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Taipei Bike Show: Merida’s 2013 Ride Carbon 95 sportive bike Taipei Bike Show: Merida’s 2013 Ride Carbon 95 sportive bike Taipei Bike Show: Merida’s 2013 Ride Carbon 95 sportive bike Taipei Bike Show: Merida’s 2013 Ride Carbon 95 sportive bike Taipei Bike Show: Merida’s 2013 Ride Carbon 95 sportive bike Taipei Bike Show: Merida’s 2013 Ride Carbon 95 sportive bike Taipei Bike Show: Merida’s 2013 Ride Carbon 95 sportive bike Taipei Bike Show: Merida’s 2013 Ride Carbon 95 sportive bike Taipei Bike Show: Merida’s 2013 Ride Carbon 95 sportive bike Taipei Bike Show: Merida’s 2013 Ride Carbon 95 sportive bike Taipei Bike Show: Merida’s 2013 Ride Carbon 95 sportive bike Taipei Bike Show: Merida’s 2013 Ride Carbon 95 sportive bike Taipei Bike Show: Merida’s 2013 Ride Carbon 95 sportive bike Taipei Bike Show: Merida’s 2013 Ride Carbon 95 sportive bike Taipei Bike Show: Merida’s 2013 Ride Carbon 95 sportive bike Taipei Bike Show: Merida’s 2013 Ride Carbon 95 sportive bike Taipei Bike Show: Merida’s 2013 Ride Carbon 95 sportive bike Taipei Bike Show: Merida’s 2013 Ride Carbon 95 sportive bike
Merida Ride 95 2013 from Taipei

Taipei Bike Show: Merida’s 2013 Ride Carbon 95 sportive bike

Have a sneak peek at next year's new road bike
by Mat Brett
Fri, Mar 09, 2012 06:06
8

2012 has barely got started (what do you mean, “It’s March already”?) but here’s a sneak peek of the new sportive bike from Merida’s 2013 range, the Ride Carbon 95, which we spotted at the Taipei Bike Show.

Previously, Merida used a less aggressive, sportive-friendly geometry on sub £1,000 bikes, then switched to a more race-centric setup beyond that point. In 2013, you’ll have a choice between a race geometry and a sportive geometry at £1,350, £1,500 and £2,000.

The Ride Carbon 95 is made from Merida’s Nano Matrix Carbon with their Bio Fiber Damping Compound (as used on the Scultura Evo SL we reported on last month)  It’s a flax-derived material designed to reduce vibration.

Merida also use their Flex-Stay design at the back end. That means the profiles of the seatstays and chainstays are designed to bend up and down slightly in order to absorb road buzz and bumps. The chainstays, in particular, are distinctively shaped, very quickly morphing from tall and upright by the bottom bracket to short and wide.

Up front, the head tube is tapered with a 1 1/2in lower bearing while the gear cables and rear brake cable run internally with neat little plugs at the entry points. The rear mech cable exits right at the end of the chainstay in a Di2-style. The down tube is a chunky trapezium profile. You remember what a trapezium is, dontcha? Think of a triangle with the top point chopped off.

This is the £2,000 Shimano Ultegra version of the Ride Carbon 95 with an FSA Gossamer compact crankset. The £1,500 model will come with a next-level-down Shimano 105 groupset and the £1,350 version will be largely Tiagra.

We don’t have the geometry information yet. This bike is so new that the UK Merida guys don’t have it, but we’ll give you those details as soon as we get them.

Sportive bike
Merida Ride Carbon 95
Merida
carbon-fibre bike
Mat Brett

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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8 comments

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David@meridauk | 12 years ago
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Hi all - David from Merida UK here - really glad you like the bike (I have to say I am a little partial to this one myself).
Merida do indeed have a substantial share in Specialized but don't tend to talk about it too much. Unsurprisingly this means we manufacture a substantial portion of their range along-side Merida branded bikes in our cutting edge facility in Taiwan.
Merida Bikes are the second biggest bike manufacturer on the planet and second only to Giant Bicycles in volume (between them they are the Ford and General Motors of the cycling industry with Merida producing 1.8 million bikes a year).
As both a brand, and a manufacturer, we have in the past manufactured bikes for Carrera, and some selected high end Revolution branded bikes for Edinburgh Bicycles. This is no longer the case on either count, and has not been the case for some time.
This year we are celebrating our 40th Birthday - and we have been described as perhaps the "sleeping giant" of the bike industry. Watch this space for more... happy trails - David, Product Manager, Merida UK

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Super Domestique | 12 years ago
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I have also heard the spesh rumour, but years ago the same thing was said of Giant.

Have also heard they (merida) make revolution frames ( Edinburgh cycles own brand ) plus that they did, or some say still do, carrera for halfords.

Avatar
mr-andrew | 12 years ago
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Although they don't sponsor a road team, Merida's rather low profile in the UK is possibly because XC and Marathon MTB has quite a low profile here. In countries where it is a higher profile sport, the brand recognition is correspondingly larger. I don't think they have put a lot of their resources into road bikes until relatively recently.
As an aside, apart from being massive in themselves (I think they are the third biggest manufacturer of bikes after Giant & Trek) I believe that they also own about 1/5 of Specialized.

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russyparkin | 12 years ago
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ah fair does, a lbs told me they make all of Specialized bikes for them which wouldnt really suprise me.

didnt realise they were massive in the mtb world but i ha vent been involved with mtb for a good few years.

a very good looking bike,

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russyparkin | 12 years ago
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merida win sexiest chainstays shocker. never really noticed merida but that looks great!. do they sponsor a pro team? if not they should, give themselves some'race heritage'

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Mat Brett replied to russyparkin | 12 years ago
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russyparkin wrote:

merida win sexiest chainstays shocker. never really noticed merida but that looks great!. do they sponsor a pro team? if not they should, give themselves some'race heritage'

Merida are a Taiwanese brand and they're absolutely massive. They're especially big in cross-country mountain biking where they sponsor an incredibly successful team.

The Scultura Evo SL that we rode last month (http://road.cc/content/news/52544-updated-merida-launch-new-top-end-road...) is a top-level road bike right up there with the ones you'll see ridden by the pros - but Merida don't sponsor a pro road team. As you say, race success does a great deal for credibility and convincing people that the bikes are the real deal.

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HLaB | 12 years ago
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Looks Nice, but why have a pie plate on a display bike?

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Super Domestique | 12 years ago
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Looks nice IMHO.

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