Merlin Malt G2P
simonl83
Posts: 26
Hi all,
Been contemplating a Gravel Bike for a few months now. I really like the look of the Merlin Malt G2P Tiagra, it seems exceptional value for money. Does anybody have an opinion on Merlin bikes? It does seem a little to good to be true.
Been contemplating a Gravel Bike for a few months now. I really like the look of the Merlin Malt G2P Tiagra, it seems exceptional value for money. Does anybody have an opinion on Merlin bikes? It does seem a little to good to be true.
2014 Giant Defy 1
2011 Dawes Discovery 501 Deore Hybrid
2019 Claud Butler Alpina 29 MTB
2011 Dawes Discovery 501 Deore Hybrid
2019 Claud Butler Alpina 29 MTB
0
Comments
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I have had 2 Merlin road bikes (current bike and previous bike) and they have been perfectly good and great value for money.1
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Horrid choice of speccing a Tiagra gravel bike for £699 and then giving it Lyra mechanical disc brakes... Why not spec it with 405 hydraulics and price at ~£850-900?================
2020 Voodoo Marasa
2017 Cube Attain GTC Pro Disc 2016
2016 Voodoo Wazoo0 -
Tektro mechanical seems to be pretty standard on anything under a grand at the minute.N0bodyOfTheGoat said:Horrid choice of speccing a Tiagra gravel bike for £699 and then giving it Lyra mechanical disc brakes... Why not spec it with 405 hydraulics and price at ~£850-900?
2014 Giant Defy 1
2011 Dawes Discovery 501 Deore Hybrid
2019 Claud Butler Alpina 29 MTB0 -
Yeh, ideally I wanted hydraulics but wanted to keep it under a grand, and you just can’t get a gravel bike with hydraulic discs for under 1000.oxoman said:Good bike but would benefit hydraulic brakes tbh.
2014 Giant Defy 1
2011 Dawes Discovery 501 Deore Hybrid
2019 Claud Butler Alpina 29 MTB0 -
Would love one but no stockoxoman said:How about this with hydraulic brakes and only just £99 over budget.
https://vitusbikes.com/collections/substance/products/substance-vr-2-adventure-road-bike
2014 Giant Defy 1
2011 Dawes Discovery 501 Deore Hybrid
2019 Claud Butler Alpina 29 MTB0 -
I have a Mk 1 Merlin Malt G Tiagra (with external cable routing and QR axles) and honestly its a fantastic bike. The after sales service (in my experience) is top notch too. I managed to mangle a mech hanger by having an argument with a tree and I ordered a replacement. They sent me the one for the thru-axle bike by mistake so when I rang to report the error they just shipped 2 brand new QR hangers free and did not request the old one back.
The only change I made to my Malt G was to upgrade the wheels and cable housing, Mine came with some Mavic wheels that whilst plenty strong were damn heavy (2800g not inc skewers!) but even with £150 on set of lighter Aksiums and £30 on compressionless brake housing it was still less far less than £1k with full Tiagra. Most bikes at the same price (at the time) had Sora or even Claris
Decent brake cable housing and properly adjusted cable brakes have more than enough stopping power and decent modulation, just have to check/adjust barrel adjuster - no big deal. FYI I am 94 kg so not exactly light and with 160 mm rotors I can easily 'keep up' in terms of braking with my mate on his fancy hydro equipped
GT gravel bike.
So basically yeah Merlin are decent and a great company to deal with.1
