Mercian Cycles, Limited
Pontefract Street Ascot Drive, Derby DE28JD, England
The name Mercian is usually associated with the people who lived in the ancient kingdom of Mercia. The capital of Mercia was located just outside of modern-day Derby where Mercian Cycles is now situated.
The showroom and bicycle store is located at 28 Stenson Road while the offices and the frame-building shop are on Pontefract Street. Because of their desire to preserve history, Barker and Crowther decided to call their firm Mercian cycles.
Mercian Cycles started out as a bicycle shop in 1946. Shortly afterward, Barker and Crowther decided to build frames. Almost overnight, their frames and bicycle shop became popular.
The demand for their product was almost limitless, but, like other British frame builders, the postwar boom in bicycle frames pro vided a false confidence in the future demand for their product.
The bicycle boom lasted only until 1951, after which a steep decline in sales almost eliminated an entire industry of small frame builders. By the mid-1960s, bicycle sales still looked bleak.
Disenchanted with the pace of the business, Barker and Crowther sold their bicycle/frame-building shop in 1965 to one of their employees, William Betton. Betton had been brought up through the ranks from an apprentice to a full-fledged frame builder and he was anxious to assume the total responsibility for the business. At the age of 25, Betton was not only a frame builder but a bicycle racer as well. He loved to race in all sorts of time trials, from 10 miles to 12 hours, and he still holds the South Pennine Road Club 12-hour record of 247 miles. His enthusiasm for racing paid of f in sales of Mercian frames, and Mercian Cycles became the center of bicycling activity in Derbyshire.
Today, Mercian Cycles employs four full-time builders, two assistants, and three painters. Mr. Betton still possesses "the touch" for building frames, but he finds that he has little time to devote to building. Instead, his time is spent on the many other matters related to owning and operating the business.
Background
Most of the builders at Mercian have been brought up through the ranks from apprentice. The only exception is Peter Riches, the chief builder. Peter had several years of experience with various London frame builders before he started working for Mercian in 1952. He is currently involved in designing tandems for Mercian and has designed and built all the jigs for their tandem production. Although Mercian displayed a prototype tandem at the 1977 Harrogate Bicycle Show, they did not go into production until mid-1978. All the tandems are bronze welded since no lugs are commercially available for the oversize tubing that Peter feels is necessary to insure strength and rigidity.
Two of the builders, Derek Land and Cyril Wagstaff, have been building frames for Mercian for over eight years. Derek is presently in charge of all repairs and Cyril is in charge of quality control and the supervision of the two apprentices. William Betton's close supervision of all operations apparently has paid off . When we asked each English frame builder to rank the top English frame builders, the name Mercian would consistently appear at the top of their lists.
Mercian Cycles is one of the few places where bicycle frames are built on the open hearth rather than by hand-held torches. At Mercian, the builders use a combination of air and natural gas in these open hearths. They believe the advantage of using this method is the decreased possibility of overheating the tubing, unlike a welding torch which can be a "lethal instrument" in the wrong hands. Welding torches are only used at Mercian for repairs or to attach brake cable stops. When using the open hearth technique (as well as any other heating technique), flux is used to help the brazing material flow more easily inside the lug. Cyril Wagstaff points out that, although flux is very helpful in getting the braze to flow, it can also be harmful if too much is used. Cyril recommends using a minimum amount of flux with Reynolds 531SL tubing since it can "eat away at the tube." In building a frame on the open hearth, Mercian builders use pins to maintain the frame alignment. With the exception of the seatstays and down tube, all the tubes are pinned prior to insertion into the hearth. This is something that frame builders who use welding torches seldom do, since heat is localized in one area and an experienced builder is able to hold the joint that he is brazing together by hand, spot-brazing, or by means of a jig.
Building Philosophy
Before a frame is pinned, the builders at Mercian set it up on a primitive jig. They call this step "building the frame on the board." The board is crudely, but functionally, constructed so that its adjustable fittings will accommodate most frame sizes with built-in variables such as top tube length, angles, and bottom bracket height.
Mercian Cycles, like most quality frame-building shops, strives to build well-aligned frames. In most cases, this requires considerable knowledge of how the metals will react at varying temperatures. If a problem does occur, the frame builders at Mercian believe that there are fairly wide tolerances with Reynolds 531DB. There are specific tolerances for either hot setting or cold setting. "Setting" the frame requires a wealth of experience because the margin for error increases as the weight of the tubing decreases. For instance, Reynolds 531SL tubing has less margin for error than regular Reynolds 531DB. With Reynolds 753, a builder does not have any margin for error. Once it is brazed, the frame cannot be bent or twisted to correct for brazing errors. It's got to be built properly from the start.
All Mercian frames are built with Si/bronze, the most common braze used in England. The majority of the builders at Mercian prefer the Sifbronze to silver solder since they find that the bronze flows nicely and works particularly well in the open hearth. They find that silver solder is better suited to the welding torch. Most of the builders don't like silver solder because they feel it is softer than the bronze and more prone to cracking when heated. Derek Land has worked with both silver and Sifbronze, and prefers the bronze--"I don't think that there's anything better." The Mercian top-line frames are built with either regular Reynolds 531DB or with Reynolds 531SL. Although they have discussed offering frames built with Reynolds 753, they have no firm plans. The builders at Mercian see more disadvantages with 753 than advantages. First of all, the tubing is far more expensive and it requires the use of silver solder. This means that they would have to vary their building techniques for Reynolds 753. Although they see it as fantastic tubing, they are presently not willing to risk their good reputation on a tube that obviously is so thin that it can be weakened by very small construction errors. Besides, Mercian has more frame orders than they can handle. The philosophy at Mercian is to only build quality merchandise with tested materials and designs. Mercian is sometimes more cautious than other frame builders, but they believe that they owe their customers reliable products backed by their many years of experience.
