Re: [CR] Help! Trying to Identify a Mercier Frame

(Example: Framebuilders:Jack Taylor)

From: Peter Rogers <pjrogers@rogers.com>
To: "Hugh Thornton" <hughwthornton@yahoo.co.uk>, <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
References: <54273.12463.qm@web25904.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>
In-Reply-To: <54273.12463.qm@web25904.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2010 09:04:03 -0400
Subject: Re: [CR] Help! Trying to Identify a Mercier Frame


Hi Hugh, I posted three more photos of my Mercier on my blog, including one of the seat stay cap. It is a little bit fuzzy, but it is possible to see the M and crown. I have also included a photo of the decal on the seat tube and the shot of the fork crown.

Here is a link: http://petersclassicwheels.blogspot.com/

I would like to know as much as I can about Mercier, especially the final days. I have never seen any brochures that include our later frames. I purchased a Mercier professional frameset in 1972. I wish that I still had it and I have been searching for a similar one for a long time.

I hope that this helps.

Kind regards, Peter Rogers

Barrie, Ontario, Canada

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Hugh Thornton" <hughwthornton@yahoo.co.uk>
Sent: Friday, June 25, 2010 8:31 AM
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: Re: [CR] Help! Trying to Identify a Mercier Frame


> Wow! Thanks Norris. How do you unearth all this good stuff?

>

> I have this frame like Leon's (frame A) and I have another 1977 Mercier

> frame (frame B, which is the pattern for the decals) and there is no

> comparison in workmanship. Frame A has beautifully filed lugs, whereas

> frame B - 531 butted, hand made, Service Des Courses, but regular

> Mercier-inscribed seatstay top caps and pointy fork and stay ends - is not

> built with the same degree of hand finishing.

>

> But my later frame (frame C) has the same seatstay top eyes as frame A and

> a similar degree of hand finishing, but the fork and stay ends at the

> dropouts are pointy. It is not very easy to make out the seatstay caps on

> Peter's frame so it might be helpful if he could say whether they are the

> same as Leon's.

>

> At least by 1977, the Services Des Courses headbadge was thin aluminum (or

> thick foil) in a shield shape in which the frame number is impressed. I

> don't know if the badge you refer to was used on other models until the

> crown came along.

>

> The only thing is that Leon's and my frames have a racing number tab and a

> serious racer is more concerned with performance than super hand fnishing,

> so if our frames are the higher quality Prestige range, they would appear

> to be built for "poseurs" rather than "coureurs".

>

> Norris - is there any way you can copy that article you referred to and

> send a copy or stick it on flickr? Would be much appreciated.

>

> Leon - does your frame look like it has beautifully hand-filed lugs too?

>

> Hugh Thornton

> Cheshire, England

>

> --- On Fri, 25/6/10, Norris Lockley <nlockley73@gmail.com> wrote:

>

>

> From: Norris Lockley <nlockley73@gmail.com>

> Subject: [CR] Help! Trying to Identify a Mercier Frame

> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org

> Date: Friday, 25 June, 2010, 12:56

>

>

> I have just managed to unearth a few more snippets of relevant information

> about Mercier's range of frames.

>

> In September 1975, the firm announced that all it's frame built of

> Reynolds

> 531 tubing would have engraved top-eyes, and a Cinelli crown, also

> engraved.

>

> In September 1977 the firm announced that it was introducing a whole new

> concept to its top-end-frame - the PRESTIGE range., this being in addition

> to the COMPETITION range that included the Tour de France, Tour du Monde.

> Le

> Contre-la-Montre modles. The article making this announcement did not

> state

> whether the PRESTIGE range produced custom models only..but did boast of

> its

> 'exceptionelle facture artisanale' ie the range's exceptional

> craftsmanship., the limiting of the number of frames produced in the range

> and the fact that each frame would receive its own individual

> frame-number.

>

> The original Mercier presssed aluminium slightly art-deco headbadge with

> the

> frame-number stamped into the lower panel seems to have been replaced in

> the

> very early 80s by a very stylised 'M' with a coronet above.

>

> The original Mercier headbadges turn up frequently on French eBay on one

> of

> its collectors sites:

>

> http://www.ebay.fr/Collections/Objetspublicitaires/Plaques-emaillees-anciennes/

>

> Once into that main site enter 'plaques de velo' in the search engine.

>

> Good hunting

>

> Norris Lockley

>

> Settle UK