British Merlin (95?) rebuild - help!!

[sam_white]

Looks interesting. The pictures of your frame seem to be missing the headtube gusset and the top tube cable guides are more rounded on the picture posted by Rampage., so it might not be a Merlin.
Can you post a pic of yours RAFbikes?

Take a look at my frame that I'm trying to identify - it has some similarity to yours but afaik it is not a Merlin.

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... 203e36adf4

Mine is marked as 7005 butted and I'm pretty sure it is not a DBR despite the stickers.

 

[kaytronika]

Didn't Merlin UK just badge up Taiwanese frames of varying descriptions? I seem to recall their range being quite... um... fluid.

I always wanted a frame they did with spiralled tubing, it looked interesting.

 

[gerryattrick]

Thanks Sam,

It looks very similar but several small differences such as style of rear dropout and positioning of cable guides etc. make me think it's not the same frame. I made the assumption it was a Merlin based on how it looked when I bought it, although it could well have had a respray and new decals and I was possibly sold a pup, although for £10 I'm not too upset.

This is a picture of what it looked like before stripping.

 

[gerryattrick]

If anyone has a known genuine Merlin around 1994 would be interested in the frame numbers to see any similarities. Not sure what to do about new decals if it's not a Merlin - perhaps just leave it plain, make my own up,or buy retrobike decals!!

 

[kaytronika]

Purely speculative post alert:

I recall amongst my style concious friends of the 90's that Merlin bikes (of the UK ilk) weren't exactly the most sought after brand... I couldn't say why, they were always well spec'd and very nice to look at... They tended to be the bike we saw the older cyclists riding. Probably because of the function and value for money over the desirability of the bigger brands. This would lead me to believe that it would be unlikely that someone would sticker up a none Merlin frame as a Merlin one when other more 'exclusive' manufacturer stickers were out there.

I seem to very vaguely recall seeing a blue Merlin alloy frame in the mags in the 90s. Perhaps even on a review model? I am probably (very likely) mistaken but I do keep getting a mental image of one.

I'm pretty certain Merlin used to have a large range of alloy and chromalloy frames in their range in the 90s. Although now they seem to focus on the Malt 1, 2, 3 etc back then it was more like 'pick a frame, pick wheels, pick a groupset and we put it all together' hence my previous post about them likely having different frames from all over.

Either way, for a tenner there's a lot of bike there.


I love the polished look BTW rather than powder coated... Knew at least one fella in the club I was in who had an alloy Merlin with a polished frame. Lovely bike