Production at this small Derby frame shop is 25 to 30 frames per week. Each frame is built from start to finish by the same builder with help from an apprentice. After the frame and fork have been completely brazed, they are allowed to cool. Next, the small holes that have been drilled to release the heat are filled with small pieces of steel. Mercian believes this step is important because it keeps the water out when riding and if the frame and fork go to be chrome plated it will keep acid out of these parts also.
The painting is done at the rear of the frame shop where spray booths and baking ovens are set up. They would not reveal their secret methods of stove enameling since they believe they have developed an unmatched combination of beauty and resistance to chipping. At Mercian, they pride themselves on their paint job.
They are very accommodating in requests for custom colors, and they will try to match any color a customer provides. If you have a specific color in mind for your frame, send them a sample of the color. They will try to match it. One word of advice from Mercian Cycles on paint: If you want a really smooth and even finish, order an enamel paint. Be cautious when ordering silver or flamboyant finishes, since they tend to accentuate any imperfections in the finish of the lug or tubing in spite of extensive preparation of the frame before application of the finish color.
After brazing, each frame is sandblasted. All the frames then receive a base undercoat that is air-dried. If a frame is going to be painted white, it is given a quick white undercoat before giving it the white topcoat. The frame is then stove-enameled and inspected. If it passes their inspection, it is given a coat of special clear varnish. If not, the paint is rubbed out and the frame is repainted.
Putting on the coat of clear varnish is the last, and probably the most difficult, step in the entire process. The clear varnish is very difficult to handle because the painter cannot see it as it is applied. Consequently, the painters spraying the varnish are the most experienced in the shop.
Frame Selection At Mercian they will build custom frames to your specifications on request. They will design the frame using your vital statistics such as height and leg length, but, like most builders, they would prefer that you send them the specific measurements and use of the frame that you want built.
If you would like them to fi t you on a frame, their basic points of measurement are the inside length of your leg and your "reach" (the length of your arms and trunk). The purpose of the bicycle (touring or track racing) will determine the angles of the frame. If you specify frame measurements that are unsafe or unsound, they will advise against them and will provide their recommendations.
Unless otherwise specified, all the frames at Mercian are built with a top tube length that has been based on a mean average resulting from years of experience. Although it is not a foolproof method, they feel that it will suit most individuals with minimal adjustments in the height of the saddle and the length of the stem.
The lugs used at Mercian are stamped steel. They have eight different styles in stock and the top three types are handcut and drilled. They believe that there is a trend toward the fancy lug which was popular with touring cyclists prior to World War II.
Although the smooth-lined lug is still enormously popular, they have been receiving more requests for the ornate lugs. All lugs are purchased for a standard 73/73-degree design and then are adjusted if required. Like the vast majority of the famous frame builders, they do not believe that the lugs should be filed too thinly. Although this style has recently gained popularity in the United States, most builders agree with Derek Land when he says:
"It seems pointless to put a lug on, which is the thing that holds it all together, and then file it away!"
Figure 6-1: Handcut Mercian lugs.
They have tried using cast lugs, but they feel that the cast lug is too heavy. They use cast fork crowns but they are not totally pleased with them because of the added time needed to properly finish a cast product which is usually very rough and pitted. They prefer to use a flat top (pressed) crown which comes from the manufacturer "in really good condition." Three types of seatstay clusters are used on Mercian frames: full wrap, semi-wrap, and fastback. Mercian uses a fastback stay that butts into the seat tube. Although this fastback cluster is not believed to be as strong as the full or semi-wrap, it is sometimes preferred because of its reduced weight. If a fastback cluster is built correctly, there should be little chance of failure. A builder, however, has to be very careful when brazing a fastback stay because the stays are butted onto the seat tube which is the thinnest of the frame tubes and the seat tube is not butted at the top making it very susceptible to overheating.
At Mercian they only use 9/16-inch and 5/8-inch diameter seatstays. The 9/16-inch stays have been dropped because the demand is presently for the chunkier look of the 5/8-inch stay. The 1/2-inch stay is standard on 19.5 to 20.5-inch frame sizes. Consequently, if you need a small frame and want the 5/8-inch stay, you must specifically request it. The 1/2-inch stay is used on the smaller frames because it gives a more balanced appearance.
Regardless of the quality of the frame, the people at Mercian caution that it will be inefficient if it does not properly fit the rider. Derek Land believes that "You could possibly have Eddy Merckx and if he had the wrong angles and the wrong top tube and possibly the wrong size within a quarter of an inch, it wouldn't be quite as good as another frame that was the right size." They believe that the rider must experiment to find the right frame, but once he has found the frame that's really right for him, he should stick with it. In other words, once you have found your ideal, there's no point in changing the design unless you want to change the use of the bike (i.e., you have a touring bicycle but you would like a track bike).
To summarize, Mercian offers custom frames that are truly one of a kind. They will build to individual specifications, paint any color requested, and provide fancy cut lugs. It is rare to find a builder with such a strong reputation that will spend the time necessary to build a frame that is truly unique.