Merlin Titanium 1992

Great build this one
The only thing I notice is a high and long stem and a somewhat low saddle.
Is this the final set-up?

what an incredible bike!!.. My friend used to race one of these bikes back in the 90's and has only sold is a couple of years ago!

I would love to own one of these one day,

And it looks superb condition!.

Nice one!!

Great selection of parts Rocco. All the black (mmmmm black XT) set off the Ti very well. Stem does seem long. Black Syncro would buddy up with the post?

Knocked it out the park on your first build; kudos!

Keep it as is; looks fantastic, and if it rides as good as it looks, why mess with it. I would swap out the syncros seat post before installing a syncros stem on this build.

Regarding fitting; why a 19" team comp, but a seemingly much smaller more modern Merlin frame:

Geometry and Effective top tube would be my guess. The Team Comp does not have any slope in it's top tube, so the actual top tube is also the effective, plus the angle of the headtube and the seattube, give you a tighter cabin. While the Merlin has a slope in the tt, and a more aggressive geometry, making the effective top tube the more meaningful measurement, than the frame size. I wouldn't be surprised if the effective top tube was somewhere in the same range as the actual top tube of the Ritchey, thereby, giving you your comfort level with the two.

Perhaps I'm off here; if so, I'd love to read why I'm off, and what would it really be instead

One more time- Bike of the Month for September; nicely done; Rocco

perfect

If I were to pick a year and then pick a build, that would be it! We share tastes in bikes.

Super work and very inspiring. Well done.

Beautiful bike

Will you ride with ?

Thanks for all the comments. I appreciate all of them.

It came out like I had hoped it would and I am liking the ride on this bike a lot. It is very nice and fits me well.

I took it for a long ride on Saturday and decided to try another stem (still an Ibis titanium) and see if I liked the difference. So changed the stem to a shorter one 120mm with a rise to it and tried it on Sunday. I like the ride a bit better so I might leave this one on it.

I have also put up a photo of my Ritchey that I have owned and been using for 21 years now which feels very comfortable to me. As you can see they both have almost the same stem geometry. Maybe the set up is not 'right' but I think a lot of it has to do with what you are used to.

okay, i'm at a loss at how the larger Merlin didn't fit you better than the smaller one you have now. clearly looking at the Ritchey you have, the larger one SHOULD have fit you better. :?

RockiMtn":3hma4ujc said:

okay, i'm at a loss at how the larger Merlin didn't fit you better than the smaller one you have now. clearly looking at the Ritchey you have, the larger one SHOULD have fit you better. :?

Click to expand...

The Ritchey has a dinky top tube.

Both them there bicycles is P-U-R-D-Y-!