Modern art ?

No it,s not modern art its part of the snap room wall. Over the years this wall is slowly being filled with fruit labels apples , oranges etc. This wall must be 12 foot long and its all like this.

Something a little out of the ordinary

This was sent into me by one of our American friends. I have told him it,s not quite this here now ! Please take a look at the videos on there they are great . www.countrybicycle.com:80/ Enjoy

Victoria & Albert

If your in London it might be a idea to have a look in the Victoria & Albert museum. They have a exhibition on at the moment called Fashion Vs Sport. As part of exhibition you will see one of our bikes we built for Paul Smith's design team. These bikes have not been seen by the public as they where only made for there displays around the world. We called them the polka dot bikes and are labeled as Paul Smith 531. These are very rare indeed and only a few have been built.

Goodbye John

Well the day we have all been dreading has dawned John has left us. He has worked for us in excess of 20 years and in that time made a lot of customers frame dreams come true. I and all of us at Mercian wish you all the best. Surf's up John .

Hi Guys

First of all sorry for the the lack of posts just recently I have been so busy. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible as they say. I promise to get my act together as soon as I can. Interviews for the shop job starts tomorrow so I'll be posting a picture of the new worker soon.

We are open

We are having some trouble with the shop shutter. It makes the shop
look shut but we are open our normal times.
www.mercianblog.com

iPhone mail

Facebook

Not a lot to say today really only that I have started a Facebook page. Try and find it . I will when possible try and post a link to it so it should be easier to find. Take a look anyway on Mercian Cycles ltd . Hope you find it and post a picture and a few words.

Visitors to the workshop

The other day we had a visit from these lads ( Brent, Lyndon, Adri and Ant) . Well I hear you say whats so good about that. Well they came from Australia thats whats good about that. They had a tour of the workshop and spray shop and all found it very interesting and where amazed how much work goes into a finished frame. Hope you have a safe trip home and please spread the word.

Mr Fox

Meet Mr Fox he has made his home at the back of the shop and sleeps on the flat roof of the workshop. We see him most days and he is quite cheeky. The other day he just wandered into the workshop to have a look around ! When we have a bite to eat and have left overs we always through them on the roof for the birds but I think Mr Fox has cottoned onto that.

Orkney

Just thought you would like to see a picture of this customer (Tony) who came from the Orkney Island today to collect his bike. He will be stopping down here with family for the evening before traveling home tomorrow. He flew down a few months ago to go through the order with John . We do get people flying in world wide being close to the East Midland Airport to come to the shop but this is a first from Orkney. This is another pin in the Mercian world map.

Reynolds Carbon forks

These forks are in our opinion one of the best on the market. If we have a customer who wishes for a carbon fork we would recommend these. One problem there is no mudguard clearance. There are carbon forks which we can supply with mudguard clearance but only then with short reach brakes.

Campagnolo

The majority of the tools we have at the shop are obviously professional standard but the kit we use the most is this tool kit made by Campagnolo. It does all the jobs very well indeed. From chasing threads to making sure the rear dropouts are parallel ( the biggest reason you break rear axles).

Ian Hibell

Well it's my first day back from a short break and found the very sad news that Ian has been killed on one of his journeys across our small planet. This to me is a very sad time, he was a very good customer of ours, always calling in our shop on the way to one of his adventures to have a chat and to buy the odd spare he would need, and on his way back he'd call in just to have a chat to tell us of his adventures. My thoughts are with his family. Keep those pedals turning up there in heaven Ian.

A Shop Bench

I know its not the best shot in the world but this is Jeff's bench where all the ergo levers are repaired. It's where I do the wheel builds as well as the wheel repairs the VAR wheel jig is by the way the best wheel jig you can get its very solidly built and adjustable for all wheel sizes . Ive even built motorbike wheels in it . I will be away for the next few days but ill be back. See you all soon

How to clamp a frame

Ok yesterday in the comment I was asked by John is it ok to clamp a frame by a top tube in a frame jig . Well the easy answer to this is of course yes. But what do you use to protect the frame I here you all cry out in unison. Well the pictures show how its done . We used to use just a leather strip but found it marked the paint. Then our surf dude John came up with the idea of using a piece of neoprene ( 4mm sheet from a surf/diving shop) . We tried this and found that it wore out to fast so we now use both. The neoprene protects the frame and the leather takes the punishment the jig dishes out. Voila a perfect frame protection item. When we have a carbon frame in for work ( plastic as the lads call em) we always clamp the seat pin in the jig.