Their sinuous shape creates plenty of clearance for fat 2.6-inch tires on the inside, and low-profile cranks on the outside. Better still, they're laterally stiff for sure cornering. And combined with our S-Bend seatstays, they're vertically compliant to get all your power to the ground.

Try them once and you'll never settle for the straight and narrow again.

But Merlin starts with an extra-thick custom-drawn shell to prevent distortion. Then we align-bore, thread and face the shell after we weld.

The result: Perfect alignment, perfect concentricity, and a central axis that is exactly perpendicular to the frame. Our system also guarantees smoother adjustment, longer life, less weight, and less friction--with any bottom bracket, whether cartridge or conventional.

Why waste energy on anything less?

It has an ultra-smooth finish, for greater fatigue endurance and longer life. Its strength and purity exceed aerospace specifications. And its straightness, measured in thousandths of an inch, is second to none.

But it's our certification procedure, a costly system that tracks every single tube we use all the way back to the raw ingot, that is the ultimate guarantee of quality.

And it's built into every frame we make.

It's so strong, and so hard, that ordinary quick-releases can't bite into it like steel or aluminum. So we use vertical dropout slots to maintain perfect wheel alignment. No matter how hard you're cranking, the wheel won't slip. And the vertical design, coupled with Merlin's painstakingly precise construction, ensures faster, more accurate wheel changes, too.

Despite their awesome strength, our drops are 46 percent lighter than steel. But they'll never rust or corrode. And they'll never let you down.