They are one of the hallmark old skool English framebuilders along with Jack Taylor,Bob Jackson, MKM, Hetchings,Holdsworth. All nice frames, but not much head turning ability anymore.
I think the high zoot American steel frames are just as good or better. They used to have a pretty good custom program. Hope that helps. G

Actualy, these are not the REAL cycles Mercier. Mercier was a very famous brand in France in the early to mid 20th century and was sponsoring one of the TdF team.
Here is a link to a poster of around 1920

http://www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?aid=177783&item=395076

they were still making bikes up until 1980 or thereabout.

My bad, I was thinking of the UK bike by a similar name Mercian. Actually Mercier wern't as nice of French bike as say Rene Herse,Alex Singer, or even Lejuene. They were considered pretty good , and more respected than say Cycles Gitane or Peugeot who made top pro bikes but also made really bad low end bikes as well. Once again my apologies for bad info.
I think the website you posted is indeed a reorganized company as the old Mercier group did go out of business in the early mid 80's G

Lejeune were great bikes. my dad gave me one when I was 13. first road bike. a Lejeune with 12 speeds. my first experience with road bikes and crashes ;-)

"these are not the REAL cycles Mercier"

These bikes are a Mercier in name only. This famous French bicycle company no longer exists. The name is owned by someone else and the frames are now made in Taiwan.

That doesn't mean they're bad bikes though.

My best friend has a 60cm red one in 1972 cherry condition parked next to his Jack Taylor. It just kills me to see those two beauties sitting there in the garage. If I kept all my old bikes like he did it would be in the 30-40 ish range. I still have a spot for the oldskool steel rides. G

My first "racing" bike was a Mercier, 1972 vintage. If I remember correctly, I paid a whopping $130 (slightly discounted) for it. It was the most expensive bike in my friend's shop at that time. I put a lot of miles on it and sold it to a friend 12 years later, still in excellent condition.

Thanks for the memories....

"It is never too late to fix your childhood!" Tom Robbins

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Dean Wilson
http://www.anaerobiczone.com
Bicycle Protection Indoors & Out