GUY’S MERIDA ONE SIXTY 800£3,150

The Merida’s running smoothly, so Guy’s treated it to a bit of bling

I’ve not done much to the Merida recently, apart from making some minor componentry changes to keep the pages of ‘Wrecked & Rated’ stocked. Being able to leave a bike almost stock is always a good sign though – particularly when it comes to things with bearings in.

The headset is still running smoothly, even though I swapped a ton of forks in and out during the filthiest part of the year. While the unbranded hubs had some time out of circulation in the run-up to our wheel grouptest, they’ve still racked up reasonable mileage without showing any signs of roughness or rattle. The bearings in the SRAM DUB press-fit bottom bracket are the most recent addition and, again, a few months’ hard hammer doesn’t seem to have upset them. This keeps them on track to back up SRAM’s claims of increased longevity over the older GXP and BB30 standards that DUB replaces.

While the chainring is new, the original SRAM GX cassette and chain are still going. The suspension pivots are showing no signs of clunking, creaking or wobbling yet either. So, what better way to celebrate this clean bill of health than sticking on some fresh ‘blood’, in the shape of some limited edition SRAM Code Ultimate brakes in ‘RockShox red’. www.merida-bikes.com