Merida has given their already capable and affordable alloy enduro bike an extra-travel One-Sixty FR freeride upgrade with new DVO suspension to tame steeper bikepark riding.
Up front, the bike gets a 180mm fork, 10mm longer than standard, slackening the head angle by 1/2° to 63.5°. Don’t worry though, you’ll be pointing this thing downhill so much, deep into the suspension, that it will feel familiar. Two specs are available. One features the all-new stifferMerida One-Sixty FR – Pricing, Options & AvailabilityTwo specs of the special bikepark edition One-Sixty FR are on offer – each in two color options.
The two new bikes will be arriving in global Merida dealer bike shops in a couple of weeks. Then, they should be available everywhere in October.I got a chance to put in some hot shuttle laps on the new One-Sixty FR, and immediately got the sense that the bike wanted to get rowdy, and go fast. The 160 platform already was quite capable and predictable, and the bigger freeride build just takes it to another level for riders who really are going to do more uplift & shuttling than pedaling up.