Wahey! I am going to Mercian at last!

Post by **Mick F** » 17 Oct 2008, 8:36pm

Oh dear.

I suggest you speak to them.

I must say, when I bought mine 22 years ago, I was very very pleased.
For it's 21st birthday, I sent it back for some alterations and a re-spray. The finish in 1986 was better than in 2007, but still very good.

mlteenie · Post by **mlteenie** » 17 Oct 2008, 8:44pm

Thanks Mick.

You're right, I know probably have to ask some questions but I really don't want to have to moan to them after everything. Just adds to the bad feeling. The old british fear of complaining. I'm sure it'll ride lovely.

glueman · Post by **glueman** » 18 Oct 2008, 8:51am

Any chance of some pictures? We can then decide if you're being a perfectionist or have a genuine gripe. If the finish is up to their usual standard Mercian are getting good publicity, if it isn't they need to put it right.

mlteenie · Post by **mlteenie** » 18 Oct 2008, 10:03am

Fair enough, Glueman. Not sure I can show these things with my camera skills. However, I wouldn't necessarily use that as the basis of whether I have a point or not.

Colin63 · Post by **Colin63** » 18 Oct 2008, 11:42am

When I was down at the shop in August the frames I saw were superb, and I felt no reason to be anything other than very confident about what I was ordering. I'm sure that Grant and Jane who own the company would be very upset to hear that you're feeling disappointed and would do their best to sort out any problems or issues. Give them a call or drop them an e-mail.

mlteenie · Post by **mlteenie** » 18 Oct 2008, 12:08pm

Thanks for that. I didn't know Jane and Grant owned the business. I have had a good email and phone relationship with Jane and I will send her an email soon. I will outline my concerns and see what she has to say.

glueman · Post by **glueman** » 18 Oct 2008, 12:14pm

BTW I wasn't implying you hadn't got a point. If someone is less than delighted with a new handbuilt frame I'd assume they had a reason. All of us have our own perfection point and things like blistered transfers would really niggle me whereas other stuff I might be able to live with.

A picture is worth no end of conjecture on our part.

JohnW · Post by **JohnW** » 18 Oct 2008, 2:25pm

mlteenie -

I didn't see your post before you'd edited the problems out.

I must say that I'm sort of doubly dissapointed for you, because I was one of the many posters who'd waxed lyrical about Mercian, and whose posts you may very well have read before you ordered yours.

I don't know what the problems are, but guessing from how other contributors have responded, it sems that your dissatisfaction is with the finish. Well, I'm looking at my Mercian now, fully built up and rarin' to go (if ever it stops raining), and after having drooled and tended it lovingly for about a year now, I've not found a blemish or a problem - except where I dropped an 8 speed cassette on a chainstay, but that's a different story - I don't wish to recount what I called myself!!!

If there is a problem, then, based on my experience with them, I would say that they will be as upset as you are.

Do let us know how you've gone on.

I collected my frame, but if you've had yours "posted", are you sure all went well in transit?

mlteenie · Post by **mlteenie** » 18 Oct 2008, 7:33pm

Glueman, JohnW et al, thanks.

I edited my post as I didn't want to spread possible bad vibes about Mercian unnecessarily.

I have given the finish of the frame a lot of thought over the last few days. I have decided I can live with the minor imperfections in the transfers where bubbling up, and a few little bits of dust (or similar) in the lacquer.

I have inspected my Rossin frame and whilst I would say the joints are smoother, the Mercian's are certainly not bad, just a bit more noticeable than I'd been led to believe by their literature. There are also a couple of small issues around the ends of the head tube. I can live with all these things because, before long I know it will be scratched and chipped. However it would have been nice if these things had not been like that. I don't think I could face sending it back to be resprayed (even if it were offered free).

The one thing I am quite surprised by is the height of the rack mount on the seat stays. The catalogue shows two frames with quite different heights of bosses and I would have thought this was something that is some kind of standard height. As it is my Tubus rack rods will have to slope upward, although I do admit I have never used this rack before. Mercian describe the mounts as for Blackburn rack although in my experience the attachments for those racks always end up being bent downward. So, although I am sure there is asolution available, this currently remains my biggest problem.

I will try and attach some pics to show the frame, etc.

I am certainly growing quite fond of the look of it otherwise!

[

glueman · Post by **glueman** » 18 Oct 2008, 8:00pm

It's impossible to make a quality judgement of the whole bike based on those photographs but my observation would be this. Metallic finishes are notoriously unforgiving of paint blemishes and welds. Purely from those pictures I can't see anything too bad except the ripple in the Mercian transfer which shouldn't have got through quality control IMO.

The headset looks to have slightly wrinkled the facing which has effected the paint. I'm not sure at those magnifications whether that would annoy me or not, probably something I could live with.
It would have been good to see a couple of examples of the lugless welds, the ones on my tandem from about '79 were utterly flawless, perfect organic radius weld arcs across the entire frame but that was beneath a few coats of red enamel.

The transfer would cheese me off I'm afraid. The rack eye heights are a strange one because Mercian will be putting these on frames all the time and I've never come across the issue unless there's a new standard dimension I'm not aware of. Taking the pic of the whole bike if you ran a straight line from the eyelets across the back of the wheel the rack top would be elevated more than I've seen one or am accustomed to but again I'd have to offer up a rack in situ to see if it's an optical illusion.

mlteenie · Post by **mlteenie** » 18 Oct 2008, 9:23pm

My friend has a Roberts and his fillet brazing is superb. I think this frame's looks somewhat bulbous.

The rack bosses are about 94mm above the bridge.

Transfer has air beneath it. :cry:

thirdcrank · Post by **thirdcrank** » 18 Oct 2008, 10:00pm

mlteenie

I've only just spotted the problems you've had and I didn't see your post before you edited it.

Life's general disappointments are bad enough but when you go to a lot of trouble (not forgetting the £££) to get what you really want it's heartbreaking. You must have been gutted. I'm sure everybody hopes you'll get this sorted out in a satisfactory way.

JohnW · Post by **JohnW** » 18 Oct 2008, 11:35pm

mlteenie -

When I ordered my Mercian frame, they asked me which rack I'd be fitting, and I chose it and bought it at the time of ordering - the lugs are located exactly right for the rack.

The paint at the headset wouldn't worry me - simply fitting the headset can do that, and sometimes, if you look under a microscope, you can see small "chips" where things have been fitted - look around the bottom bracket and the bottle cage now that you've fitted them.

The bubbling and rippling of the transfers would bother me - mine are absolutely perfect.

Keep us posted.

Colin63 · Post by **Colin63** » 19 Oct 2008, 9:55am

I've been pondering the position of these braze on rack eyes. Does it actually stop you from fitting the rack or is the issue simply that it looks unusual to you?

The seat stays on your pro lugless frame are closer together than the lugged frames, so the arms from your rack will need to fit around the frame differently. On a lugged frame they will pass between the seat stays relatively low down, whereas on your frame they will need to pass outside the stays and the eyes have been brazed at a height where they will do so. It's not the distance along the stay that matters with adjustable rack arms, it's the width between them that will allow the rack to positioned perfectly. try it out and I think you'll find they've got it right.

I have to say that (transfers aside) you have a beautiful and sexy looking machine there. I like the look of the brazing.

Colin63 · Post by **Colin63** » 19 Oct 2008, 10:01am

Just been looking at Tubus rack arms and I see that I'm wrong about them passing outside or inside the stays as the adjustable part is at the rack end of the arms, however I think that I'm right about the ditance between the eyes which is important here.