Choosing between CUBE and MERIDA

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PumkinButter

New Member
Hey, new guy here. Basically, I live in Ukraine so quality wise the choise is somehat narrow here. I have a tight budget of 500-600 dollars and I found the best two models for my needs (casual mt, mostly crappy city roads and forest/mountain terrain sometimes).
https://www.cube.eu/en/2021/bikes/mountainbike/hardtail/aim/cube-aim-pro-blacknblue/
https://www.merida-bikes.com/en/bike/1945/bignine-20
In my case the merida is slightly more expensive, but also has what I heard is a better fork than the cube. Any recomendations?
(Suggestions of good models available in europe and in my budget range are very welcome)
 

si_c

Guru
Location
Wirral
The merida is slightly better specified overall - slightly better gears, but I think that the cube gives you better scope for doing upgrades later, specifically the brakes and shifters are separate units rather than one, which makes upgrading cheaper and easier.

Also the difference in the forks is basically marketing, the XCT on the Merida has 30mm uppers vs 28mm on the XCE, but otherwise essentially the same unit, but the 30mm forks weigh more than the 28mm (about 200g) - both are quite heavy but will do the job acceptably well.

Most bikes at that price point are likely to be similarly equipped so it comes down to what you think looks to be a better bike. If you can stretch your budget a little further then something like the Romet Mustang m3 is starting to reach the point where you are getting much better quality components.
 
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PumkinButter

New Member
The merida is slightly better specified overall - slightly better gears, but I think that the cube gives you better scope for doing upgrades later, specifically the brakes and shifters are separate units rather than one, which makes upgrading cheaper and easier.

Also the difference in the forks is basically marketing, the XCT on the Merida has 30mm uppers vs 28mm on the XCE, but otherwise essentially the same unit, but the 30mm forks weigh more than the 28mm (about 200g) - both are quite heavy but will do the job acceptably well.

Most bikes at that price point are likely to be similarly equipped so it comes down to what you think looks to be a better bike. If you can stretch your budget a little further then something like the Romet Mustang m3 is starting to reach the point where you are getting much better quality components.

This Romet one seems like a good deal. It's a shame its only available in one store in whole Ukraine (at a whooping $1000!). Anyway, thanks for help, considering Im not looking forward to changing my bike in approx 7-8 years, I think ill go with the cube.
 

loyal872

New Member
I saw the decathlon comment so I came and registered an account. I'm sorry, no offense or anything. I wanted to by a decathlon bike as well after considering Merida Big Nine and Specialized Rockhoppper Sport. I saw a nice video which I will not find again I believe but the decathlon st900's frame weighed only 1.8kg. The frame was damaged when ordered, it seemed like it's ready to break at the top neck. There was a damage in the frame at the drivetrain too. Decathlon can put nice things on their frames because they cheat with the price when building an mtb frame(or any other style though). A nice trek frame weighs about 2.1kg. That's 3kg difference. No wonder decathlon have become famous with their st520s-st540s. They called back so many mtb and downhill bikes because a huge amount of people returned to decathlon stores with broken frames. Imagine a day you go back to decathlon and you see 5-6 other guys at the store with the same bike as yours, broken. I almost bought an st900, thank god I saw that video and just in general asked around and researched their bikes on the internet.

According to the question:

Merida has better bang for the buck. Much much better price/quality ratio than cube. I wouldn't buy cube. I like their frame geometry better than merida or specialized but the quality with Specialized or Merida is faaaar better. When it comes to buying a bike, you got to think about the accessories on the bike as well. Hope you bought the latter.

Happy riding!
 
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