A 1972 Mercian

Posted on February 7, 2015 by Nola Wilken

I recently purchased this Mercian on eBay. The seller described it as a 1960’s model, but with its Shimano dropouts, I suspected it was actually made a bit later.

The bottom bracket shell seems to indicate this is a 1972 model. A name appears to be etched above the serial number, but I can’t quite make it out. Perhaps this was the owner’s name. Having looked through the available Mercian catalogs on-line, and after taking frame measurements, I still don’t quite know what model this is.

However, given that it has decent length chain stays (44mm), and single eyelets front and rear, it is possible that this is the Campionissimo or Olympic model, off the shelf frames designed for light touring and randonneuring, but with no customizing available except choosing the color.

The lugs are ornate, and unusually shaped, although not a great deal of time was spent filing them. The frame is equipped with pump pegs and a full set of cable stops. The pump pegs are mounted slightly off center below the top tube, to prevent interference with the cable stops also mounted slightly off center on the opposite side.

I measured the frame and took some preliminary angle readings. It is a 49 cm x 51 cm frame (or, speaking British, a 20 inch frame – which the company measures center to top). The angles appear fairly steep, at about 74 degrees for both the head tube and seat tube. Of course, there is a margin of error using this method, and once the bike is built I will re-measure the angles using a level to correct for errors. I also checked brake reach using 700c wheels (I think the frame was built for 27 inch wheels). It looks like I will need about 65 mm of brake reach to use 700c wheels with this frame – that is definitely doable.

However, the biggest challenge will be determining whether the paint damage and oxidation to the top tube will mean having to re-paint the frame, something I am loathe to do. If the paint damage is just at the surface level, and there’s no rust underneath, I’d like to preserve the beautiful patina of this nice Reynolds 531 hand built frame.

Thankfully, it was a rainy, stormy day today, not suited for riding. A perfect shop day. I got out my various cleaning products and began to experiment on the back side of the fork legs, so that if I did something irretrievably bad, it would not be so visible. As it turned out, the most effective product was an automotive paint cleaning compound. Applied vigorously, and polished vigorously afterwards, this product was best at removing the years of neglect. I was worried about taking off too much paint however, and I only gently cleaned the Mercian logos. I definitely did not want to damage these as they were all in great condition. The photos above show the frame after several hours of cleaning and polishing – there is a definite improvement! That gave me the impetus to start working on the top tube. I figured that no matter how hard I rubbed, I couldn’t make it worse than it already was. I really wanted to see what the damage looked like underneath the oxidized paint.

The good news is that underneath the oxidation was nice silver-colored steel, with no rust visible at all. The bad news is that the top tube looks pretty funky, still. I will probably clean it up a bit more and then apply some clear paint to protect the exposed areas. After more cleaning, I will also apply many coats of wax to the entire frame, just to make sure that it remains protected in the elements. You’ll note from the above photo that I also removed the California bike license tag. While I usually keep these kinds of artifacts intact, this one really detracted from its appearance. Underneath was the original frame color – a very vibrant red. Well, now the bike is a very cool orange color!

It’s now time to start thinking about the components. Since the frame has such a vintage look, I think it would be best to build it up with period components. Fortunately, the old Mercian catalogs will provide a lot of information about how these machines were typically configured. I have these GB 88 brakes which would be from the period, and which have just the right amount of brake reach. My crankset collection includes two Stronglight candidates. The crankset at the left is a Spidel/Stronglight set from the 80’s – meant to be a copy of a Campy Super Record Crankset, and the one at the right is a 1970’s model with the star shaped spider that I love. I will probably go with the more vintage look. The frameset came shipped with a TDC headset, probably orginal, and a Sugino bottom bracket, which may or may not be original. By this time, Shimano and other Japanese components were beginning to be considered on par with the best French, British and Italian component makers of the time.

I have been wanting to find the right home for this beautiful Dura Ace high flange front hub with its smooth as butter cups and cones. It is laced to a 700c Araya rim. I might decide to use an unusual rear hub, such as a 2 x 6 Sachs-Fitchel hub, or even a Sturmey Archer, in keeping with its British heritage. That is part of the fun – envisioning the many interesting ways this frame can be configured. I look forward to riding it and getting this great old frame back out on the road.

Goodbye, Little ALAN

Posted on November 8, 2014 by Nola Wilken

I have enjoyed riding around on this tiny ALAN cyclocross bike. I originally purchased it several years ago for a family member who is about 5′ tall on a good day. She had been riding a small framed newer Trek with 700c wheels, and while the Trek has nice components, the geometry is pretty awful. But, many shorter riders have never experienced anything different, because the cycling industry has not met their needs.

Enter the ALAN. It was designed around 24 ” wheels, with a 48 x 48 cm frame. When I spotted it on eBay it looked like this:

Those are 170 mm Dura Ace cranks – on a bike with a 24 cm bottom bracket height. Needless to say, there is no way that you would pedal through corners on this configuration. So, I began the process of modifying the bike, and at first I tried this configuration:

I changed out the crankset for a single 152 mm 52T vintage crank. Unfortunately, this just did not provide the right gearing for the bike. So, I reconsidered the whole build. The deep drop Cinelli bars made no sense for a small rider with short arms. The downtube shifters were also a bit of a reach. That made me think that a city-type build might be best for this bike. So, I came up with this set-up using a double 152 mm 50/39 Sugino crankset. I replaced the rear Dura Ace derailleur with a Shimano Deore XT long cage, but kept the Dura Ace front derailleur, Dura Ace headset, and Dura Ace bottom bracket. I used some vintage upright bars with a Shimano 7 speed index system.

