posted by Rip'n Hammer on april 04, 1998 at 10:32:20:
in reply to: xlm vs mountain posted by mark mcenroe on march 30, 1998 at 13:25:21:
: Hello,
: I am considering an xlm vs a mountain frame. i am having a hard time spending that much money, but after the initial shock, i thought that the xlm is only 20% more. Does anyone out there have some advice for me. Which way should i go? will the xlm be everything that i want in 5yrs? will Merlin be around to support me in 5 yrs?
: thanks for the feedback
: mark
I too was considering the XLM. By all accounts, it is one of the most finely crafted and beautiful titanium
framesets around. All the feedback I got from Merlin and XLM owners was very positive - they all loved
their Merlin's and/or XLMs. They did comment on the Merlin "whip" as being something that you would
need to get used to. To me, this meant "flex" - something I definitely didn't want! Since the XLM is so light,
something had to be sacrificed - rigidity perhaps. About the only other complaint from Merlin owner's was
about Merlin's shitty customer service.
I was all set to shell out the $2500 for the XLM and then I got cold feet. At this time, there were rumours
of a Merlin buy-out. Then I remembered that Rob Vandermark (Merlin's head designer and framebuilder)
left with 6 other Merlin employees to form their own company - Seven Cycles. To me, this looked like the
end of Merlin. Obviously, something wasn't working at Merlin and something had to give. Would it frame
quality? Pricing? Warranty? Who knows and I wasn't about to find out the hard way. So I started looking
into Seven Cycles (http://www.sevencycles.com).
Seven Cycles is a young company but has years of working knowledge behind them - since they are all
former Merlin employees. Rob Vandermark was the brain-child behind the XLM. Essentially, Seven offers
quality equal to or better than Merlin with the option to customize at no extra cost ($2500). I filled out their
extensive questionnaire and it appeared that I would need a custom frameset - I have a longer torso
compared to my inseam. Anyway, Lisa and Matt (at Seven) have been very helpful with my numerous
questions in the initial deciding stage (was Seven what I really wanted?) and in the final spec'ing stage
(tubing lengths, diameters, butting, etc) of my new custom frameset - unlike Merlin! You can tweak tubing
lengths, seat/heat tube angles for a more agressive or comfortable ride, and increase/decrease drivetrain
ridigity, vertical compliance, etc. Its all up to you and how and where you will ride. The fact that I was
helping to design my own frameset scared the shit out of me - what do I know about angles, lengths, etc?
But Matt and Rob are there to protect you from yourself. So far, everything seems to be going as planned.
The final specs for my frameset just came in for my approval and within a week or so, my frameset will be
built and shipped.
If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a line.
Ride Hard,
Mike