Mercian Vincitore

On Oct 14, 8:57*am, "Tom Kunich" cyclintom@yahoo. com wrote:
"Nesato" wrote in message

...

Well, I'm not sure what it is you don't get, and a troll...I don't think
so! I purchased this frame a long time ago for about 700 dollars. Because
of age and health, I fear that my wife would not know any better, and sell
this frame at an estate sale for 20 bucks, so I thought I try to sell it
now. What I was hoping to learn from my post was whether or not there was
a market for such a frame and how much it might be worth. Is this not the
newsgroup for such research?

The problem is this - the older Mercian's were set up for fenders and so the
brakes had to be LONG reach. Unless the bike has brakes on it at the moment
then those brakes are either almost impossible to get or you have to send it
back to the factory to have the rear stays set up for shorter reach brakes.
At the same time you'd have to get a new fork as well.

Or you could search all over God's green acre to find long reach brakes in
order to maintain the bike in pristine condition.

So you have to take that into account.

Well, first, long reach brakes from shimano and Tektro are easy to
get. Both long and REALLY long altho I think the 'mid' reach would
work fine.

Pretty, ornate, probably a great ride. Somewhat hard to value but
probably in the $600-$800 range if you put it on ebay.

"P. Chisholm" wrote in message
...
On Oct 14, 8:57 am, "Tom Kunich" cyclintom@yahoo. com wrote:

The problem is this - the older Mercian's were set up for fenders and so
the
brakes had to be LONG reach. Unless the bike has brakes on it at the
moment
then those brakes are either almost impossible to get or you have to
send it
back to the factory to have the rear stays set up for shorter reach
brakes.
At the same time you'd have to get a new fork as well.

Or you could search all over God's green acre to find long reach brakes
in
order to maintain the bike in pristine condition.

So you have to take that into account.

Well, first, long reach brakes from shimano and Tektro are easy to
get. Both long and REALLY long altho I think the 'mid' reach would
work fine.

If that Mercian is set up for fenders the Shimano "long" reach brakes won't
work in all probability. And the Tektro brakes looks like they will work but
I've been buying these things and the workmanship of them leave quite a lot
to be desired.

Pretty, ornate, probably a great ride. Somewhat hard to value but
probably in the $600-$800 range if you put it on ebay.

I really like the way Mercian's ride and that is one of the better ones. If
you can manage the brake problem it would be a great ride.

On Oct 19, 3:08*pm, "Tom Kunich" cyclintom@yahoo. com wrote:
"P. Chisholm" wrote in message

...



On Oct 14, 8:57 am, "Tom Kunich" cyclintom@yahoo. com wrote:

The problem is this - the older Mercian's were set up for fenders and so
the
brakes had to be LONG reach. Unless the bike has brakes on it at the
moment
then those brakes are either almost impossible to get or you have to
send it
back to the factory to have the rear stays set up for shorter reach
brakes.
At the same time you'd have to get a new fork as well.

Or you could search all over God's green acre to find long reach brakes
in
order to maintain the bike in pristine condition.

So you have to take that into account.

Well, first, long reach brakes from shimano and Tektro are easy to
get. Both long and REALLY long altho I think the 'mid' reach would
work fine.

If that Mercian is set up for fenders the Shimano "long" reach brakes won't
work in all probability. And the Tektro brakes looks like they will work but
I've been buying these things and the workmanship of them leave quite a lot
to be desired.

Pretty, ornate, probably a great ride. Somewhat hard to value but
probably in the $600-$800 range if you put it on ebay.

I really like the way Mercian's ride and that is one of the better ones. If
you can manage the brake problem it would be a great ride.

If 'mid' reach work, not sure why you think adding fenders would make
it not. We have built more than a few Waterfords with these brakes and
fenders with no problems.

On Oct 19, 2:08*pm, "Tom Kunich" cyclintom@yahoo. com wrote:
"P. Chisholm" wrote in message

...





On Oct 14, 8:57 am, "Tom Kunich" cyclintom@yahoo. com wrote:

The problem is this - the older Mercian's were set up for fenders and so
the
brakes had to be LONG reach. Unless the bike has brakes on it at the
moment
then those brakes are either almost impossible to get or you have to
send it
back to the factory to have the rear stays set up for shorter reach
brakes.
At the same time you'd have to get a new fork as well.

Or you could search all over God's green acre to find long reach brakes
in
order to maintain the bike in pristine condition.

