They used to come out fo the merrida factory, I’ve got a 2003 Fury that even has merrida forged into the disk mount reinforcement chainstay-seatstay strut bit and the double barrle downtube which was their trademark for a while.

I don’t think they do anymore though, the welds look different*? But then again the welds on my Pitch look nothing like the ones on older specializeds? They used to be perfect fish scales now they look a bit cheeper**. They even used to make the merrida/carrera LRS which was a rip off of the original epic.

All the Carrera’s I’ve ridden have been pretty good bikes, handling was spot on, not too steep and not too slack. I know quite a few people who bought £300-£500 models as winter bikes or first bikes for mates as they were cheeper than just buying an SLX groupset!

*just rememberd, it was the “horst link”/FSR issue, they can use it as a UK only brand as it’s not patented here, but merrida own (or at least partialy own) Spesh, so refused to build it.

**how a weld looks a has nothing to do with how good it is mechanicaly.

Merida, Giant and Kinesis must make 90% of the alloy mountain bike frames in the world.

Spesh, Trek and Kona frames are made in Taiwanese factories as are more upmarket brands such as Santa Cruz.

Nothing wrong with any of them. The Taiwanese have been building bikes for years and they are the best in the world at it. Made in Taiwan is generally a sign of quality on a frame.

It’s badge engineering to the nth degree. A bit like people who’ll pay a premium for an Audi A3, but who’ll scoff at the thought of owning a Seat Leon.

I’ve heard nothing but good things about Carrera frames.

Looking at the Ribble frame and Carrera frame pictures posted on page 1 they are similar but not the same. The top tube on the Carrera is much skinnier where it joins to the seat tube.

If you want completely unique frames then you are going to have to be prepared to put your hand in your pocket for a lot more cash. Using some commonality helps keep costs down and also helps keep reliability up as proven joints and sections mean less risk.

eg a rear triangle might be off the shelf but the top and down tubes may be custom specced or pinched from another design.

My Carrera Kraken has got a great frame, it’s quite slack and lots of fun with 120mm forks. The welding is good and it seems to have gussets in all the right places (oo-er), and it’s been going strong for nearly 3 years.

Hell, the bike cost me just over £300 quid new when I bought it, used it every day for 18 months commuting to work I use it most weekends off road and it’s never missed a beat. I taped the decals up as it was to be locked up around town and have left them on – I’ve had people think it’s some kind of niche machine and had a lot of positive comments from strangers who think it’s some kind of prototype, haha!

It cost £300 quid!

mmmmmm merida

Why do people put so much emphasis on what factory the frame was made in? It’s as if a factory can only make to one standard.

And actually does it really matter where it was made, rather than more importantly the geometry, material and the tolerances/quality control of the finished product?

I have 3 Carrera Hellcats, all made by Merida…it is stamped in the rear-left dropout.
These are very under-rated single-pivot frames; 20″ weighing 2850g + shock.
I switched to an air shock on 2 of them, and they have all been trouble-free.
Still on the original (grease-filled) main pivot bearings.

Come try one in Swinley with me…

PaulD

Christ there are some snobs on here! I’ve had a number of Merida frames and they’re great. Amazing value for money. But the people who are turning their noses up probably wouldn’t ride a Specialized either.

They used to make Carrera’s (in fact the Carrera’s were just re-badged Meridas), but no more

If I remember rightly, Merida now own over 50% of Specialized and make all their frames. As well as frames for a lot of other people too.

But they’re not made of titanium. In someones shed. I don’t know if they do 29ers and I’m not sure if they have sliding dropouts so you can singlespeed them. So of absolutely no interest at all then……. 🙄

The niche bikes thing makes me piss myself….i’ve never seen these bikes out and about.

When i’m riding i come across the usual array of 27/30 speed mass produced bikes from all the main brands….when i went to a round of the Gravity Enduro this year it was more of the same….Specialised, Yeti, Trek, Orange, Giant etc as far as the eye could see….there was a smattering of steel hardtails which was nice to see but even these were equipped with conventional 20-30 speed drvetrains….

….where do all the niche bikes get ridden?….or are they just built up, photographed to post on the forum and then stood up in somebody’s front room?….the latter i suspect!

The Carrera/Merida thing stopped when Merida got a UK importer a few years ago now, and Halfords fell out with them because they wanted exclusivity. Some of the buyers from the Halfords premium bike office ended up working for the Merida importer instead. (I was still working as a manager for Halfords at the time so it must have been at least 5/6 years ago).

Wife has a Carrera/merida LRS, it is a fantastic bike and at 8 years old still going strong on origional bearings,shock etc…

Merida still make Carrera though, no?

If it’s not Merida, it’s another huuuuge Taiwanese company what probbly makes ‘niche’ braynd stuff as well.

Can’t find anything online to suggest Carerra are made by anyone else though.

