I recently saw these in a local shop (actually one of a chain of shops - Cycle Spectrum or something like that) here in Houston. The shop also sells the current Taiwan-made "Motobecanes". The quality of the "Merciers" was about the same as the "Motobecanes". The shop guy indicated that the Mercier name is now owned by the owner of the chain of shops, who I think was associated with the former infamous World Cycles. I think the Motobecane name is also owned by a former principal of World Cycles, but I don't know if it is the same individual. Of course, I don't consider the stuff being turned out by the "true" Motobecane - MBK in Europe, to be a whole lot better than the Taiwan stuff. You can TIG weld aluminum at a low cost anywhere in the world, but the result lacks the charm of the old Motobecane or Mercier.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Houston, TX
> I just became depressed upon seeing http://www.cyclesmercier.com. This
looks
> to me that it might be the same, shall I say, "fellow" who is "making" the
> USA distributed high quality "Motobecane". Then I thought about how now I
> see the name "Weyless" in a certain classy mail order company's catalog.
> What next?
>
> Dale Brown
> cycles de ORO, Inc.
> 1410 Mill Street
> Greensboro, North Carolina
> USA 27408
> 336-274-5959
> Fax 336-274-6360
> <A HREF="http://www.cyclesdeoro.com">cyclesdeORO.com</A>
> <A HREF="http://www.classicrendezvous.com/main.htm">Classic Rendezvous</A>