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TECH NEWS

Tour Tech 2017: Video - Team Bahrain Merida’s new Merida Reacto

Check out the new aero road bike officially unveiled just before the start of the Tour de France

Team Bahrain Merida riders have been racing the Tour de France on the new version of Merida’s Reacto aero road bike which was officially unveiled just before the start of the Tour de France. 

The Reacto has been in the range since 2011 and it was first developed into a pure aero road bike in 2013. 

Merida says that the 2018 version is more aerodynamically efficient than the previous version by about eight watts at 45km/h. 

This has been achieved by slimming down the tubes, lowering the point at which the seatstays meet the seat tube, and adding a one-pice cockpit (not used on the bike in our video). The head tube and top tube have been designed to work with the FSA Metron 5D combined handlebar/stem.

The frame weigh has been reduced to a claimed 1,010g while the fork is 368g. Merida says that the Reacto’s level of stiffness is unaltered despite the lower weight, so the stiffness to weight ratio has increased.

Although it hasn’t been raced in the Tour de France, the new Merida Reacto is also available with disc brakes.

Check out all the details on Merida’s new Reacto aero road bike here. 

Get more Tour de France tech stories here.

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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