Rich Owen tests the fourth incarnation of Merida's alloy e-MTB and it's by far the most capable version yet

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3 all-new Merida eOne-Sixty & eOne-Forty eMTBs reshape mountain ebikes with lighter weight, bigger range & more travel in carbon or alloy...

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Launched back in 2017, the original Merida eOne-Sixty was a revolution to me. New, compact motor designs allowed manufacturers such as Merida to design a frame with sensible chainstay length and bottom bracket drop. This did wonders for handling...

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With a split range, the latest Merida eOne-Sixty takes a two-pronged approach with the aim of satisfying two distinct e-bike customers. The eOne-Sixty CF goes after the rider seeking less weight and more agility with a smaller battery that’s fully enclosed in the carbon frame, while the eOne-Sixty Lite takes the monster truck approach with big travel and as much range as possible from the 750Wh removable battery and gargantuan 360Wh range extender. Only Merida has inexplicably chosen to make this strategy as confusing as possible to potential customers in the market for the best electric mountain bike. Neither bike has 160mm travel, and the heavy bike is called ‘Lite’. And it’s this, ahem, stout 26.1kg (29kg with range extender!) model that I’m covering here. To find out more about the 22kg eOne-Sixty CF models, read our news story and range overview. Merida eOne-Sixty 875 Need to know Alloy frame with 174mm of travel Shimano EP801 motor powered by 750Wh removable battery Flexstay back end deletes one pivot and simplifies manufacturing Five frame sizes, all with MX wheels (29in front, 27.5in rear) Frame design While the previous eOne-Sixty used a carbon front triangle with a faux-bar back end, vertical shock and rocker link, the new bike mirrors the latest Merida analogue models, with its FAST design. The shock has moved beneath the top tube and the seatstay pivot has been eliminated completely. Instead, Merida has engineered flex into the tubes, regardless of whether they are carbon (on the eOne-Sixty CF) or alloy (on the eOne-Sixty Lite). In that respect, that makes the brand something of an outlier, as most brands restrict their flexstay designs to short-travel XC applications, where the weight savings can be significant. Saving 150g on a 26kg e-bike is neither here nor there, so the explanation here is more about reducing complexity, eliminating components, and reducing costs in manufacturing and assembly. Merida is completely committed to its P-Flex design, and outspoken about its durability, saying that ‘the lack of the rear pivot has no impact on the longevity and robustness of the frame’. And it backs that statement up with a lifetime guarantee and category 4 (enduro/all-mountain) approval. All Merida eOne-Sixty models are built as mullet bikes – something the brand was an early adopter of with the gen 2 bike – but a flip chip at the upper link lets owners run a 29in rear wheel without screwing up the geometry. In that respect it’s more of a compensator than an adjuster, with rear travel being reduced to 160mm with the larger wheel. Motor and battery Merida has also offset the shock to the non-driveside, and rotated the piggyback to the driveside, to increase clearance inside the front triangle. Not only for a bottle and cage, but Merida’s massive 360Wh range extender. A 3kg behemoth of a power pack that, once installed, takes the battery capacity up to 1,110Wh, the weight up to 29kg, and makes the bike look weirdly similar to the original 2017 eOne-Sixty …Continue reading »

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The name is a carry-over from the unassisted One-Sixty, which uses a similar suspension system but ships 29" wheels by default, giving it 160 mm of travel out the box.

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