Merlin bikes £900 to spend, which one?

scazzer

:P :P Hi guys,wot a great + interesting post as i visited Merlin 2 weeks ago

Been looking around for new bike for a few weeks with about £800-£900 to spend,looked at treks, cannondales etc and getting blown away with so much to chose from,so decided to give Merlin a visit as ive read loads of good reviews about them.Soon as i walked into the shop there was THE and i mean THE bike for me........Merlin Malt 4 a stunning looking bike just stood out in the shop(to me anyway)spent the nxt hour in the shop chatting with the staff,who were superb,about the spec and upgrades etc.

Anyway,having had a good look at the malt 4,decided the standard spec it comes with was good enough for me,just picked some pedals and upgraded to black rims + spokes and total price was £795,the only down side to this,is ive got a wait of 3-4 weeks for it to be ready as they are waiting for parts to be delivered,
but ay,,,,good things come to those who wait

Brighty

I have a rock lobster 853, the steel one and it's fantastic. I got such a deal on it too, full XT inc brakes, Reba team forks and black wheels all for £925, i know the rebas are standard spec now, but this was back in april last year when the standard spec was mx comps or vidars or menjas or something. It was in their 'sale' section.

Now the standard spec is rebas, i think it's rude not to buy one.

A note on the 10% discount, what they actually did was add 10% to the price of there bikes, then introduce an offer for 0% finance or 10% off, cheeky but i'm sure it's worked for them, they're a steal of a bike at either price anyway.

Steel is real, go 853

Brighty

dave_oc

Hi Brighty,
That's not quite true on the price although it was what I thought until Phil pointed it out earlier in the post. It's true that the bikes original price is listed as £1099 and last year it was £999 (when my mate bought one). However, they're currently reduced to £999 and if you put one in the basket you then get ANOTHER 10% off!! This makes them only £899 with the standard spec - great value and actually cheaper than last year!

Dave

LancashireAsh

Bought my Rock Lobster tonight - £910 full XT, Race Face deus, mavics, reba sl.

It took me an hour to decide finally between Malt 4 and the Rock Lobster (the guy in the shop says most people go through this!) and then I made the mistake of trying out the steel 853 Lobster which is a gorgeous frame and just made matters worse.

In the end I went with my heart, the alu Rock Lobster, just looked cool and is light. The Malt 4 is stiffer and probably a better buy if I really thought I was going to be doing some serious bad ass riding.

There is a delay on the Malt 4 at certain sizes due to waiting for frames.

Meanwhile I should have my Rock Lobster in 10 days. Can't wait.

Will be posting some photos of the mythical carbon Rock Lobster - it looks awsome in the flesh.

pdid

Recieved with this email:

Hi,

I attach some pictures, the frames are very limited in numbers at the moment and depending on demand we may offer it as a production build in the future. Its very light, even with relatively unfancy parts and kit.



John P



Cheers Phil

dunker

congrats LAsh you're gonna love it, now all you need to do is play b52's-rock lobster 24/7 till it arrives hehe dowdowdowduuduudeedeedeedowwww

dunker

corr look at the carbon on that, it's all curvy. hav'nt seen a weave like that before or is it just the light doing that carbon thing?

jayson

dave_oc wrote:

And what about changing from the XT brakes to the Hope Mono Minis for £25 - the mono's always review very well - I think this might be a good change? What do people think?

Cheers,
Dave

Mono Minis are fantastic brakes and for the sake of £25 i say u would be mad not to get them fitted. My Lobster had them fitted as standard when i brought mine and it came with 180mm discs F+R so it stops like you've hit a brick wall!!!


That carbon Lobster is absolutely stunning, would love to see on ein the flesh to bask in its gorgeousness. Did the guys in the shop say how much it costs and whether its a frame only or a complete bike??

LancashireAsh

Maybe it was memories of that cracking B52s song that led me to plumb for the Lobster, though I could have gone just as easily for the standard spec Malt 4.

Now gone a bit over budget and all this talk of Hope Minis wondering if I should upgrade to them and Reba Team - in for a penny in for a pound, you only live once and all that!

I was going to include pics of the carbon lobster taken with my camera phone but can't work out how you attach images! How do you do it on this site?

dunker

i'd go for the reba team upgrade, why not it's £20? for something slightly lighter you might aswell as it's not really something you can cheaply change later on unlike a new lighter seatpost or stem etc it's going to be with the bike a long time. as for hope mono mini's i have no idea all i can say is that my 2006 lx shimano brakes are fantastic and i would imagine the 2008 xt's are alot better than those.

Robinsmith

Hi all.
I'm considering buying the aluminium Rock Lobster. I reckon the Hope brakes are worth the upgrade, but do you think the extra Hope Hubs are worth an extra £100?
Thanks, Rob

jam1e

Ohh its gonna look proper ace!

Placed my order for my merlin the other day:

Tig Team (black)
XT
Juicy Ultimates 185mm F&R
Reba's
Hope hubs (Gold ) with black spokes
Fizic Gobi saddle
EA70 bar/Race Face Stem/Seatpost
Cinder 2.25's
XTR spd's

All for £1195 - how is that even possible?! Why can some company like Trek or Giant not use their purchasing power to spec their bikes to this price/spec level?

I cant wait to get this delivered...

I did nearly buy the carbon version though!

dunker

i dunno but it's great is'nt it, even last year was good and they were about £150 more expensive overall and still a good deal compared to the others. i reckon Merlin, Focus and Boardman are probably doing better business this year as the others have gone a little silly on their prices.

pdid

jayson wrote:

That carbon Lobster is absolutely stunning, would love to see on ein the flesh to bask in its gorgeousness. Did the guys in the shop say how much it costs and whether its a frame only or a complete bike??

One in shop is a complete bike. Can`t remember price, was either £1300 or £1400 with full XT inc. rims. Plus Deus finishing.

Phil

Crayfish

jam1e wrote:

All for £1195 - how is that even possible?! Why can some company like Trek or Giant not use their purchasing power to spec their bikes to this price/spec level?

That's because Giant and Trek are making stinking amounts of profit (plus they spend a fortune on marketing)

I'm also looking at the Rock Lobster 853 - but what is the service like at Merlin? I would have to do everything by mail as I'm far away in Hertfordshire. Does this work with Merlin, I mean sending stuff back by post if it's not right etc?

Any experience with Merlin I'd be glad to hear about. Ta

Crayfish

dunker wrote:

i'd go for the reba team upgrade, why not it's £20? for something slightly lighter you might aswell as it's not really something you can cheaply change later on

Dunker, when I do the shopping thing on the Merlin website that Reba Team fork upgrade is £40 more, not £20. Am I doing something wrong or did they just put the price up? :shock:

(Not that I don't think it's still worth it)

dunker

it's a slight dose of stupiditis on my part, i was comparing price for price at crc i think, sorry.

Crayfish

No worries Dunker - an extra 40 squid for a 430-odd quid fork...? It's a no-brainer.