And this is how I rode around on this bike for the last 2 years (test riding is very time-consuming). Finally though, my thoroughly enjoyable test riding has come to an end. So, I needed to really rethink how the new rider would use this bike, as well as how her small size would effect the choices I made. Since she is used to a road bike configuration, I decided to replace the city bars and shifters with a narrow SR Randonneur bar, bar end shifters (for an easy reach), and these beautiful Modelo drilled levers, which have very small hoods and a short reach to the levers.

I kept the rest of the bike pretty much the same – here are some photos of its features:

Dura Ace calipers

ALAN logo

Beautiful engraving on the ALAN head lugs, Dura Ace headset

Shimano Deore XT rear derailleur

American Classic 25mm seatpost

Sugino 50/39 crankset with 152 mm arms

Dura Ace front derailleur

Shimano 600 tri-color front and rear hubs on Mavic 24″ Open 4 CD rims

If you haven’t ridden an ALAN before, you are in for a treat. The frame is very comfortable, and hill climbing is a breeze. The aluminum tubes are screwed and glued into beautiful stainless steel lugs. This little bike weighs in at 19 lbs! I used this bike often for my daily Pdx commutes – what a joy. The tiny wheels make for quick acceleration. It has been one of the best city bikes I have ridden.

There were some challenges in setting up the bike. The very short chainstays mean that it is not possible to select certain gearing configurations – namely the biggest ring on the biggest cog and vice versa. But that is a normal limitation on many bikes. Also, while I agree with most of the frame geometry decisions on this bike, I am puzzled by the amount of bottom bracket drop selected. It would have been easy to build the bike with less drop, and that would make it more feasible to use a longer crankset without worrying about pedal strikes while cornering.

Here is the bike now, ready for its transport to Central Oregon where I hope it will be well-loved and well-ridden. The seat post and stem height are still set up for my size, showing how small this bike really is, given that I am 5’4″. I’ll be test-riding it for a few more weeks to make sure everything is just right, and then it will be time to say good-bye to this wonderful machine. It is a rare bike, and a great testament to the ALAN company’s frame building skills. Thank you for building this little bike – it is a treasure.

1980’s Peugeot 650c Conversion

Posted on August 24, 2014 by Nola Wilken

I came across this Canadian Peugeot on eBay. Before I converted it to a 650c city bike, it was equipped with a mix of Shimano 600 and 105 components, and even sported some brifters, which of course had failed some time ago. Probably, the bike was garaged after this and that is why it was in pretty decent shape. Thank you, Shimano.

There was a little bit of rust in the bottom bracket shell, so I decided to treat the frame with Weigle’s frame saver. It was nice to see the vertical drop-outs, and the cutouts on the lugs were a surprise. Most of the finish work is very good, except for the sloppy work on the seat stay brake bridge. Of course, the serial number is meaningless, except the “Y” makes me wonder if this was a PY model. Canadian Peugeot’s were manufactured by Pro Cycle beginning in 1978. The company used lug construction vs. the French models which were internally brazed. The frame and fork are Reynolds 531. The fast back seat stays and the unicrown fork, as well as the style of the Reynolds stickers (which are in French) made me date this bike to the mid-80’s. I’ve never seen a Peugeot in British racing green, but I really do like this color. There are even some gold racing stripes on the left side seat stay. So, it doesn’t look as French as it does British. (And, I guess that’s why it’s Canadian.)

I salvaged the nice Shimano 105 rear derailleur by inverting the b-screw, a la Sheldon Brown. That made it possible to use a 32 tooth cog on the rear cassette. For this city drive train I used a 45 tooth SR ring, a Velo Orange chain guard, and a 165 mm SR Signature crank. With this wheel size, that yields a gear inch range of 34-93 with the 12-32 7 speed cassette pictured. That’s just about right for any kind of city riding that involves hills. I used Tektro’s long reach brakes, which are what I use for all my 650c conversions, and 650c Terry Tellus 28 mm tires. These tires ride quite well and are virtually bullet proof. The wheelset is comprised of 28 hole Dura Ace hubs laced to Mavic XP12 rims in a 2 cross style. This wheelset came off of a late 90’s titanium triathlon bike. While this set may seem positively robust by today’s standards, I am a big fan of strong wheelsets with at least 3 cross lacing and 32 spokes front and rear. However, for a small and light-weight rider, which is who I designed this bike for, this wheelset should work just fine.

For the rest of the build, I chose an upright position using Velo-Orange’s Monmartre handlebar with reverse Dia Compe levers. I had some matching Shimano 105 shifters, so used those to complement the rear derailleur. They can be used in friction or index mode with this 1 x 7 drive train.

The standover height is 29 1/2 inches. The bike weighs 21 lbs as pictured, so it will make a very nice and responsive city bike for a small rider.

For sale now.

Restoring Vintage Bicycles from the Hand Built Era

Portland, Oregon, USA

Tag Archives: Dura Ace

A 1972 Mercian

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Goodbye, Little ALAN

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1980’s Peugeot 650c Conversion

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