I like my bike.
No, I love my bike.
Many people have bikes and I am sure that they are very fond of them. But they are just bikes. The same bike as the one next door or the the same as the one in the next village, town or city.
The popularity of cycling and the power of marketing is ensuring the world is becoming populated by identi-kit bikes.
For my dream bike I wanted craftsmanship. I wanted my bike to be man-made Something which demonstrated engineering excellence and was ageless. I was not interested in the latest mass produced carbon sensation, it would be wasted on me anyway.
I wanted something unique. A perfect fit just for me.
But I am not alone in this desire to pay homage to tradition and homage to a legend..
And to record this fact I take the opportunity to photograph other Mercians that I encounter whilst out cycling, the only restriction being that I do not allow myself to stand outside the Mercian showroom in Derby, capturing images of these wonderful machines as they begin their lives on the road.
A gallery of the bikes I have seen can be seen here on my Flickr site The Mercian Set
This gallery is regularly updated ( or at least as and when I spot a new machine ), so drop back and keep in touch
and as a taster this is an image of my vintage Mercian Audax taken in the heart of the Kingdom of Mercia.
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