£3,500 Burly mullet bike built for the big hits
STRAIGHT OUT OF THE BOX & ONTO THE TRAILS FIRST RIDES
Merida have taken their One-Sixty enduro bike, increased its fork travel and given it a burlier spec to create a bike-park specialist. This aluminium-framed ripper rolls on mixed wheel sizes and dishes out 180mm of front and 171mm of rear-wheel travel to tame the trails.
THE FRAME
The FR uses the standard aluminium One-Sixty frame, made from Merida’s ‘PROLITE 66’ tubing, aka triple-butted and hydroformed 6066 alloy. Dualpass welds smooth the lines, making it look closer to a carbon fibre chassis.
One of the most interesting features is the frame’s ‘P-Flex’ design, which uses specific tube profiles to turn the seatstays into ‘flexstays’, which can bend during suspension compression, replacing the usual pivot at the seat/chainstay junction. Normally only found on carbon fibre bikes, Merida claim this design saves weight, reduces maintenance and improves rear-triangle stiffness. The single-pivot swingarm is combined with a shock-driving rocker link to give control over the leverage curve.
While the FR 600 has a 29in front wheel and 650b rear as standard, a flip-chip lets you keep the geometry the same should you prefer to turn it into a full 29er. This does reduce frame travel to 162mm, though. Merida’s headset cable routing delivers a cleaner-looking cockpit. There’s space for a water bottle and additional mounts for tool storage on the down tube.
Geometry is in line with what you’d expect on such a burly rig. Merida size their bikes by length rather than frame height (with five options, from XShort to XLong), so riders can choose based on the level of high-speed stability they want. Our ‘mid’-length frame had a decent 464mm reach and short 434mm chainstays, combined with a slack 63.5-degree head angle and steep 78-degree effective seat tube angle. A couple of figures stand out as unusual – the low 620mm stack height and minimal 2mm bottom bracket drop (we measured the BB height at a tall 355mm). The straight design of the One-Sixty’s short (425mm) seat tube allows for insertion of long-travel dropper posts.
THE KIT
You get a decent component spec for your cash on this pricier of the two One-Sixty FR builds, with some less-common but well thought-out parts choices. DVO handle the suspension, with their stocky Onyx 38 D2 fork and Jade X D2 coil shock. Brakes come from TRP – their Trail Evo HDs with big 220/203mm rotors. Shimano’s 1x12 Deore drivetrain
