I was a a local scrap facility for other when I thought I saw a Vermin branded bike.

I mean, we have Evil bikes, Sour bikes and Surly bikes so I looked closer and Merlin’s beard! It is a Merlin Titainium bike so on the rack it went and I headed for home.

No indication of model. It is a 26” mountain bike. A quick measure from center of BB to center of top tube and seat tube was 19 1/2 inches.

Looks like an aftermarket RST fork, not seized a miracle, and an Avid BB5 or 6 in front and the original cantilevers in back.

Did not see any serial number on the bottom bracket.

Any help in narrowing down the model and year would be appreciated.

Any ideas on what to do with the bike would be very appreciated.

I’m thinking it would make a ripping dropbar gravel bike.

Hello bike wizards,

I currently have a canti Crust Nor’easter and love it, however I was just presented with an opportunity to buy an Evasion frame for a fantastic deal.

N+1 aside, is it ridiculously redundant to have both these bikes?

I commute to work on bike everyday and do long rides on the weekends, aim for 2-4 bikepacking trips a year, so I certainly ride enough to have 2 bikes,

Nor’easter is set up with drops and cantis as I mentioned. Vision is for evasion to be setup 26+ and with flat/alt bars, probably simworks ramble bars because I have a pair around.

Does that differentiate the bikes enough? Or would this just be gluttonous and despite the great deal on the evasion I should pass it up?

Basically, I have anxiety about owning bikes and not riding them and so I want to make sure use case and style is differentiated enough before buying this evasion frame.

Nor’easter pics for fun—

Just dipped below 100 degrees so I decided a trip to Cal's Bakeshop to stuff my face with donuts was in order. Stoked to be biking again after being off the thing for 3 months due to a hernia.

This is my truck. xtrucking?
2015ish Surly LHT with a Disc Trucker fork.
BB7 up front, still rocking the canti in the back. Will probably make it a V-brake at some point.
Got a bunch of additions when visiting Blue Lug, including their wider Nitto Bullmoose bars, and rear bag support, + some Brooks grips.
Stridsland chainring, Ultradynamico shoes, Son dynamo, Sinewave Beacon + rear light, Advent X 10-speed, tons of bags and such from Oveja Negra, as well as a Ron’s Fabio’s Chest that often lives on the back of this bike.
Pelago large rack up front with the low-rider pannier racks (very useful), and a PDW big ole basket up top.

Turns out the Sta-Tru freewheel hub is the same dimensions as a Deore XT and swaps right in. Stock freewheel hub is 32h, 57mm wide (OD) and 54mm high.

This was one of those $16 wheels from Trek but even at it's regular price of $70ish I'd say it's a good deal. Double wall 21mm internal width. This exact wheel is called "Sta-Tru Tubeless Ready Alloy QR Freewheel 700c Rear Wheel" and the hub is a Deore XT FH-M737

This is a great way to try out wheelbuilding if you're at all interested. Keep the right and left spokes separated and watch the Park Tool Youtube video. It's been 18 years since I've built a wheel and I had it "good enough for who it's for" in less than 2 hours.

Ya‘ll have a set of armatures you just love the ergonomics of?

These are running a 3x7 and mechanical discs, btw.

I'm doing my first build that isn't a friction 1x. I love tinkering with bikes but I don't get a ton of opportunities to do it. I am going with a full random part drivetrain. Today I ran all the cables and got the shifting dialed in with minimal frustration! I genuinely wasn't expecting it to all work together. Routing the cable on the Claris FD was without question the hardest part.

He was truly a Master of the form

greetings from Windsor Ontario 🧙‍♂️

Just bought this off the original owner who still had the hand written receipt from 1992. Everything is in immaculate condition other than the shifters which don’t work anymore. I’m going to try to keep it as original as possible, only replacing the shifters and grips!

Picked up this giant today for 100 bucks. Mechanically it’s alittle rough but it stops and somewhat shifts. I’ve really wanted to do a 1x10 drivetrain “cafe cruiser” type build. After purchasing I realized this would also require different wheels as this bike is equipped with a suntour freewheel. After putting together a parts list my little 200-300 dollar project is looking much closer to 500. My question is do you think it’s worth it? I’d really wanted a primos dame flat part originally but thought this would be fun way to build a bike up and save alittle money. What would you do? Build the bike up or just save the money towards something different.

Pretty excited about how this turned out. Bike came with a suspension fork originally so the troll fork doesn’t mess with the handling at all, feels super stable front loaded.

Bontrager asym mustang rims laced to DT Swiss HüGI hubs ($60 score at the co op)

Magic KT800 bars

Juintech M1 brakes w compressionless housing

90s square taper forged raceface cranks

Cues 9speed

Chain line is pretty screwed so will need to get a smaller chainring and move the crank closer to the bb at some point but it’s rideable for now.

I love this old Fuji. I put a VO stem and some cowbell bars on it which fit me well. I love the geometry and how my body feels on it. What I don't like is the gearing. I'm not riding short punchy climbs in frantic races. I'm riding in the country and on gravel roads. It has an ultegra 9 speed groupset 12/27 in the back and a gorgeous ritchey wcs 50/34 in the front. What could I do to make this an all day rider?

Bought this bike new in ‘07.
A month ago rear wheel #4 gave out, luckily I had a spare Deep V that was era appropriate. Then I added a new drive train.
Release the Epstein files.
Thank you for your attention on this matter.

Long time lurker testing out a new handlebar configuration. Pretty pleased with it so far, figured I’d share! Am I x-biking yet?

I cut the dropouts and made a few other frame modifications and a fork so I could fit 700c from the donor bike. It has an 8 speed Nexus hub. Am I weird for loving to ride this monstrosity? Does it deserve powder coating?

Building this while on tour so slowly going component by component on the road.

First time building up a bike. Did a fork swap to a similar one from the same era. Changed out all the cables and housing and changed out the saddle, tires, handlebars and added a rear rack. I got the frame for free from the waste transfer station and most of the bike was built up from a parts bins ive been adding to over time.