Merida One-Twenty 700 review

Impressive birds’ nest of cables AND thru-headset routing.

Bike reviewers often tell us that bikes are really good despite the through-headset cable routing, but I doubt any would buy one with their own money.

Also, bikes feel taut, not taught.

I know Merida manufacture frames for other brands but this does look very similar to at Nukeproof Reactor..?

So moved the cable entry point about 3 inches from the downtube to the headset. Gained nothing in terms of aesthetics because the hoses and cables not routed through the handlebars, but made maintenance more difficult and reduced headset reliability. Well done Merida, absolutely solid engineering decision there.

Hopefully that’s an IS based headset rather than the caged ball ZS55 piece of plastic rubbish that came on my Big.Trail. Thankfully the CRC sale delivered a Hope bottom cup and bearing for a tenner due to the less common sizing. The internal routing would put me off this bike for sure.

Any heel rub on the chainstays? I had to helitape my Big.Trail after a couple of rides to help minimise paint wear, but these look less flared.

It will be interesting to see if the aluminium flex stays last as well as their testing suggests. As a taller rider I’d still prefer a steeper actual seat tube angle as the aesthetics of keeping the seat and head tubes aligned doesn’t help when you need to jack the saddle up.