Gwyn's daily commuter. Note the custom aluminum rack mount. He is tall!
Prototype Merlin full-suspenion bike. They used a Girvin/Pro-Flex (gasp!) swingarm to try it out quickly. Note the rising-rate linkage at a time when such thoughts were black art for some bicycle manufacturers.
Rows and rows of Ti sitting and gathering dust!
British Pace mountain bike. A bit rare in the States, they were supplying Merlin with forks for a while, one of the first with a reverse crown. They used square aluminum tubing because it was much easier to do the stress calculations with their computer at the time. Note the external butting!
Despite being without saddle and behind some drying corn stalks, this is Gwyn's most used Merlin. I chuckled at the arc bar (he swears by it) and the thought of those Japanese craftsmen hand-hammering the fenders. Hopefully we can all be so cool when we are cyclists of advanced years.
Funky brakes on an old Merlin road bike, the exact bike which apparently won a Tour de Trump stage!
Ah, Sweet Wings. Sweet welded cro-mo steel! The idea of two-piece cranks with a hollow tubular splined spindle doesn't seem so radical anymore, does it?
Wow, this mountain bike is a great rolling heyday of MTB innovation museum. Not only the Sweet Wings, but also some of the first long-arm brakes with these Pauls.
Another prototype Merlin that didn't make it to production. Note the softtail suspension combined with Estays... interesting! But not quite as interesting as the Magura hydraulic rim brakes mounted inside some aluminum bolted inside the rear of the frame...wacky!
Here is THE BIKE. The Interbike show bike. The Mountain Bike Action cover bike. The one and only Merlin fullsuspenion linkage softtail mountain bike! It was buried in his attic! The long thin front-to-rear tubes are welded to the seat tube and flex for suspension at both ends!
Whoa! Look at those elastomers! Gwyn admitted that it had been sitting a while! This bike was not only very light, even by modern standards, but Gwyn says the steering feel was divine...he doubts that there will ever be a dual telescopic that will approach this bike for steering feedback and feel
One-piece bar/stem. Also note how heavily ovalized those flexing tubes are.
Rear end minus the rotted-away elastomer.
A jumble of roadbike parts, one-piece rigid MTB bar/stem/fork, and Ti racing wheelchair wheels.
I bet this is really lightweight if it fits your headtube and stack height! Kinda bike specific, though.
What's this cast-off? A Fuji Ti road bike with hydraulic brakes? Yup.
A study in contrasts. This tractor was really cute, 8hp and given to Gwyn's parents by his grandparents when new! Gwyn uses it for plowing the driveway. Note the snowshoes on the seat!
Gwyn's snow commuter. Despite the rod-actuated rim brakes, he swears that there is something about the geometry, tires, and oversized 700B (28x1-1/2 or ISO 635mm) wheels which makes this bike invincible on ice and crusty snow.