So you have to take that into account.

Well, first, long reach brakes from shimano and Tektro are easy to
get. Both long and REALLY long altho I think the 'mid' reach would
work fine.

If that Mercian is set up for fenders the Shimano "long" reach brakes won't
work in all probability. And the Tektro brakes looks like they will work but
I've been buying these things and the workmanship of them leave quite a lot
to be desired.

Interesting. The Tektro R556 "extra" long reach dual pivot brakes
(55-73mm) , for about $50/pair, look pretty good:

http://www.velo-orange.com/ter5exlorebr.html

Further, if you need a slightly shorter version, the 47to 57mm Tektro
521AG brakes, for about $42/pair, look pretty good too:


http://www.velo-orange.com/te52br.html

However, if you truly need something a little fancier, i.e., hand
polished, check out the VO's Grand Cru 47-57mm "long" reach brakes for
$125/pair:

http://www.velo-orange.com/grcrulorecab.html

I think any of the above would look and work fine on a Mercian. Good
Luck!

I was able to retrieve the bike from storage this past weekend but didn't
have any time to clean it up much. The link below is to a few pictures,
please feel free to make any comments about the Mercian and/or suggestions
you might have about selling it, such as assembled or parting it out. Again,
thank you for your input.


http://webpages.charter.net/gdavis04/Mercian%20web/

"Nesato" wrote in message
...
I was able to retrieve the bike from storage this past weekend but didn't
have any time to clean it up much. The link below is to a few pictures,
please feel free to make any comments about the Mercian and/or suggestions
you might have about selling it, such as assembled or parting it out.
Again, thank you for your input.

http://webpages.charter.net/gdavis04/Mercian%20web/

That's collectors grade stuff. Also I noted that you have what used to be
called "medium reach" brakes but now are called "long reach". But the Campy
brakes would stay on the bike anyway so it doesn't matter.

The Suntour stuff is better than the Campy from that era. But Campy is
collectable and Suntour isn't.

All in all I'd say that the bike is worth a thousand dollars or so.

On Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:03:10 -0500, "Nesato"
wrote:

http://webpages.charter.net/gdavis04/Mercian%20web/

"Sorry, this photo gallery requires that scripting be enabled on your
web browser and that the Adobe Flash Player be installed. Download the
Adobe Flash Player"

No thanks.

In article ,
"Nesato" wrote:

I was able to retrieve the bike from storage this past weekend but
didn't have any time to clean it up much. The link below is to a few
pictures, please feel free to make any comments about the Mercian
and/or suggestions you might have about selling it, such as assembled
or parting it out. Again, thank you for your input.


http://webpages.charter.net/gdavis04/Mercian%20web/

Jeez, what a work of art and beautifully set up. Did it ever get ridden?

OK, sad truth is that the way to maximize the bucks fro selling it would
be to part it out. But that bike should stay together as is and be sold
intact to someone who will appreciate what it is.

"Nesato" wrote in message
...
I was able to retrieve the bike from storage this past weekend but didn't
have any time to clean it up much. The link below is to a few pictures,
please feel free to make any comments about the Mercian and/or suggestions
you might have about selling it, such as assembled or parting it out.
Again, thank you for your input.


http://webpages.charter.net/gdavis04/Mercian%20web/





Beautiful bike: even has the cardboard bits that kept the brake adjusters
from getting lost during shipping!
I agree with the others that say you'll make more money parting it out,
(even separating the brake hoods from the brake levers), but it'd be a shame
to not see it go to a good home intact.
As far as value, if you'll ship it to me to allow a better look, I'd be
happy to give you an estimate ;-)
Kerry

In article ,
says...
I was able to retrieve the bike from storage this past weekend but didn't
have any time to clean it up much. The link below is to a few pictures,
please feel free to make any comments about the Mercian and/or suggestions
you might have about selling it, such as assembled or parting it out. Again,
thank you for your input.


http://webpages.charter.net/gdavis04/Mercian%20web/

That is truly a beauty! I'd love to pull up to the regular club ride on
a sunny day on that bike. It would never see a drop of rain, that's for
sure.

Unfortunately, I'm sure I could never afford to pay what it's actually
worth...

--
/~\ The ASCII
\ / Ribbon Campaign
X Against HTML
/ \ Email!

Remove the ns_ from if replying by e-mail (but keep posts in the
newsgroups if possible).