Beautiful British Bicycle!

Time to revisit my bike collection, and talk about one of my many bikes.  This is one I've had a while now, but just never got around to writing about.  It's a Mercian King of Mercia, hand built in Derby, England, and it's a really lovely old bike.

A bit of background here - as I've written before, I learned to ride late, but once I did learn, I fell in love with bikes and I never stopped riding.  My dad served in the UK in WWII, and during that time he developed an appreciation for English bikes, which got passed down to me.  It also helped that our local bike shop where I grew up was a Raleigh dealer.  My first two bikes were made by Raleigh, and I've owned a number of their machines over the years.  Heck, I have five Raleighs in my collection today, now that I think about it.

By the time I had my second 10-speed bike, a Fuji S-10S from Japan, I started to dream of having a really fine, high end hand built bike.  I'd go to bike shops and look at the top end machines, and wish I could afford one.  Around this time, a book came out called The Custom Bicycle, which included profiles of a number of bike and frame builders around the world.  They were grouped by nationality, and I found the section on British builders fascinating.  One company profiled was Mercian, and I just really liked what I read about them in that book.  The thought of owning one of their beautiful frames really appealed to me, but through high school and college, and beyond, it never really was in my budget.

Like so many of my current bikes, fast forward a few decades...  and I finally found one for a very fair price.  Browsing Craig's List one day, there it was, a nice tall Mercian bike, with what looked like mostly original components, and only a little over an hour away from me.  Only problem was, I was tied up at work the next few days, and as it was a weekend, I was sure it would be gone before I could get down to see it.  Then my friend Marty (who was the one who pointed me to my Proteus some time back) happened to contact me, and after hearing me talk about the situation, offered to make the drive and pick it up for me. And he even got the seller to take a little bit less for the bike!

When I got the bike, it was a bit grungy, and had a few "features" I knew I would have to change, such as the handlebars with a rather extreme shape, and the super narrow US Postal Service Flite saddle, neither of which were original or really appropriate for the bike.  Examining the bike and doing some research based on the serial number, I figured out the frame was built in 1977.  I reached out to Mercian, who keep pretty good records going back rather far (they've been in business since the late 1940s), and they told me it was a King of Mercia model, and sold to Stone's Cyclery in California.  I tried to get more info from Stone's, but the fellow who would have known more had passed away.

The majority of the components on the bike are made by the Italian company Campagnolo, and while they are from the Nuovo Gran Sport group, their more "affordable" series, they are really quite lovely and excellent quality.  The one notable exception to an otherwise complete component group is the rear derailleur, which is a French Huret Jubilee.  The Jubilee was known back then for being a very smooth shifting derailleur, and some considered it better than any of the Campy choices of the time.  It was also the lightest rear derailleur made up to that time, and at 136 grams, I believe it is still the lightest ever made, at least mass produced.

Drivetrain

Huret Jubilee rear derailleur

Campy Nuovo Gran Sport crankset and front derailleur

Campy Nuovo Gran Sport Rear Brake

The other interesting thing about the component set is that stamped codes on the Campy parts indicate they were manufactured in 1981.  My guess is that Stone's Cyclery (still in business and selling high end frames today) ordered the frame for stock, and just didn't find the right customer (and a tall one at that, since it's a 25" frame) for a few years.  And it must have been a pretty serious enthusiast who knew their stuff, to have requested a full Campy kit, with a Jubilee rear derailleur.  Or maybe Stone's steered them that way.  Regardless of how it came about, it makes for a really great bike.  The frame itself was hand brazed (on an open hearth - see here), built with double butted Reynolds 531 manganese-molybdenum tubing, a classic tube set.  This gives a light weight and lively feel to the bike, and the lugs and fork crown and everything are just very classic and lovely.  And that paint job!  I really couldn't ask for anything more classy and classically British than that two tone green and white.

As mentioned before, I did change a few things.  The handle bars and stem got swapped out for a more traditional "Mae's bend" shape and higher bars, and that Flite saddle made way for a Brooks B17 leather saddle, my personal favorite.  While the pedals were Campy Nuovo Gran Sport, and good quality, they were the "quill" style that I don't find work very well with my really large feet, so I swapped them for a modern set of Shimano (gasp!) pedals with SPD fittings on one side, flat cage on the other, so I can ride with bike shoes (or in my case, sandals) or regular shoes, depending on mood.

So how does it ride?  In a word, great!  Nice and smooth riding, light and fast.  There's a lively spring to the 531 frames I own, and this one is no exception.  It's a great general purpose road bike of its time.  I wouldn't load it up with touring bags (well, if it was the only bike I owned, sure, but it's not), and it's not a true racer, but it's great for a nice long ride in the country with a saddle bag carrying a sandwich, apple, and snacks.  All in all, another lucky find, and another case where a bike I dreamed of in my youth proved to be worth the wait.

To see more photos of the bike, including before and after shots, check it out here:




1977 Mercian  King of Mercia