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

(Example: Framebuilders:Dario Pegoretti)

Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2010 14:01:12 +0000 (GMT)
From: "Hugh Thornton" <hughwthornton@yahoo.co.uk>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
In-Reply-To: <9AF5994B67E04F8B931CF0E688E20969@PeterPC>
Subject: Re: [CR] Help! Trying to Identify a Mercier Frame


Hi Peter,

Thanks for the photos and other information.  Your seat stay tops are different again, not like the flat caps of old nor the scooped out ones like Leon's and mine.

Metallic pink seems to have been on some Merciers since 1975 at least.  Earlier ones are mostly solid colors.  If Leon's and mine are 1977 or later, metallic paint would be correct.  The shade of pink seems to vary a lot in photographs: I don't know how much in real life.

The earliest I have seen the shield-shaped Services Des Courses badge on the front of a Mercier is 1975 and it bore the number 00088, close to the start of the sequence.  My possibly 1997 frame has 09517.  I believe you are right that earlier frames also had foil badges stamped with the number, but I think the design was dfifferent.  Norris gives the impression that Services Des Course is a separate department for the build of high end frames - like Bianchi's Reparto Corse I presume.  If it is a separate department, maybe it started in 1975 (wild guess).  Does anybody know of an earlier reference than the 1975 headbadge above?

Sorry if this is all getting a bit confusing.  I shall try to get some pictures up on flickr to clarify but it won't be before sometime next week.  Sorry also if this thread is getting too much for some - if it is, just delete without reading.  Merciers do not get much of a mention on classic rendezvous, but as Norris says, they were a very significant company and they made some great bikes and they supported top level racing for years and years.  They really did deserve to win the Tour as payback for everything they put into the sport.

Hugh Thornton
Cheshire, England


--- On Fri, 25/6/10, Peter Rogers wrote:


From: Peter Rogers <pjrogers@rogers.com> Subject: Re: [CR] Help! Trying to Identify a Mercier Frame To: "Hugh Thornton" <hughwthornton@yahoo.co.uk>, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Date: Friday, 25 June, 2010, 14:18

Hi Hugh, What is interesting about Leon's frame is the paint underneath the top coat that is on it now. It seems to be the same metallic pink as the later frame that I have. I have seen a lot of solid pink Mercier frames from the 70's, but I cannot remember seeing any metallic pink ones. Any thoughts on this? As far as I remember, the 1972 Mercier Professional frame had a foil head badge, with the frame number stamped into it. So, they were using this style since the early 70's, it seems. All the best, 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