Another one bites the dust – Mercian Cycles

Have you cut the steerer yet?

Not a good idea when it’s threaded…

Booo. Coming in here amd spoiling my standard thorn joke.

Such a shame to see Mercian close up. A beautifully crafted frame that stood out whenever one was spotted in the wild
I agree though that innovation and adaptation was needed. It’s worked for pashley where the original style is presented but with modern twists, such as the Morgan guvnor

A little pedal over lap is no probem, nearly all my roadies have a little. A lot requires care. Can anyone beat this – size 9 with toe joint above the axle:

Wheelbase is 97.2 with a straight seattube.

I’m using a offset cleat adaptor (+24mm) on my road bikes, so yes, almost certainly.

Almost certainly no, shoes redrilled 22mm behind normal holes and then cleats as far back as they’ll go. 🙂

No idea how to post pics now all my edit buttons have gone but modern and lugged can be done as shown in thing really nice fork.

https://scontent-man2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/447040836_1117284632800511_2697410396732111487_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=gEN5jvEpIOsQ7kNvgFJ9sbi&_nc_ht=scontent-man2-1.xx&oh=00_AYDZnMbUc2vZ66Z5DYvnHDstq0HAw7scArg6x6SPgy22tQ&oe=665FF6C3

And here

https://scontent-man2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/447051295_1117284702800504_6211011472708262113_n.jpg?_nc_cat=102&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=gtS_FJeOOUMQ7kNvgEWTQXm&_nc_ht=scontent-man2-1.xx&oh=00_AYAQZ6DmqlOaX8sZfWwqJL6H1fBU3yx6JXenjkqrZ_JP8w&oe=665FE7FB

Very nice, how about a plug for whoever made it.

Random Facebook thing with no details I’m afraid.

Although I don’t think it is… that could easily be a Clandestine https://www.instagram.com/clandestine.cc/?hl=en

Crown on this one has more than a hint of Mercian about it.

There are plenty of people who want something different to a big name carbon race bike – see Fairlight, Mason etc. And there might well be a sizeable number of people willing to pay the premium to have something like that made custom for them in the UK. But it’s a long way from there to buying a Mercian.

This doesn’t read well. 🙁

https://road.cc/content/news/mercian-cycles-customers-raised-alarm-over-poor-service-308643

I ordered their most expensive custom frameset, a Pro Lugless44, and was very specific in what I wanted it to do. It finally arrived after a two-year wait

From the article.  A two year wait?  They were either a lot busier with orders that I had guessed or it is not surprising very few people were buying from them.

That road.cc thread isn’t good to read. When I said earlier up the thread that there can be other reasons for all this unrelated to product demand, that’s what I meant but didn’t want to start on the negative stuff. I was a potential Mercian buyer a few years ago but didn’t get a good feeling about the whole process from the early spec discussion onwards. I went elsewhere. A chap I know went ahead with an order about a year later and the frame went back in the end due to the build quality issues. I wasn’t sure if our experiences were representative but they may have been.
It’s a shame when a brand with such heritage goes that way, there’s not many old school frame shops in the UK and I wanted to buy from one. In the end I got a lugged Reynolds frame from Lee Cooper, nothing flashy, but all bar the dropouts are from local industry and it rides beautifully.
Hopefully Mercian will find a buyer and continue.

Yay!

Mercian has been saved:

https://road.cc/content/news/mercian-cycles-saved-four-local-businessmen-309121