MERIDA eONE-SIXTY 10K – FIELD TEST

 

A couple of months ago Wheelbase Lake District hosted their popular BIG Demo Weekend. This two day event went down really well with our customers, giving them an opportunity to ride the latest, greatest e-mountain bikes available; there’s always plenty of chat between rides in the demo event village and it’s fair to say there was a real buzz around the fleet of Merida eOne-sixty eMTB’s and how they performed on our local Lake District trails.

Merida U.K. recently attended our BIG Demo Weekend and the eOne-Sixty proved to be one of the most popular bikes of the event.

 

Typically there’s little or no time for Wheelbase staff to get out and ride at the BIG Demo Weekend as we focus on keeping the event running smoothly back at HQ during what is one of the biggest weekends of the year for us. Happily the team at Merida U.K. were keen to come back to the Lake District a month or so later to get as many Wheelbase staff as possible onto their cutting-edge eMTB for a proper ride, allowing us to experience for ourselves how the bike performs out on the hills of the South Lakes.

Conditions were perfect for an evening staff ride on the Merida eOne-Sixty 10K eMTB’s.

 

As content writer for Wheelbase I often sit down to produce product features about some of the most exciting bikes that come through the doors of Wheelbase HQ so whenever there’s a chance to get out and ride new product I relish the chance for some ‘real world testing’. Better still Merida came with a full fleet of eOne Sixty 10K’s ready to ride so it was a chance for a whole group of staff to do a ‘proper ride’ together high up in the hills of the Lake District. This would give me a chance to gather the thoughts of my colleagues too, some of which are far more talented than me on a mountain bike! And were definitely up for pushing the eOne-Sixty 10K to its limits on some of the steepest, rockiest, most technical trails around! With our talented freelance photographer James Vincent behind the lens to capture all the action we rode out into the hills on a perfect springtime evening.

Andy Mee from Merida U.K. (left) joined us for a fun-filled evening of riding onboard the eOne-Sixty 10K.

 

The eOne-Sixty 10K is the top spec’d bike in Merida’s small eOne-Sixty range of e-mountain bikes; this stunning bike is designed for aggressive trail riding with 160mm of travel up front and 150mm at the rear. As well as being packed full of the latest tech with some very welcome extras including a wireless dropper seatpost there are two key elements to this E-MTB that stand out from the get-go; firstly the eOne Sixty 10K features Shimano’s compact Steps EP8 motor and 630Wh internal battery, secondly Merida have created this bike around the ‘Mullet Principle’ with a large diameter 29” wheel upfront combined with smaller 27.5” wheel on the rear which better handles the additional forces of an e-bike motor, gives a more agile ride and allows for its really sorted trail geometry.

The eOne-Sixty 10K is part of a small range of Merida full suspension e-MTB’s which have quickly gained a faithful following with mountain biking circles.

 

An after-work staff ride onboard the Merida eOne-Sixty 10K was a great opportunity to get a real feel for how this powerful e-bike rides.

 

The Shimano EP8 motor is pleasingly compact and boasts a lightweight Magnesium casing. Our ride included 20 minutes of back lanes before we got off-road onto the trails and this was actually a good opportunity to pay close attention to how the motor was behaving before I became solely focused on the technical trails ahead of me. It felt really natural with an authentic-feeling pedal assist; as I rode up the long, draggy climb I found that each time I put down a little more pedal power the motor responded, amplifying my power incrementally all while still being in Eco mode (the lowest power of the 3 modes). It’s like there’s lots of ‘sub modes’ of torque output within each mode working perfectly in sync with your own pedalling input; it was a really sophisticated level of pedal assistance.

Merida have spec’d the eOne-Sixty 10K with Shimano’s compact but powerful EP8 motor.

 

Later on in the ride as the off-road climbs became ever steeper I found myself using the Trail mode to help power me over slick rock sections and tough, rutted inclines. Riding in the Lake District gets pretty challenging pretty quickly and as we worked our way to a plateau the inclines got even steeper, pushing the limits of what was rideable. With everyone in the group choosing different lines we quickly spread ourselves out over the hillside and I decided it was time to toggle to ‘Boost’ mode and see if the Shimano EP8 motor could help carry me up and over what would normally be described as unrideable on a non-e-mountain bike. The motor was still amplifying my pedalling input in a natural feeling way but at some point the laws of physics had to kick in; with the hill so steep that my front wheel had lifted off the floor I began to fall off the back of the bike and it was time to concede and get off and push for a short distance.

