Boardman or Merida Hybrid - head vs heart conflict

[Hotchilidamo]

Ok so I'm taken my time looking around at bikes and have settled on two options I feel represent what I'm after. I'm not totally sure on the difference in spec so would love some advice on that, but judging by thebikelist.co.uk the Boardman is the better bike in terms of spec

Here they both are:

Boardman http://www.thebikelist.co.uk/boardman/hybrid-team-2014

Merida http://www.thebikelist.co.uk/merida/speeder-t3-d-2014


Now the conflict I have is that the Boardman is what my head says to go for (ignoring the Halfords experience for now), but my heart says the Merida because based on aesthetics I love it. But I know I shouldn't by a bike on looks.

Now the other aspect which is important is that the Boardman is only at Halfords and I know they are not exactly the best in terms of customer experience and bike knowledge. Whereas the Merida is available in my LBS and they were really good in helping me come to the decision about the Merida.

The other issue I have is that neither bike is currently availbale in my local Halfords stores, or my independent LBS so I'd have to get them to order them in before I could test ride.

So over to you. They are both the same price, which one would you go for and why? And if you know much about specs, how different are they?

 

[Crackle]

I haven't read the specs but if they are similar, go with the heart, this does after all need to be a bike you look forward to riding. The other thing is, they often look different in the flesh. I for instance never liked the look of a certain Canonndale until one day I saw it in the flesh and found it quite droolworthy.

 

[HLaB]

A quick glance the Merida looks like a good spec too, its got one less cog but whats more important IMO is the range of gears (those links dont show that, ie a 12-25 cassette) but that can be changed at a later date. So if you prefer the look of the Merida and if it rides good IMO get the Merida.