Wednesday, June 25, 2014

First ride on the Merlin

I have always wanted a Merlin. For as long as I can remember hearing and reading about Merlin, the one word that kept coming up when describing them was Magical. Titanium was slated to be the savior metal of the mountain bike industry, offering both a phenomenal ride and nearly infinite durability. Yeah, so it was expensive, and yeah there was good Ti and that cheap Russian crap, and yeah nobody sold them where you lived... but somewhere, someone was having a better time than you riding a Merlin. I had to have one... Lately though I had a few trusted friends who tend to ride hard tell me that it was all hype and that they got rid of their Merlins faster than a Katy Perry Playboy would fly off the newsstands. Well, for my part the old reviews were all right, this bike is freaking awesome and I love it!!




This brake kicks ass, that's just all there is to it. Great modularity, smooth delivery, and real stopping power when you need it. Really well balanced with the plain Jane XT cantis up front.



This Merlin has the thicker 1 3/8" downtube. It's perhaps the main reason why this bike felt plenty stiff yet supple, planted but easy to work through the technical stuff and in the end just a ton of fun to ride!


It's all it's cracked (or not) up to be!



 Welcome to the stable, stick around!




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