The Shimano EP8 motor gives really authentic-feeling pedal assist, increasing in power output the harder you pedal.

 

The eOne-Sixty 10K’s drive system was always easy to control, with the minimal Shimano controller on the left of the handlebars and a small display unit on the handlebar by  the stem. Toggling between the motor’s ‘Eco’ ‘Trail’ and ‘Boost’ modes using the slim ,ergonomic switch changed the level of assistance immediately with the chosen mode clearly indicated on the display, there’s also an audible beep too. When things got so steep and unrideable that I had to push I was able to press and hold the handlebar controller to engage ‘Walk’ mode; this turns the rear wheel as you push to help you move more freely uphill, giving you the feel of pushing a lighter non-e-bike.

The Shimano EP8 drive system is compact and clutter-free without affecting usability on the fly. 

 

One of the perks of heading out after work on an eMTB? You can cover more ground and gain more elevation in a short period of time.

 

To accompany their Steps EP8 e-bike motor system Shimano produced an equally compact, integrated battery for the downtube, freeing up bike brands to create even more svelte-looking e-bikes, as seen here on the Merida eOne-Sixty 10K. This 630Wh integrated battery is quick charging with a 50% charge taking 2.5 hours and a full charge taking 6 hours. The Merida engineers have cleverly added vents at the headtube of the eOne-Sixty to help keep your battery from overheating which is a nice touch.

The eOne-Sixty features a carbon front triangle and an alloy rear triangle. Check out those cooling fins for the internal battery too.

 

Now it was time to see how the bike behaved when it was pointed downhill! The first stretch was a high speed blast down a super-rocky track packed full of boulders and slabs with the odd rock garden thrown in there for good measure. The Merida eOne-Sixty 10K’s sweet trail geometry meant the bike felt stable at speed and the large 29er front wheel combined with the capable 160mm travel FOX 38 Factory eMTB+ fork helped you hold your line through the rough stuff. Outback the FOX Factory Float X2 rear shock was doing a similar job, soaking up what ever was thrown at it and encouraging me to ride each technical section at speed; it was almost a cast of the faster you went the smoother everything felt!

The 150mm travel FOX Factory Float X2 rear shock provided plenty of plush travel over the roughest, rockiest Lake District terrain.

 

Kashima coated FOX 38 Factory eMTB+ forks feature 160mm of travel allowing you to charge through rock gardens with careless abandon.

 

As I’ve mentioned already the eOne-Sixty 10K is Merida’s top spec’d eMTB and features some premium parts as you’d expect. I was so focused on the technical descents or figuring out which of the 3 Shimano EP8 motor modes was most appropriate that I all but forgot about the bike’s drivetrain and those brilliant Shimano components. Gear selection throughout the ride was absolutely flawless, with the top of the range XTR 12-speed rear derailleur providing crisp, precise and predictable gear shifts across the rear cassette for the whole ride. I suppose it’s testament to just how far drivetrain technology has come that I never even considered it during the ride.

The top spec 10K includes components from Shimano’s premium XTR groupset, including a 12 speed rear derailleur.

 

Powerful Shimano XTR 4-piston hydraulic brakes provide plenty of stopping power and keep you in control on the steepest descents.

 

Eventually the ride took us off the long plateau descent onto the steeper more technical parts of the trail. This portion of the ride consisted of tight, narrow tracks packed full of loose, rocky terrain and tight dog-leg turns. I wasn’t just considering my own ride; I was watching the others in the group too. I’m a relative rookie when it comes to ‘proper Lakes mountain biking’ preferring to spend time blasting around trail centres on my hardtail which is more in keeping with my cross-country racing background, so watching some of my colleagues who have spent A LOT of time up in the hills revealed just how capable the Merida eOne-Sixty 10K was.

