The Touring Bike

My Mercian is by far my favorite bike. It is also the best looking. I purchased the frame and fork from Bicycle Habitat as a replacement for the bike that was totaled when I was struck by a car on December 1, 1997.

Mercian is a custom frame builder in England that specializes in traditional lugged steel frames. Ace mechanic Hal Ruzal worked with me to come up with the perfect bike for me. We started with the "King of Mercia" touring frame. It has long (43cm) chainstays and a relaxed seat tube angle.

Because I'm a big guy, we went with 135mm rear spacing for a stronger rear wheel (I use an Shimano XT mountain bike hub in back), and a slightly shorter top tube. The seat tube measures 61cm center-to-center, but the top tube is 57.5cm.

Details

Mercian doesn't skimp on the little things that make a bike both beautiful and versitile. Their touring frame uses standard reach caliper brakes so there is plenty of clearance for larger tires and/or fenders. They will also build it to use cantilever brakes if you wish. The rear dropouts are horizontal, and feature both rack and fender eyelets. The lugs are pretty, the lug "windows" are painted with the contrasting color, and outlined in gold.

You get your choice of 63 different colors. I went with British Racing Green and Pearl White.

Specs

Frame/Fork	Mercian "King of Mercia" Touring (Reynolds 531 steel)
Front Wheel	28-spoke Ultegra hub, Mavic CXP-12 rim
Rear Wheel	36-spoke XT hub, Mavic MA2 rim, CHAero disc cover
Tires	Avocett Road 20 (700x28)
Drive train	9-speed Ulegra crank (52/39/24) and derailers, 105 13-23 cassette, Dura Ace downtube shifters
Pedals	Look 286
Brakes	105 levers and standard reach calipers
Bars / Stem	Profile Century aero bars
Saddle	Brooks B17 Champion Special

Head on

Century Riding

I use this bike for all sorts of riding, but I have customized it for riding longer distances. Riding 100 miles means 6+ hours in the saddle for me, so I try to make the bike as comfortable as possible, and gain whatever small aerodynamic advantage I can. Remember that once you go over 15mph, the majority of the force you must overcome is made of aerodynamic drag.

The Profile aero bars give me an additional hand position, and help when you're fighting a nasty headwind. The wheel cover allows me to an un-aerodynamic 36-spoke wheel with a box section rim, but not pay the drag penalty. The wheel cover is made by CHAero, and attaches with 6 small fasteners that look like chainring bolts. They are very light, and the bike handles well, even in a stiff crosswind.

Seen from the front (at left), the bike is pretty clean.

Long-distance riding also means I want to have the correct gear ratios so that I can maintain a cadence that works for me. The 13-23 9-speed cassette gives me a very good range of closely spaced gears. Using just the big and middle rings, I have 14 evenly spaced gears, ranging from 108-46 gear inches, with an average jump of 6.8%.

By changing the stock 30-tooth granny ring to a 24, I still have a low enough bottom gear (28 gear inches) for the big hills. Shifting between the 24 and 39 up front is made easier by the downtube shifter, which operates in friction and so can be trimmed exactly. For REALLY big hills, I can switch to a 12-27 cassette for a low gear of 24 gear inches without having to change the rear derailer.

Mercian Links

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john.henderson@nyu.edu
Updated 13 Jun 2001