube and a Ritchey WCS sticker on the seat tube. I'm pretty sure Merlin marketed a WCS model for many years, starting from the early-mid 90s.

I'm afraid the format of the serial number doesn't ring a bell with me. It obviously raises the possibility that it's a 1997 frame, although that's as late as it gets for canti bridges. I wonder if Merlin themselves would recognise the format of the serial number as being from the maker they dealt with?

Am I right in thinking that the diamond shape of the drink cage bosses is quite distinctive? I'm sure I've seen that shape before, but I'm afraid I can't remember where.

Anthony":196npz2z said:

I'm afraid the format of the serial number doesn't ring a bell with me. It obviously raises the possibility that it's a 1997 frame, although that's as late as it gets for canti bridges.

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I think that's a reasonable guess. The Ritchey socket dropouts appeared in 1995 and weren't very widely available at first. As you say, a later bike would have no canti bridge.

Am I right in thinking that the diamond shape of the drink cage bosses is quite distinctive? I'm sure I've seen that shape before, but I'm afraid I can't remember where.

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It's a fairly common shape where reinforcements are used (my '97 Team Marin has the same) but the fact that they were used at all would tie in with lightweight tubes.

this is defo a mystery and a half i think it might be a merlin as anthony was saying but iv'e not see merlin use the dianmond bottle boss supports :? :? still its very light il weight it later on i cant wait to get it built

just put the frame and aheadset together with the forks and ordered up a pair of hope pro2 hubs to build up with those girder wcs rims