Following Mercian’s 80th Anniversary Festival of Steel, we were delighted to welcome Eddie White and Cherie Pridham to our new factory.
Eddie White was a valued founding member of the Mercian-Bantel Team, riding with the team between 1968 and 1979. It was a particular pleasure to welcome Cherie, who took time out of her busy WorldTour schedule as Sports Director of UAE Team L’Imad to join Eddie for the visit.
1946 was a special year: Paul Smith was born in Nottingham, Mercian Cycles was founded in Derby. Paul was a very good cyclist in his youth and rode Mercian bikes - his fondness for Mercian has remained, and the feeling is mutual. To help celebrate our 80th anniversaries, Paul has designed two special limited edition bikes, which were launched at Selfridges in early September.
After many months of effort, and a tremendous grant to help us on our way from Erewash Council, we launched three new eBike models at the end of August.
A great crowd attended our Festival of Steel ride out in August, to help celebrate the 80th anniversary of Mercian. Many thanks to Belper Cycling Club, and Andre Toczek in particular, for helping organise the event and doing a great job on the 4 rides. And a big thankyou to all those who attended the event - we estimate approx 300 people turned up to help us mark the day, but give it a few months and the estimate will have grown to 3000!
Congratulations to Jill Scott for completing her epic 388 mile "Coming Home" challenge, raising almost £500k for Sport Relief! Mercian were proud to help.
We doff a very large cycling cap to Greg James, who finished his 8-day pan-UK challenge in Edinburgh on Friday raising over £4.5mln. What an incredible amount!
After six decades Mercian Cycles workshop has moved.
Through the years there were a number of locations in Derby for the shop, the frame building workshop and sprayshop. But since about 1965 the frame building and painting was taking place at the Pontefract Street workshop.
Framebuilder Tim took the chance to head out on the Ventura All-road bike to go and pick up some dropouts from Bear Frame Supplies. An ideal opportunity to capture some video of the custom steel Ventura out on the gravel trails of the Derbyshire Peak District.
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).
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
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 eve
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 stri
We have here a King of Mercia track frame slowly being put together for a customer. This one has the barbers pole which seems to becoming very popular. This one has the new Mich track chainset and matching seat pin which you can just see in the picture. I have been thinking about doing a short revi
Well not a great picture today but its a shot of our frame workshop when everyone has gone home. I have been too busy to take a picture from the shop today but I will post a picture hopefully tomorrow if I get a chance. I have been catching up with the shop emails over the past 2 days but I am now
The day was spent at the workshop today mostly sorting out our shot blaster but all is well and it is working a treat. The photo has a tandem frame close to completion. The frame once built will be put together with most of the components to check they all fit properly. Once we are happy with that
Well first of all I must say congratulations to all our lads and lasses at the Olympics. Especially the cycling team of all disciplines . The track riders where a wonder to watch and of course world class. I for one wish them luck in the future. The team pursuit was amazing to watch and by far my fa
I should have told you yesterday but I have a couple of weeks off work and sunning it up. If I get chance i will do the odd post for you all but not every night. I'll be back....as the saying goes.
Another bike being built with the black Campagnolo equipment. This one is a King in a very striking black with a white barbers pole and head tube please note the new vinyl gothic transfer.
Just a quick shot of the Campagnolo race triple equipment being assembled to a Audax ruby red frame. This complete bike will be ready and waiting for a customer to collect this coming Saturday. Just right for a sunday ride in the sun.
Not just a track bike this one it has a freewheel on the other side of the Phil Wood rear hub. This is the reason it is running two brakes. The Strada special frame has the option to fit a rear rack as well as long mudguards making it a ideal day ride and commuting bike.
