Earlier this year, a friend who was looking for a classic British steel framed bike to use for touring actually found one on the net. Odds had been against him as there aren´t many of those around here in Germany, of any brand, and in the correct size too. So the friend clinched a deal although the frame was entry level, because it´s still tops looking at what we Germans are used to, also the component list had a lot going for it.
Lucky him drove up to Hamburg and collected a bike which had suffered optically, had been “modernized” in a somewhat heavy handed way (for instance a cheap Shimano dynohub had replaced the marvellous Suntour Superbe), had a badly neglected saddle and was just about to suffer the student bike fate when the former owner found that steel wasn´t real for him after all and decided to sell.
My friend then set about to make a bike of his liking of the old Mercian. An ugly shock waited for him when he found that the TA cranks had French pedal thread, but someone had driven in cheap British thread pedals using brute force. Luckily the crank arms could be saved, and French thread MKS pedals were sourced on the net. The only major surgery left to do is the replacement of the cheap Shimano hub with a SON, but that´s an investment that has to be well planned.
The proud owner of the ride ready bike says “I didn´t want a museum piece as I find it a shame to scratch it in use.” Riding alongside him today on a quick run gave me the inpression that the bike fits him extremely well and that the paint blemishes are of lesser import than the good feeling he has on the Mercian.
Now see the bike for yourself.
starostneradost 