Merlin Cycles

cgarossi

Just a quick bit of praise for merlincycles.co.uk

Ordered a SRAM PG990 cassette and PC991 chain for £58 delivered. It came the next day.

Brilliant stuff.

frogstomp

Ordered forks from Merlin and tyres from Wiggle on Monday.. both turned up yesterday..

Can't fault that really!

cgarossi

The only niggle with Merlin is that their site doesn't say if they have the product in stock or not. So a bit of a gamble.

I've got my mouse hovering over some Avid Elixir R brakes but it doesnt say if they are in stock.

frogstomp

Ring and ask them.. it'll only take 30 seconds to be sure..

cgarossi

True.

Kind of defeats the point of the intarwebz though.

solsurf

Always had good service from Merlin, I also print out the page from the site and go and upset Evans with the price match policy they have

cgarossi

Always found Evans to be expensive to be honest.

Wiggle or Merlin for me. The cassette and chain was non-retail, that is, there was no box or nice packaging. It was just stuffed in a bag and posted. Which is fine by me.

scale20

Had 1 really bad experience with Merlin, never used them since. I used to be a big supporter of Wiggle but found that their prices are nowhere near as competative as they used to be, even the smaller online retailers are beating them on price.

I had a ist of about 6 items I wanted from wiggle recently and out of that 6, 5 items were not in stock. Cant fault the service when it does all come together though.

jairaj

cgarossi wrote:

The only niggle with Merlin is that their site doesn't say if they have the product in stock or not. So a bit of a gamble

err yes it does! there is a green circle with a tick inside under the "stock" column. If something is out of stock this is replaced by a red circle with a x

The avid elixir R brakes are currently in stock in both options.

myopic

Any time I have a query with Merlin I've always called or e-mailed. Had my e-mails responded to within a few hours usually. Always found the guys very helpful!

The Northern Monkey

cgarossi
if its out of stock it wont let you out it in your basket

cgarossi

Well you learn something every day. Me not paying attention as usual lol.

Chunkers1980

solsurf wrote:

Always had good service from Merlin, I also print out the page from the site and go and upset Evans with the price match policy they have

Evans match instore an online retailer?

JDALY46

Yep they're always my 1st site to check if looking for new shiny stuff. Stock choice isn't as big as say Wiggle but always top notch service with cheap prices, email replies etc.

nonnac85

Yes evans stores match online prices. It's on their website policy section

Chunkers1980

nonnac85 wrote:

Yes evans stores match online prices. It's on their website policy section

Have to remember that one.

Do you think they'll accept it if you show them a web page on your phone?

frogstomp

nonnac85 wrote:

Yes evans stores match online prices. It's on their website policy section

That's pretty good.. our local Hargroves store won't even match their own online prices!

smegurmum

Chunkers1980 wrote:

nonnac85 wrote:

Yes evans stores match online prices. It's on their website policy section

Have to remember that one.

Do you think they'll accept it if you show them a web page on your phone?

if its a live internet feed then yes

delcol

merlin does say if it's in stock,, a green tick or red x deos on my computer...

SCARFACExxx08

delcol wrote:

merlin does say if it's in stock,, a green tick or red x deos on my computer...

Same here!!!

I only use Merlin or CRC, Wiggle never comes close, by LBS always beats Wiggle

But I'll always try use Merlin, because if you do ever have problems they're always on the phone.

ashleymp777

nonnac85 wrote:

Yes evans stores match online prices. It's on their website policy section

Ok, so if i go into Evans tomorrow and say i want the RS SID Race forks for £350 (or whatever price merlin are selling them for), Evans will match it!?

alfablue

They may point out that the Merlin one is an OEM model (dunno if it is, but lots of their stuff is), and therefore not equivalent.

ashleymp777

Ah, right! i.e. they've bought a job lot of them and are selling them cheap.

alfablue

Well they buy lots in for their bike builds. OEM means many things, they are not likely to be in retail packaging, they may have shorter steerers, they may have different materials, design or function to the retail versions. Sometimes they will be identical, other times, not. However, that's assuming the Merlin ones are OEM, I haven't looked, but a lot of their stuff is (this is fine, but the price should be less than for retail versions).

alfablue

(Evans may be blissfully unaware of the OEM issue, if there is one, however).

specialeyes

alfablue wrote:

Well they buy lots in for their bike builds. OEM means many things, they are not likely to be in retail packaging, they may have shorter steerers, they may have different materials, design or function to the retail versions. Sometimes they will be identical, other times, not. However, that's assuming the Merlin ones are OEM, I haven't looked, but a lot of their stuff is (this is fine, but the price should be less than for retail versions).

Ive been looking for a fork upgrade and wondered how merlin could sell the forks i want for so much less than anyone else. You explanation would seem to clear things up a little! Although, as others have mentioned, a phone call doesnt take long and i may well be surprised!

I wonder if it says anything on thier site about oem, if not its kinda naughty! Im gonna go check!

specialeyes

alfablue wrote:

Well they buy lots in for their bike builds. OEM means many things, they are not likely to be in retail packaging, they may have shorter steerers, they may have different materials, design or function to the retail versions. Sometimes they will be identical, other times, not. However, that's assuming the Merlin ones are OEM, I haven't looked, but a lot of their stuff is (this is fine, but the price should be less than for retail versions).

Ive been looking for a fork upgrade and wondered how merlin could sell the forks i want for so much less than anyone else. You explanation would seem to clear things up a little! Although, as others have mentioned, a phone call doesnt take long and i may well be surprised!

I wonder if it says anything on thier site about oem, if not its kinda naughty! Im gonna go check!

specialeyes

alfablue wrote:

Well they buy lots in for their bike builds. OEM means many things, they are not likely to be in retail packaging, they may have shorter steerers, they may have different materials, design or function to the retail versions. Sometimes they will be identical, other times, not. However, that's assuming the Merlin ones are OEM, I haven't looked, but a lot of their stuff is (this is fine, but the price should be less than for retail versions).

Ive been looking for a fork upgrade and wondered how merlin could sell the forks i want for so much less than anyone else. You explanation would seem to clear things up a little! Although, as others have mentioned, a phone call doesnt take long and i may well be surprised!

I wonder if it says anything on thier site about oem, if not its kinda naughty! Im gonna go check!

cgarossi

A lot of OEM stuff IS exactly the same as retail. Forks and shocks may not be.

Example, the Fox RP2 shock is OEM and tuned for the manufacturer of the bike. The RP23 is the retail varient.

As far as I know anyway.

bomberesque

I got the wheels and brakes for my SS from Merlin and more recently wheels, brakes and forks for Mrs B's Birthday Blizzard. All good so far.

For the Blizzard the frame came from Wiggle (half price in the right size, can't ask for more) and select bits from Merlin (as said), Barracuda (dudes local to me) and CRC. the internet has made me a real little bargain nazi but I probably still ended up missing some deals. DAMN THEM

All delivered quickly .... except the local guys, who are only 40km away but they had it out the door fast enough (<24hr) it's the local delivery that was the problem.

specialeyes

I emailed them earlier and got a super swift response. They do get bulk purchase forks for some of their deals ( whatever that means ) but the forks i enquired about are boxed and brand new. So i think ill give em a try!