Josh bought his1989 Merlin Mountain bike back in 2000. He recently asked Nomad to convert it into a gravel bike.
Merlin Bicycle company started in 1986 and was the first to offer frames constructed from titanium. This 1989 Merlin is a very early mountain bike, it still has U brakes and a press fit cartridge bearing bottom bracket, features that limited how much modernization could be done.
We installed a Sram Apex 1×12 drivetrain, Older Shimano XT crankset, WTB drop bars, Nice Panaracer gravel king tires and a custom fork fabricated by Belinki Cycle Works.