Cycling UK Forum

My Mercian Vincitore frame is going back to Mercian for a refurbish at the end of this month.

The frame is 21 years old, and actually in good condition. It is loved and cherished, but has lots of chips and scratches the result of it being used!




My plan is/was to have it done in EXACTLY the same colour and contrasts as before. But last evening a friend suggested I should have something different to the Ruby Flamboyant. I am now in doubt about what I should do.

If I'm to pick a different colour, I think I favour Dark Blue Flamboyant.

Any other ideas?

http://www.merciancycles.co.uk/finishes.asp

I think that it looks nice as is.

The in thing at the moment seems to be a sort of light sandy brown/kharki with white bands on the seat tube for that proper retro look

But you can't go wrong with Midnight Blue or British Racing Green, of even black if it's done by a good paint shop.

Yellow with black trim looks good ( if you like that sort of thing ) but you can't choose that 'cos it would then be the same as my bike !

I use Midland Railway Crimson Lake. Railway geeks being what they are Humbrol will always have a market for the little pots of enamel I use as touch up. Plus it can either look very flash or grubby & old depending if you clean it or let it get ditched prior to a trip into bandit country.

I had my Mercian Vincitore in Post Office red with Ivory panels and it looked great. I tend to stick to solid colours with the minimum of other elaborations as I think it is less likely to date and has that classic look. Gone now, sadly.

MickF
All I can say is....good luck!
I treated myself to a Mercian in 06, and dithered like hell on the colour, lug lining etc. Although contrasting bands have never appealed to me since my first "proper" bike - a Raleigh Medale in 1983, I do still like a contrasting head tube. I ended ventually chose Ice Blue Pearl with silver head tube and silver lug lining, silver Mercian graphics. Lovely! My original intention though was a dark blue of some kind, but this gradually lightened and I think I was eventually swayed even more when I saw a couple of ice blue machines in their shop. There is a photo of my bike on their Gallery. I like the look of your existing red though.
Anyway I hope you enjoy the experience whilst it does your head in!? Great fun, and a nice position to be in?!

The great thing about a Mercian paintjob is choosing, especially the contrasts. My faves are:
Orange with green head/bands or panel
Duck egg blue with chocolate brown BoP
Black/gold (which I have cos it's a sinch to touch up)
Carmine and cream ('blood and custard')

Decisions, decisions.

There used to be a local bike shop here that had samples of tube resprays. One was "Smarties" each tube was done as a smarties tube with all the Smarties and the logo.

Looked brilliant!

Thank you so much for the suggestions, but after much heart-searching and head-scratching, I've decided to stay with my Ruby Flamboyant.

The reason is, it wouldn't be MY bike in any other colour. If I close my eyes, I see my bike in it's normal colour, I can't honestly imagine it any other way. If it were painted anything else, it would feel like a new bike. But I don't want a new bike, I want MY bike.

So Ruby Flamboyant it's going to be.

Also, I'll get a second pair of bottle screws fitted, they can widen my rear drop-outs to 130mm (my wheel goes in and out ok, but it's a bit stiff), and they can remove my lamp boss from the front forks. I've not used it in years, front lights have come on in leaps and bounds, and a front fork lamp boss is a little pointless these days.

I'll hand them my RH Ergo 9sp, they can modify it to 10sp for me. I know it's a DIY job, though a little difficult, but I'll let them do it.

Anyway, first thing Saturday morning we drive North up to the busy Northwest. Then on Monday we drive down to Derby and hand in my precious Vincitore. I'm going to be in tears, I know! It'll be the first time it will have been out of my possession in 21 years. 4 weeks they'll have it. I'm going to be lost!

I'll still be able to ride, though, as all the bits (minus Ergos) will go onto my floosey of a Vitus frame. Down-tube levers will take some getting used to after all this time with the convenience of Ergos, but I'm sure I'll manage.

It's just 4 weeks Mick.

You can always drown your sorrows.

And just think about how much better she'll look after surgery.

>;o)

Gazza

Mick
Have a good trip, and at least you'll have the pleasure of visiting the Mercian shop. One of the things that swayed me to eventually treating myself to a Mercian was that over the years since the early 90s, when every other retailer abandoned road bikes (and certainly those with mudguards, carriers and wider ratios) Mercian always had a shop full of gleaming touring kit, year after year. Not my LBS, but close enough to visit and drool two or three times a year. Enjoy!

When I had my Vincitore resprayed earlier this year, I agonised over the colour beforehand, decided on green, and then went for metallic blue with white panels having seen a frame of that colour in the shop. I've spent an inordinate amount of time on this sort of stuff and come up with numerous schemes that have never seen the light of day! Of course one is aware of the importance of the decision because you're probably going to live with it for many years.

Personally I now avoid light solid colours like yellow as they seem to look dirty rather quickly.

Ruby flam seems like a good choice to me - a traditional colour for a traditional frame! My other Mercian is red flam with silver panels - it's on the Mercian frapper site. Other photo websites especially Fixed gear gallery are a good source of ideas

I'm off to Mercian for one of my occasional trips this weekend - my favourite bike shop by a long way.

Dave

Well, my Vincitore is in the hands of the experts in Derby. The chap behind the counter was patient and helpful, and recorded all my notes about what I wanted and where. Same colour, same seat-tube bands, open rear end to 130mm, remove lamp boss on front forks, fit a second pair of bottle bosses and fit a Campag cable guide under the BB. I also bought a kit for changing my Ergos to 10sp.

I drooled in the shop. Lots of lovely bikes ........

We dropped it off yesterday, then carried on south and stayed overnight in a lovely old pub in Pershore, then made it back here this afternoon.

I'm now having to wait for 4 weeks or so, and we're debating whether we should travel up again to pick it up and make a weekend out of it. (My birthday, our anniversary). All my bike bits will now be fitted onto my Vitus frame so I can continue riding during the wait. I'd go crackers if I couldn't cycle .....


The pic is of me showing where I want the second bottle bosses fitted. The frame looks in good nick, but I can assure you it has lots of chips and scratches.

Mick
Those multi-coloured bands on the seat tube look very smart. As I recall Mercian used to quote a (substantial) price for those but no longer do so in their latest catalogue.

p.s. I wonder what proportion of Mercian's customers have white/grey hair? You and I would appear to be two of them!
Dave

Nice lugs Mick (on yer bike I mean).