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All dimensions based on Medium (17in) frame

• Merida Matts TFS 350-Trail-D
• £549.99
• www.merida.com
• Distinctively-styled hardtail
• Huge great gobs of fun

Second bike up in our look at £550 hardtails is from Merida. In the past, the brand has had quite a traditional XCish focus, but the Matts TFS Trail line is pitched rather more at the recreational trail-riding market.

Frame

The Merida’s frame is rather more distinctive than most at this price range. Its goal of a less racy, more traily hardtail has resulted in a very compact, low-slung frame. The heavily-dropped top tube, seat tube strut and tight rear triangle is almost a bit Evil Sovereign, only in aluminium and lots cheaper.

Like the AM-800D we tested recently, the Matts TFS frame is something of a showcase for Merida’s high-tech framebuilding machinery. Indeed, several bits are exactly the same – the ditched/channelled down tube and barrel-shaped and reinforced head tube for starters. There’s some funky stuff going on with the stays, too, with flattened and flared chainstays.

The tidgy front triangle means there’s only room for one set of bottle bosses, although we can’t see that bothering too many potential purchasers. Cable routing takes the rear brake hose and gear cable under the top tube while the front gear cable takes the traditional under-BB direction. On the subject of fixtures and fittings, the Matts has rack eyes on the back end, which seem a little redundant (especially as we can’t see how one would actually fit on, given the shallow angle of the seatstays) – we’re going to speculate that the seatstays and dropouts are shared with other models in the Merida range that you might actually want to fit a rack to.

It’s all very tidily put together, and the colour and graphics are somewhat more subdued than Meridas of years past too. Which can only be welcomed.

Components

Usual “budget bike” rules apply to Merida as with anyone else – the poor old product manager can’t get everything for what (s)he’s got to spend, so compromises must be struck. We rather like the compromises that have been struck with the Matts, though. The traditional form is for visible things like the rear derailleur to get upgraded, even though it makes almost no performance difference – on the shop floor, buyers (and indeed salespeople) tend to look at the rear mech and go, “Ooh, it’s got XT” or whatever. Merida’s not playing those games here – both derailleurs and the shifters are from Shimano’s Alivio group. They work just fine, although the shifters are a wee bit plasticky and you only get eight speeds at the back.

The trade-off for the lowly transmission spec is a travel-adjustable RockShox Tora 302 fork, complete with lockout. The Tora gives between 85 and 130mm of travel although, perhaps inevitably, we ended up with 130mm most of the time. Bringing everything to a halt are Shimano’s M485 two-pot hydraulic brakes, given a bit of a boost by 180mm rotors at both ends.

Wheels feature Shimano Centerlock hubs, stainless spokes and Alex DP-17 rims, none of which gave any trouble. We’re used to seeing lots of own-brand stuff on bikes, and the Merida is no exception – stem, bars, seatpost, saddle and even tyres carry the Merida brand. The difference is that manufacturing powerhouse Merida does actually make most of this stuff itself. It’s all pretty decent – the 2.1in tyres look a little small for a bike of this kind of personality, but they did a good enough job of gripping and rolled fine.

It’s a perfectly good spec, and it’s hard to argue with the choices that Merida has made. We give them a big thumbs-up for putting money into the bits that matter (fork, wheels) and not the bits that don’t (derailleurs), although whether the more magpie-like elements of the market will agree is anybody’s guess.

Ride

When we tested Merida’s AM800D full-susser, we commented (at possibly tedious length, sorry about that) on the discrepancy between the listed geometry figures and the ones we measured off the actual bike. Well, guess what? The Matts TFS doesn’t measure the same as its stated numbers either. In this case, though, that’s pretty clearly mostly down to the adjustable fork, with Merida’s numbers being for a fully wound-in fork and ours for a fully wound-out one. We measured it with a short fork too and the numbers were close enough, but the reasons we’ve listed the numbers with the long fork are twofold.

First, you’ve only got 11.8in of BB height to play with with the fork at 130mm. That’s OK, but it doesn’t leave much margin to shorten the fork – take it to 85mm and you’ve lost about an inch of clearance. You’re not going to want to ride it like that on anything resembling off-road. Second, with the fork at 130mm the Matts TFS is an absolute hoot to ride. It’s got the point-and-shoot feel of a burly freeride hardtail, but without the excess weight, so it’s still pretty chuckable. The shortish top tube keeps some weight over the bars when seated so it goes up hills in a fairly straight line, and something somewhere keeps it very comfortable too. We’re not quite sure what (although it’s probably not the narrow tyres) – those formed and flattened chainstays a tiny bit, probably the yards of seatpost sticking out mostly, but the only thing that’ll dissuade you from spending hours in the saddle is getting a wee bit cramped.

We did most of the testing for this bike on trail centre trails, and it excels in that environment. Novices will love the confident feel, more experienced riders will find that it’ll attack the trail with considerably more vigour than you might expect for £550. Would we change anything? Well, slightly bigger tyres would be nice, but we’d happily use the ones on it until they wore out.

Positives: Solid spec, imaginative frame, great ride

Negatives: Tyres a little undernourished

Verdict: We were expecting some decent bikes at £550. We weren’t expecting one that gave us proper silly grins, and let’s be honest, we weren’t expecting it to be a Merida. It’s a company working hard on its image, and this could very well be the bike that cracks it – it’s a blast, but not the kind of blast that’ll scare off beginners. Our big fear is that the not-very-eyecatching, but eminently sensible, spec will cause the Matts to be overlooked on the shop floor, and that would be a great shame. Check this one out if you’re in the market, you’re missing out if you don’t…

Performance: 5/5
Value: 4/5
Overall: 5/5