This top of the range eMTB features a wireless RockShox Reverb AXS dropper seatpost.

 

That smaller 27.5” diameter rear wheel was coming into its own as I watched my riding partners unweight the rear of their bikes to negotiate the tightest turns all while letting the bike roll over boulder sized rocks and drop off the continuous stream of steps and slabs. The RockShox Reverb AXS wireless dropper seatpost was awesome, letting me get the saddle out of the way quickly and effectively throughout the ride so that there was no danger of getting bucked from behind.

The RockShox Reverb AXS dropper seatpost controller is compact, neat and easy to operate. 

 

The eOne-Sixty 10K comes spec’d with a durable pair of DT Swiss wheels built to cope with whatever is thrown at them.

 

The DT Swiss Hybrid 240 hubs have been designed and constructed to better cope with the higher forces incurred from an eMTB.

 

Maxxis take care of traction and control with their Minion DHR II on the rear and an Assegai on the front.

 

We knew we’d overcooked it in terms of estimating our overall ride time and the rapidly setting sun bid us farewell with roughly another 30 minutes of riding time left before we would be off the hills and back in civilisation. Thankfully for us the Merida eOne-Sixty 10K comes equipped with a powerful Lezyne E-Bike Power E115 front light which is connected directly to the internal Shimano 630Wh battery which powers the motor. This handy front light threw a surprising amount of light out onto the trail in front of us and really got us out of a scrape as we negotiated what was easily the most technical part of the whole ride in the pitch black.

The Lezyne E-Bike Power E115 front light threw a surprising amount of light onto the trail and was very welcome when things got very dark, very quickly.

 

Rolling off the trails and back into civilisation we all regrouped to compare notes, enthusing over our epic evening ride on some of the most challenging trails in the Lake District. The Merida eOne-Sixty 10K’s had performed flawlessly, carrying us over terrain that would have slowed us down considerably on conventional non-e-bikes. With only a few hours spare after work and with the fading light against us we’d still managed to squeeze in a pretty spectacular ride; the eOne Sixty 10K really proved itself to be a fantastic eMTB that boasts all the ride qualities you’d expect from a typical non-e trail bike but with the extra oomph of the Shimano EP8 drive system, giving us natural-feeling pedal assistance when we needed it most.

With the eOne-Sixty 10K helping me to ride further and higher, I was able to squeeze plenty of riding into an evening in the Lake District.

 

The Merida eOne-Sixty 10K is a super-versatile eMTB that climbs efficiently and allows you to descend with pure abandon.

 

SPECIAL OFFER! Merida eOne-Sixty 10K 2023 Was £10,000.00 NOW £7,799.00

Full Specification:

• Motor: Shimano EP8
• Battery: Shimano E8036 630Wh
• Display: Shimano SC-EM800
• Frame: eOne-Sixty CFA II carbon, 150mm suspension travel, 27.5×2.8″ max wheelsize, 148x12mm axle standard, intube max 630Wh
• Fork: FOX 38 Factory eMTB+
• Rear Shock: FOX Factory Float X2
• Wheelset: DT Swiss Spline HXC1501 Spline 30 Boost
• Front Tyre: Maxxis Assegai
• Rear Tyre: Maxxis DHR II
• Shifter: Shimano XTR 12-Speed
• Rear Derailleur: Shimano XTR Shadow+ 12-Speed
• Cranks: Shimano FCEM900
• Chainring: Shimano CRE80-12-B
• Cassette: XTR M9100 12-speed
• Saddle: Merida Expert CC
• Seatpost: RockShox Reverb AXS; 30.9mm diameter; in-line; Drop: 125mm (XS), 150mm (S/M), 170mm (L/XL)
• Seatpost Controller: RockShox Reverb AXS
• Handlebar: Merida Expert eTR
• Stem: Merida Expert eTRII
• Grips: Merida Expert EC
• Brake Set: Shimano XTR
• Brake Rotors: Shimano RT-MT900 / Shimano RT-EM910
• Front Light: Lezyne E-Bike Power E115
• Rear Light: Lezyne LED Femto USB

 

Written by Johnny Dodgin

Photos by James Vincent

 

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