1987 Merlin Titanium Mountain Bike Frame: Welded By Gary Helfrich! Grease Guard BB - U Brake - Small/Medium

This is a very early Merlin Mountain frame!  The frame number is 342, which Tom Kellogg verified as a Gary Helfrich welded frame from late 1987 or very early 1988 build.  Merlin was founded in 1986, making this a 2nd year bike!  It includes the original press fit WTB Grease Guard bottom bracket, and has braze on's for a rear U-brake.  This came to me with a non-original suspension fork, so I swapped in a period correct Tange cantilever fork.  

Condition

Excellent lightly used condition! Frame is straight, with NO damage.  Decals are reproductions, and just installed (I'll include the "titanium" decals that go on either side of the top tube if you wish to place them, though a lot of the early frames didn't have these).  It has the usual irregularities in the titanium finish (you can really clean this up and make the finish even using brillo pads.  I did not use brillo on this, I'll leave it up to the new owner to decide).  The only actual wear is chain wear on the drive side chainstay.  

The bottom bracket sounds a bit dry and just slightly rough, though plenty good for use.  The fork looks great, though has some chrome wear on the non-drive side near the brake boss.

Details

• Top tube: 20.75"
• Seat tube: 16.8" (c to top of seattube), 15" (c-c)
• Head tube: 94mm
• Rear spacing: 135mm
• Frame number: 342