We doff a very large cycling cap to Greg James, who finished his 8-day pan-UK challenge in Edinburgh on Friday raising over £4.5mln. What an incredible amount!
After six decades Mercian Cycles workshop has moved.
Through the years there were a number of locations in Derby for the shop, the frame building workshop and sprayshop. But since about 1965 the frame building and painting was taking place at the Pontefract Street workshop.
Framebuilder Tim took the chance to head out on the Ventura All-road bike to go and pick up some dropouts from Bear Frame Supplies. An ideal opportunity to capture some video of the custom steel Ventura out on the gravel trails of the Derbyshire Peak District.
Mercian has been hand-building steel bikes in Derby since 1946. Staff-owned and proud of our 80-year legacy, we remain dedicated to crafting one-off bikes the traditional way – by hand, for life.
To celebrate Derby County’s 50th anniversary title win – and Mercian’s 80th – we built a one-off Superlight road bike, raising nearly £4,000 for the Derby County Community Trust. A true Derby icon, made in Derby.
Dave’s custom Ventura Allroad – built for his Paris-to-Nice charity ride and dedicated to his son, Conor – has already raised over €21,000 for mental health charity Aware.
We have a second hand Mercian up for grabs. Its a Pro-lugless in Reynolds 653 tubing Its campag equipped with campag Shamal wheels. We can have it delivered in the UK if your interested. Please give the shop a call for further details.
Yet another customers picture this time from Manhattan. Below is his letter sent in with the picture
Hi there. This is a picture of my Mercian Superlight from the 80s.
This was meant to be my "winter bike" but its superior ride quality
(and my jealous friends) have convinced me that it is too
nic
Sorry for the delay with this blog update but I have just been a bit on the busy side anyway hopefully we are now back to normal . Below is a letter I recieved today which along with the picture I thought you would like .
Before it goes through to the spray shop we send most tandem frames up to the shop for checking we have the brazing in the correct position for such things as disc brake mounts and all the cable stops and guides etc.
Ok here it is a 631 Pro lugless built with Mercian top eyes. The details are as below
Size -- 56cm c-t
1" A-head fork column
Top tube -- 565mm
Angles -- 72deg head 72deg seat
Chainstay length -- 430mm
Bottom bracket drop -- 61mm
Rear end width -- 120mm
Mudguard eyes front and drilled a
We had a small batch of black polo shirts made ( my photo does not do the colour justice ) to check out the quality and we like them. So the order will go in soon for a boat load and will be available from the shop for under £30.00. We have used the Hanes beefy polo shirt to insure quality. A small
Going to post a picture soon of a cancelled order a Pro lugless track frame in 631 tubing with some chrome. It could be your chance to jump the queue and get a bargain because where going to knock off the deposit already paid !!!!. First come first serve . O and by the way its in undercoat so you ca
The Mercian Mug will be landing at the shop very soon they will be with us in a couple of weeks or so and cost £6.99 plus postage. If you would like one please call the shop to pre-order. Printed with the same design front and rear.
Tim has got all the gear in chainstays , fork blades etc etc to turn my old atb frame into a 29er . Im quite looking forward to getting this put together. Its going on the back boiler for now as we are a bit on the busy side.
A early 1950s trike frame made by Mercian. We have not made a trike frame now for some years so this bit of kit is a very rare item indeed. I must admit Ive only seen two in the past. This one belongs to Mr Holland of the V-CC Cambridge section. Thank you Christopher for the photo.