[Classicrendezvous] Have I stumbled onto a Mercian?

(Example: Racing:Roger de Vlaeminck)

From: "Russ Fitzgerald" <rfitzger@emeraldis.com>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2000 20:43:33 -0400
Subject: [Classicrendezvous] Have I stumbled onto a Mercian?

Gang,

While driving home from the UPS depot today, I rescued an old frame from a trash pile. A teenager who was taking the garbage can back in indicated he had no problem if I carried it away ...

The frame in question is 59cm, c-t, with a 57cm c-c top tube. It very closely resembles the Mercian rebuilt by Melton (and most recently repainted by CyclArt in a surprisingly pretty powdercoat) I stumbled onto last year. It has Nervex Professional lugs with an unmarked (unless it's under the Krylon) BB shell. The dropouts look an awful lot like the unmarked (Zeus?) dropouts on the afore-mentioned Mercian. The stays and bridges, as well. The only braze-ons are a cable stop on the right chainstay and two cable stops on the toptube - viewed from straight on, they would be about eight o'clock. Takes a 27.2 seat tube, and I haven't yet pulled the Stronglight BB to see what threading it is.

Is anyone on the list sufficiently familiar with Mercians to comment, one way or the other? The late 70s catalog photo on Dale's site doesn't have any Nervex Pro lugged frames on it, but this is probably earlier than that ....

Thanks,
Russ Fitzgerald
Greenwood SC
rfitzger@emeraldis.com