The Scultura is Merida’s super light climbing bike. At 6.14kg for this size L, it is indeed feathery, though this isn’t the lightest in the range. That would be the 9000 LTD, a five-figure-sum halo model equipped with freaky-light carbon parts from AX Lightness to tip the scales at 4.55kg and claim the title of world’s lightest production bike.
- Merida claims world's lightest production bike with 680g Scultura 9000 LTD
- Canyon Ultimate CF SLX first ride review
- Bianchi Specialissima review
This 9000 uses the same 680g frame, built with SRAM Red 22, DT Swiss RC28C wheels, an FSA cockpit and a carbon Selle Italia SLR saddle.
Long, low – and disappointingly flexy
The choice of a compact 50/34 crankset makes sense for a climbing-focused bike though the 11-28 cassette has some big and unpleasant jumps in the top half. It can be useful to have that winch-like bottom gear for extreme events but if this were my bike I’d get an 11-25 for the rest of the time.
ADVERTISEMENT
Only three sizes are offered and the geometry is long and low, so it may be tricky for some riders to get comfortable.
We’ll cut to it – the Scultura 9000 is not that good. There is a very tangible lack of stiffness, especially in the fork, head tube and rear triangle. The steering lacks precision, wandering around slightly over imperfect surfaces at speed, and sprint efforts are not met with crisp responses. And it’s only averagely comfortable.
Poor, next to the high-end competition
You can read more at BikeRadar.com
via BikeRadar All the latest from BikeRadar.com http://ift.tt/29kQ2qU
No comments:
Post a Comment