Merida appears to be developing a new downhill bike, with a raw alloy concept appearing on its stand at Ard Rock Enduro.
The downhill bike is said to have been born out of necessity for the brand, which sponsors a roster of interesting freerider prospects who have, until now, been riding the One-Sixty FR with 170mm of travel.
The design marries two of Merida's existing frames, with the front triangle being taken from the alloy One-Sixty enduro bike and the back end from the eOne-Eighty.
This has enabled the brand to use a dual-crown fork on the front and sculpt 200mm of travel out of the rear-suspension linkage.
The last time Merida had a 200mm downhill bike was the Duncan DH more than a decade ago, released under the sub-brand UMF.
eMTB origins
There are telltale signs of the bike's lineage, with the charge port for the eOne-Eighty being replaced by a blank cap.
Merida has brought in Jon Gregory from Misspent Summers for the graphics, with the bike also showing off neat welds, considering it's still in the prototyping stage.
There's limited geometry adjustment at the moment, with only 6mm of reach adjust sitting in the headset, but there appear to be plans to look at chainstay-length adjustment in future iterations.
The bike is finished with a drool-worthy spec, with a 200mm RockShox Boxxer Ultimate supporting the front of the bike and a Vivid Ultimate in the rear.
It is a full SRAM affair, with the brand's 7-speed XX DH T-Type changing gears and Maven Ultimate brakes shedding speed.
The bike sits on DT Swiss FR1500 wheels booted in Schwalbe rubber and there's accent-matched Burgtec accessories, including the stem, seatpost collar, pedals and spacers.
