I know they’ve been around a long time, make a lot of frames for other brands, and own half of Specialized etc., but I’m wondering what their own bikes are like, specifically the One-Twenty and One-Forty? I can get a good price on them which makes them worth a look from that point of view.

Lifetime warranties.
Regular sized bearings in the link so no need for £££ proprietary rebuild kits.
Internal cable routing works well and isn’t a massive faff.

Pretty light for aluminium frames.

Everyone I know who rides one likes it!

The one downside is they take 55mm bottom headset cups not 56, reducing your range of replacements, but that’s about it.

Thanks Adam, that’s encouraging!

They have different suspension systems too – One Twenty’s are 4 bars, One Forty’s are VPP.

I’ve got a Merida One Twenty 500 (the base model), but with better wheels (Hope Hoops running tubeless) and brakes (SLX). It’s my first full suspension bike, but it seems great to me. The only comparison I’ve done was to a older Specialized Pitch and an Orange Five. Seems a bit less wallowy than the Five, which is what I wanted.

I like it.

I can’t comment on the current generation meridas but the few times I needed the customer support they have been brilliant.

Old, old chainstay set had a fault which took 1 phonecall and I got a new one and mech hanger sent to me FOC.

Separate merida I have is still on the original bearings, thought I should get some spares as it’s the previous generation – 2 mails (they needed a photo of the back end to check which frame version I had) and a complete new set of bearing were sent to me FOC.

I like Merida.

I’ve had a carbon ninety six for quite a few years and never had any problems. A bit dated now but still a good ride. Had a bit of play in rear bushes when I built it up but Merida sent 2 sets of replacements within a few days.

That was my next question, what’s the customer service like? Adam I assume you’re a shop, are they decent to deal with?

Yeah, they’ve always been great with us.

Cheers

I’ve e-mailed Merida UK directly a couple of times, and they’ve responded promptly