The Carrera bikes are fine, as good as owt else at the price point really. The big problem is that Halfords are generally quite useless in terms of providing a decent quality bike shop service. Quite a high churn rate of shop staff (imo it’s a crap company to work for, although surprisingly probbly pay more than indy LBS’ or Evans etc), and they just can’t seem to employ people who actually know sufficient about bikes to be able to offer a proper bike shop style service. IME, and I suspect most others, Halfords are piss-poor when it comes to selling bikes, but then, they are an automotive products retailer first and foremost, and bikes are just a relatively smallish part of their operation And IME and O, they don’t have enough people at the top who are sufficiently passionate about bikes to perform better as a bike retailer. I spose their business model works well enough for them not to have to worry about that though really. And they aim at the bottom end of the market mainly; the nice stuff like Voodoo etc will never make up any really significant part of their business.

Shame, cos they started out as a bike shop. Well, not quite, but near enough.

my wife has just got a Boardman team mtb which looks fantastic and i doubt anything can match it for the price. I commute on a carrera subway i got in the sale and i doubt you’d get anything close for what i paid. I got back into biking about 10 years ago with the original carrera gryphon which was an awesome bike it weighed nothing as was really fast did me across the alps and kept up with club riders on carbon fibre boutique bikes

Bikes are actually a massive part of Halfords’ revenue. Certainly the turnover on bikes in my store/s was far higher than the other departments, even if the margins weren’t quite so good. Many of the buying team are keen cyclists too. There always seemed to be a passion for it whenever I had dealings with them. I remember when I went to the Airbourne ‘launch’ event in the Forest of Dean, 2 days in a hotel with the guys from Airbourne, Halfords head office and approx 20 staff from the top turnover stores, riding Airbourne bikes and learning the brand strategy etc. There was far more passion from the guys at the top than from the store based ones. Many (but certainly not all) Halfords staff are working for Halfords, not ‘in a bike shop’. It’s just a job to them, not something they love. It’s a shame as there are some great, passionate guys out there. Just pot luck as to which store is your local….

I’m sure that the (amusingly named) Kind Bicycle co are/were involved with Carrera, I remember getting warranty replacement frame parts in boxes with that name on it….

Kind Bicycle co

That’s them, I couldn’t remember as it was ages ago.

wow – didn’t I start something? As previously posted I run 2 Carrera frames that I have built up myself – I think the frames are great but the components on the original bikes sold buy halfords are not brill just ok, but what do you expect for that price!!

Have had no real experience with the staff in Halfords as I would rather go to my LBS!

So to recap from the whole thread, the frames made in Taiwan by a huge company who make other frames for other companies (not a bad thing) and are generally viewed as great value for money apart! The only negative comments come from the people who like products with a nice shiny branded name on it!! 🙂 Can anyonbe substantiate the claims that they “are rubbish” or is it just an unfounded opinion??

🙂

There are plenty of people at Halfords HQ passionate about biking

Many of the buying team are keen cyclists too. There always seemed to be a passion for it whenever I had dealings with them.

Pity that ‘passion’ doesn’t filter down to most of the shops then.

There are plenty of people at Halfords HQ passionate about biking

Yet hardly any on the actual shop floor, where they’re needed…. 🙄

The separate Bike Hut thing was a good idea; there was one by St Paul’s, but I think it closed down. Shame, cos it really looked like Halfords were finally doing things right, re selling bikes.

Mind you, the uselessness of Halfords to sell properly set up bikes means extra business for ‘proper’ bike shops when the pissed off owners come in to get their bikes sorted properly by someone who actually knows what they’re doing. 😀

My local Halfords is better than my nearest LBS… They’ve shown occasional incompetence but they’ve never actually tried to steal from me, so all in all that’s a positive.

To be fair, I’ve had some very good service from Halfords in the past – like others have said, it depends which store you go to.

I went to one in Macclesfield recently and the lad knew what he was talking about and was really keen about bikes.

A lot of proper bike shops, from big chains to local ones have been a lot worse.

deviant – Member
….where do all the niche bikes get ridden?….

In niches?

Umm this is a Merida – and its very good considering how cheap it was! 2009 model tfs900 xt/deore spec (originally!) alloy frame reba sl’s and merida’s own finishing kit… got it in a clearence sale for £650.. reduced from the rrp of £999!

Just refuses to break!

2011-04-21_15-39-45_984 by ciderinsport, on Flickr

They even used to make the merrida/carrera LRS which was a rip off of the original epic.

This bit always annoys me – it was Bergwerk that first stuck the suspension down the seat stay in a project with merida. Centurion and Spec licensed the position from merida/bergwerk, with spec adding the Fox perpendicular thingy to make the brain. Merida later bought 49% of spec (as reported in the taiwan business news).

In no way did merida rip of spec.