I’m thinking:-
Cold set to 130mm
Alfine hub
Mary bars

Perfect winter bike. Now if only I could add discs…….

if you’re going to ruin it i’ll take it off you hands

😉

Classic hand made tourer, clean it up, new tyres and ride it as is, changing it would spoil it in my opinion.

You could remove the mudgaurds and rack, and the D lock I guess..

I wish I could find something like that I fancy commuting to work but cant afford to spend much on a bike.

Mercian are good bikes. Look how much the new ones cost on their website!

gear shifters look interesting.

yeah don;t ruin it, it’s a lovely old tourer. racks off and new bar tape and you’ve got nothing else to worry about (assuming it works)

Another “don’t ruin it” – or if you must have discs and an alfine flog the frame on ebay or LFGSS and buy a road rat with the proceeds

I did wonder whether it would be sacrilege to bastardise it but I was just about to build an Alfine Roadat because I really want a bike for winter training with full mudguards and I’d prefer an upright riding position.

It’s a fairly low end Mercian not a King or anything really special. What’s it worth?

ditto, clean it up and it’ll be worth a few bob on ebay.

what you paid for it plus some karma for passign it on to someoen who’ll appreciate it as is?

That’s lovely. Just ride it. Doing anything with it will be expensive, fiddly and annoying, and possibly pointless if the frame fails in a few years anyway. Maybe change the brake hoods, and move the shifters to the downtube if you don’t like them on the stem. Other than that just leave it alone.

Mine, here, cost £28 off ebay. After I’d finished I’d spent about £400, without achieving any real improvements.

🙂

I wish people would do stuff like that down here! Lovely bike, PLEASE don’t mess with it. I’m all for advances in technology and having stuff to fiddle with but that’s a classic tourer and needs nothing but a little tidying.

If you’re going to pass it on, what size is it and which charity would you like the donation made to?

Sadly, way too big for me. Or I’d have it off you before you get too advanced in your proposed butchery.

Mercian say they could widen the stays ( even if that meant replacing the bridges) but I’m leaning more towards just putting new tyres on it and riding the thing.

Thanks for all opinions.

New tyres, cables and give all the bearings a service. Don’t spoil it!

It will probably outlast you if you look after it. I’m in the south pennine road club (Derby) and one of our members – Jeff – was the shop manager at mercians for about 20 years. Not sure if he’s still there or not though (very nice chap if you meet him).

It should have a stamp on the bb telling you what year it is. I don’t think it’s that old tbh. It’s worth probably £150-200 in its current state and £300+ in good working order (going on recent ebay prices).

Ok ok I won’t touch it.

Now, where can I get 27″ tubes and tyres?