Thoughts please before it buy tomorrow

boogi11

Hi all, just wondered if anybody owned or had any thoughs on this before I buy it tomorrow , been looking for ages

http://2014.merida-bikes.com/en_int/bik ... 7-311.html

The other option is reacto cf 905 but an import in lampre colours with 50mm. Clinchers.
Reason for the merida choice is loyalty to lbs, he also stocks focus, cervello, moda, and willer my absolute budget including pedals is 3000 and he is tending to give me about 400 off rrp

Thanks in advance

ademort

Nice bike and with Ultegra but in that price range there are a large number of bikes you could consider.

Anonymous

Can he get you an R3 Dark edition? I hear/read it is the R5 with a thicker lick of paint (everywhere I look). £2K all in. with 105. leaves you 1G to upgrade wheels/groupset.

boogi11

Dark editions are long gone, a few shops may have them but I want to buy from this shop

LankyDJ

That bike is a beauty, don't know much about Merida, but they always look cool.

One wonders why some folks would instantly consider a wheel upgrade though. Fulcrum 3's are an excellent set and you'd be spending big bucks to save 100/150g. Mad!

Enjoy your new ride.

boogi11

Cheers lanky, I can't afford to put wheels on the scultura, but I could on the reacto, but the reacto is a four month order. Think it will be the scultura, but I think the uk edition has a top of the range fsa crank on it

neeb

Supposed to be good bikes and you don't see many around. Both the scultura and the reacto team editions (so perhaps different layups?) got good marks in the latest issue of Tour International online edition (the English iPad version of the German magazine).

One thing - the latest Reacto is actually very aero - better than the BMC time machine, Giant Propel, Venge and Scott Foil... But the Scultura is very un-aero, the worst of all of the bikes they tested. That may or may not matter much to you of course, a frame is just one small component of total aero-ness. Other than that, both are plenty stiff but the Scultura is a little more stable and also quite a bit more comfortable. The Scultura is probably a better all-round bike if you're not bothered about having an aero frame, but if you do care about that then the Reacto seems to be one of the most aero road bike frames on the market.

If you have an ipad it might be worth buying the 1/2014 issue of Tour International just to look at all of the obsessively German test figures, although bearing in mind of course they are for the team edition bikes.

boogi11

Cheers neeb, good effort on the answer

boogi11

The scultura is same mould but slightly different lay up