Merida Cyclo Cross 5000

If you're in the market for a thoroughly capable cyclocross race bike, with suitable gearing and a stiff and responsive carbon fibre frameset, the Cyclo Cross 5000 needs to be on your shortlist. Chuck on a set of mudguards and some fat slick tyres and you can transform it into a winter steed, but really it's the bike's racing credentials that shine the most brightly here. Well, that and Merida's green paint job.

Ride and handling

If you're racing cyclocross, you want a frame that provides direct and responsive handling, so you can have full control through fast terrain and over loose surfaces and for sudden changes of direction. The Cyclo Cross 5000 fulfils that requirement, with a stiff carbon fibre frame and fork, thru-axles and a tapered head tube.

>> Read more: Your guide to cyclocross racing

Additionally, to help the frame survive the knocks of a 'cross race, the frame incorporates the company's Nano Matrix Carbon which aims to provide increased impact resistance, a useful trait in a bike designed for riding and racing off-road.

As is increasingly common among cyclocross bikes, the Cyclo Cross 5000 has disc brakes. The rear brake caliper is mounted inside the kinked chainstay and the brake cables are routed inside the frame. Even the fork has internal cable routing. Along with the internal gear cable routing, that means clean lines all round. The TRP Spyre brakes sit on post mounts at both ends, not the newer flat mounts, and have 160mm rotors.

Another growing trend with disc brake bikes is the use of thru-axles, a technology borrowed from our mountain bike cousins. Merida uses a 15mm front thru-axle and 12mm rear, with quite chunky levers that could be deemed a bit ugly if we were being super critical. They work fine, though, and getting the wheel in and out is a quick and easy task; thru-axles help to line up the disc in the rotor.

The use of the thru-axle fork, in conjunction with the tapered head tube (with a 1.5in lower bearing race) gives the bike really direct steering. Drop the bike into a steep and rutted descent and the bike feels precise, you can point it where you want to go with the precision that is needed in a cyclocross race bike. There's just no hint of flex or vagueness, the bike follows your inputs faithfully.

It's a firm ride, certainly on the stiff side, but provided you run the tyre pressures reasonably low you get a fair amount of cushioning, and the 27.2mm seat post and comfortable saddle help too. The racing DNA shines through, though, and it was best suited to short blasts rather than longer rides of discovery and adventure. It's built for going very fast around a tricky race course, rather than heading into the hills and wilderness.

The Cyclo Cross 5000 is a little lower and longer than the Specialized Crux Elite X1, and that does make the position quite a bit more aggressive. That'll suit racers that prefer a lower position, but if you like a taller front-end for tackling off-road trails, Merida has generously fitted the bike with a stack of spacers so you can raise the bars.

The Merida felt a bit more nimble in the slower speed corners when compared to the Crux, with the shorter wheelbase promoting a slightly more agile ride in the tighter turns that require a bit more body language. It's a bike well suited to typical UK cyclocross race courses. Away from the tape, it's a competent bike for exploring local trails, byways, and woods, but it lacks the versatility and comfort of one of the new breed of adventure bikes, though a change of tyres would certainly transform it if that's the sort of riding you're more interested in.

Equipment

It's clear the carbon fibre frame and fork eats into the £1,700 budget because while the bike isn't exactly under-specced, it might be reasonable to expect hydraulic brakes at this price. The TRP Spyre mechanical disc brakes are trustworthy, with a nice progressive lever feel, but they're not in the same ballpark as hydraulic discs. And once you've tried hydraulic, it's difficult to forget how good they are.

Elsewhere, the Shimano 105 11-speed groupset provides the usual high-quality shifting performance and reliability, even in the mud, and the Shimano RS500 46/36 chainset is a suitable setup for the lower speeds typical in a cyclocross race. An 11-28t cassette gives a good spread of gears and some useful lower ratios for tackling hillier terrain away from a school playing field.

A pair of auxiliary brake levers mounted to the centre of the handlebars provide useful control in some situations, but I personally found them a bit redundant most of the time, and out of tune with a carbon fibre cyclocross race bike. Still, if you do have designs on more inhospitable terrain they might well be useful additions.

There's a nod towards comfort with a 27.2mm seat post, which provides a bit more deflection in the rough. Mounted on top is a Merida Sport Pro saddle which I found comfortable with enough padding to provide a bit of extra cushioning when barreling along rough tracks.

Merida has put together a wheelset using its own Comp 22 Disc Cross rims with stainless steel spokes and Formula hubs, using Shimano's CenterLock disc rotor attachment system to fix the 160mm rotors into place. Apart from a few settling-in creaks from the rear wheel, the wheels proved durable and sturdy throughout the testing period and the rims survived one encounter with a rock garden when the front tyre pinched halfway down the descent.

The 33mm wide Maxxis Mud Wrestler tyres have a folding bead to save weight, and the tread pattern is well-suited to getting you through muddy sections and bogs. They're a bit draggy on the road, though, and not the fastest choice for drier terrain.

Rivals

Many other bike brands stick with aluminium at this sub-£2,000 price point, but while the metal frame does carry a weight penalty, you can expect a better level of equipment. Case in point is Ridley's X-Ride 20 Disc. It costs £1,600 and combines an aluminium frame with a Shimano 105 groupset and excellent hydraulic disc brakes. You do lose the carbon frame mind, but given how good modern aluminium frames are these days, it likely won't be the major performance inhibitor you might expect. And if you like the idea of a cyclocross bike for its all-around versatility, might I point you at the Specialized Diverge Comp. It's a hundred pounds more but you get Shimano's hydraulic discs and a bike better suited to 50/50 mix of road and rough stuff.

Overall

If you're in the market for a carbon cyclocross race bike and it must have disc brakes and thru-axles, the Merida Cyclo Cross 5000 is a thoroughly competent choice. It's exciting and rapid and very direct, and well-suited to typical UK cyclocross race courses. The mudguard mounts suggest versatility, but the firm ride is taxing on longer jaunts, and if you aren't looking to race, you might be better served by one of the newer breed of adventure bikes.

Verdict

Rapid and stiff cyclocross bike well suited to racing