[ Contents | Search | Post | Reply | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Erik
Product: Select a category...
Date: 08 Jun 1999
Time: 13:38:57
Remote Name: 216.98.147.143
I owned a small bike shop in southern California for 6 years and was a Merlin dealer for 5 of them. Shop policy was to test ride every bike we worked on; so over the years I have ridden pretty much every bike ever made. Nothing rides like a Merlin - nothing even come close. Isn't ride performance why you are considering a bike in this price range in the first place? If you disguised a Merlin & a Litespeed and rode them back to back you would pick the Merlin's superior ride every time. The differences are significant, not subtle, and as the titanium frame lasts a lifetime why would you spend the rest of your life riding an inferior product?
Brief story to illustrate my point. Customer came into my store looking for a new high end mountain frameset and I spent some time educating him on titanium and Merlin in particular. He proudly returned in a few weeks with his mail order Litespeed and wanted me to fix his rear brake which he said was "mushy". After checking lever, cable and brake set we discovered the problem was flex in the brake bosses on the frame itself. He was not amused to have us tell him that the only way to get the firm brakes he wanted was to install a dorky brake booster bridge on his fancy new ride. He was even less amused to see that the Merlin frame in a side by side comparison had much better brake performance due to superior frame construction. We also couldn't resist pointing out that braking was just one aspect of frame performance and that he had spent big bucks for a second class ride. After borrowing our test Merlin for a brief thrash behind the shop his comment of "I guess I should have bought a Merlin" was inevitable.
I know budget is a real world issue for us non-sponsored riders so I suggest you look at it this way - spend money on things that matter. Bike components in order of decreasing importance - 1) frame & fork 2) wheelset 3) all the rest. A Merlin with LX and mid-level fork will out ride a full zoot XTR Litespeed any day. Are you shopping for yourself or to impress you buds? Besides how long do parts last anyway? After 3 or 4 years of hard riding about the only thing not replaced is the frame - so buy one you want to keep.
Final comment - I have an extralight road & standard mountain. I have 8 built bikes to chose from and the Merlin's do 95+% of the riding. Why ride anything else????