At Merlin, the heart--and soul--of our business is frames. That's what we make. And the way our frames ride is central to everything we do.
The Merlin ride has been described as "Magic" (Bicycling), "Incredibly smooth and surefooted" (Bicycle Guide), "The ride of a lifetime" (Bicycling again). MTB magazine says, "The Merlin XLM is the best bike I have ever ridden. Period." "If the XLM is an experiment in what it takes to make the best hardtail in the world," says Mountain Bike Action, "we would call it a success." And, says Bicycle Guide, "If any frame were said to epitomize all of titanium's qualities in the way it rides, it would be the Merlin Extralight."
So what's our secret? Pressed to name one thing, we'd say: No shortcuts. We build frames the way we wish everything were made, with such precision and attention to detail that we are sometimes called fanatics.
Maybe we are. We know we are fanatical about our MTS325 titanium, which is made in 47 different sizes so that we can choose the right blend of tubes for every frame. Our tubing has a special surface finish, too, for better fatigue strength. (As a bonus, that same finish makes it easy to keep the frame looking like new.)
We admit to some pickiness about alignment as well; not everyone invests $100,000 in one machine, as we have, just to cut the bottom bracket threads exactly--and we do mean exactly--straight. After we've cut the threads, we go back with another special cutter to remove the extra metal between the threads. Doing so saves about one ounce--not much to worry about, perhaps, but we know that light bikes ride better.
We're the same way about our welds, which MBA has called "the best in the world," and our mitering tolerances, and a host of other things. At the end of the day, yeah, maybe we are fanatics.
But, like you, we're riders, too, who came into the sport as kids and grew up with it as a passion. Today, we're building the bikes we had always dreamed about. We build road bikes and mountain bikes for fellow enthusiasts and amateurs and pros all around the globe. Our frames have been ridden in the Tour de France, the Olympics, in NORBA national cup races, and to victory at the World Championships. So we'd have to say that some of our riders could also be called fanatics.
Anyway, as "magic" or "dreamlike" as the ride of our Merlins may be, the frames themselves are the product of some very real work. And the best description of that work comes from those who do it. So what follows are the thoughts of a few of the people at Merlin who make what have been called, again and again, the best bikes in the world.
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