Merida One Twenty 1500D

[JamesA]

I'm being offered a decent price on 2011 stock on one of these by my LBS, but I can't seem to find any reviews or forum commentary on this bike. It's all XT running gear, and Fox forks and RP2 shock, so that should be all good, but interested to know does anyone here own one? How do you find it, how does it feel?

[JamesA]

Oh, and btw here is the spec sheet: http://www.merida.com.au/2011-bikes/mtb ... 1500-d.htm

For reference, until I spoke to my LBS, I had been seriously considering the Giant Trance X1 fwiw.

[trailgumby]

Looks good to me. 120 - 130mm travel is a nice sweetspot for general recreational trail riding around my location (Sydney), and they make a really comfortable general purpose enduro race bike as well.

I'd just confirm whether the fork comes with the old standard 9mm QR or the new standard 15mm QR system. Photo seems to show the former.

The new 15mm Fox/Shimano standard takes more flex out of the fork, making steering more accurate/less wandery. I understand the Giant comes with the latter.

You don't really appreciate how much difference that makes to a bike until you swap between them. I normally ride a bike with a Lefty fork, which is the gold standard for steering accuracy. But when I did a review awhile back of a 29er SS for this site with an old standard 9mm QR fork, I stacked it at the first tricky rock descent because it didn't quite go where I pointed it!

I was ready for it next time, but it gave me a new appreciation for how good Leftys are when I eventually got back to riding my own bike.

Just something to bear in mind when balancing up your buying decision.

[JamesA]

trailgumby, thanks for your thoughts, I'll bear the QR issue in mind! Googling hasn't turned up any info, but the LBS may know.

[Mugglechops]

I think you are stuck with 9mm on the Merida. Giant seems the only OEM that fits 15mm.