We recently completed a couple of very nice frames for David and his son Oscar,  so we asked for pictures once built into complete bikes and thought you’d like to see them.

I’m so happy with both bikes, mine rides so well and I’ve already had so many comments about it.

“In June 2017 I was knocked off my bike in an RTC and unfortunately my bike was written off, to make things worse I was riding my ‘forever bike’ a 125th Anniversary Raleigh Clubman.

There was only one place I wanted to get a replacement ‘forever bike’ and that was Mercian.

After a few visits and meetings with Grant we finalised on the following specification: Reynolds 853 Pro-Team double oversized tubing, 44mm straight headtube, flat mount disc mounts with 12mm x142mm dropouts. Geometry would taken from the 2019 Specialized S-Works Tarmac disc to ensure snappy ride.

I wanted the paint finish to be a blend of old and new, so to leave parts of the frame raw to show the brazing details and metalwork craft, the blue is the same as my old Raleigh that was expertly mixed in house. A subtle barbers pole finishes the look.

Around the same time as the early build process my first son was born, Oscar. To mark this occasion I had his name engraved on the inner chainstay and a matching balance bike sprayed in the same design with the same paint. I rebuilt the wheels with red nipples and it’s ready to roll when he is.

I took delivery of my frame in March and have built it up as follows:

Chris King Inset 8 headset and bottom bracket
Thomson seatpost and stem
Fizik Cyrano R1 carbon bar
Brookes carbon cambium seat and bar tape
Shimano R8000 Ulregra disc groupset, 50/34 11-28
Jagwire Elite sealed cables
Keo carbon blade pedals
DT Swiss 350 hubs in limited grey, DCR Wheels wide rims laced with Spain CX-Ray 32 spokes
Vittoria Cora’s Control 28mm / Panaracer Gravelking SK 33mm tyres
Arundel stainless cages

I could have bought a carbon frame instead, however this is unique to my spec and you won’t see anything better on the road in my eyes.

David’s frame was polished at the bottom bracket up the seat tube, rear triangle, top tube and half the head tube and clear coated, before the custom mixed dark blue pearl was sprayed to the bottom half of the frame with a fade into black at the bottom of the down tube near the fillet brazed bottom bracket shell and bottom of the fork blades.

The barbers pole is sprayed using black flamboyant sprayed lightly so the polished 853 seat tube still shows through. The transfers were lined with Gunmetal grey to compliment the polished tubing.

And Oscar’s S-works is sprayed in the same custom mixed Blue Pearl with silver pearl overspray and Red transfers.

They both look great! Hope you enjoy the bikes and thanks for your custom 🙂