2024 Merida eOne-Sixty First Ride | Merida splits the eOne-Sixty into two models and revamps the eOne-Forty

Without a doubt, Merida’s eOne-Sixty is one of the most popular e-MTBs in Australia, and for 2024, it’s getting an update, along with its slightly shorter sibling, the e-OneForty.

The latest generation eOne-Sixty is actually two separate bikes. The eOne-Sixty CF is a lighter, sleeker carbon option, while the eOne-Sixty Lite is the heavy-duty alloy bike with a big battery. Finally, the new eOne-Forty Lite has been revamped as more of an SUV e-MTB, and together they all create what Merida has deemed the eTrilogy.

I had the privilege to spend a few days riding the new eOne-Sixty at Hidden Vale Adventure Park west of Brisbane alongside a trio from Merida HQ that developed this new bike.

Related:

Enter the eTrilogy

eBikes have changed quite a lot since the last eOne-Sixty was launched in 2021, and when the team at Merida went back to the drawing board there was more to take into account than just tweaks to geometry and the bits bolted onto it. 

“There are different demands from e-MTB riders. We are always a performance brand, so product managers and engineers want to have the best performance out of the bike. If you put in a big removable battery — 750Wh and also with the cover — the bike immediately gets heavier. There we started discussions about what can we achieve if we have a fixed battery,” says Benjamin Diemer, the CEO of Merida’s Research and Development Center in Germany. 

“The rider groups have changed completely — especially with some of the new motor systems like TQ and Bosch SX showing up — and we thought if we went ahead as we did before that, we just want to have one bike for everyone — that’s not possible any more,” he continues.

So the decision was made to split the platform in two — the more performance-oriented carbon version with a smaller fixed battery and the more budget-friendly bulletproof alloy version with a larger, removable battery. 

While Merida has pitched each of these bikes for a different segment of e-MTB rider, in a similar vein to the analogue One-Sixty and One-Forty, there are a few thoroughfares that connect them.

All three utilise an e-MTB specific version of the brand’s FAST kinematic suspension, which employs a size-specific leverage ratio aiming to offer the best possible performance regardless of whether you weigh 50kg or 150kg.

All of the new Merida’s e-MTBs utilise the brand’s flexstay suspension and makes for an impressively sensitive rear end.

The eOne-Sixty is based around a flex stay which Merida says is to shave some weight and make for one less bearing to worry about, while the eOne-Forty retains the rear pivot to simplify fitting a rear rack and mudguards.

Stephan Sietz, Merida’s MTB Product Manager, explained that the kinematic of the flexstay is specific to each platform. Despite being an undamped part of the frame, the aim is to create a supple and sensitive platform. 

Thanks to a flip chip in the linkage, both bikes can be run as mullet or full 29er, and this will be the first time the eOne-Sixty can be run with a wagon wheel in the back. 

This is the first time it’s been possible to run a 29in wheel in the back of an eOne-Sixty.

“People like having the option for it,” says Merida Senior Product Manager 700C + eBikes EQ, Hannes Noller. “To have it as an option, especially for racers, 29er is still much appreciated. We had the same kinematics on the One-Sixty so it was easy for us to implement.”

Merida says it focused on creating low standover heights across the sizing range so that people can size their bikes based on reach and desired handling characteristics.

Merida has rotated the piggyback shocks 90º from what we typically see to create more room for the range extender inside the front triangle.

With the geometry heavily influenced by the latest generation of the One-Sixty, Merida has also employed its adjustable dropper post on some models — with which we’ve had a mixed experience. Merida has also offset the shocks in the frame to allow extra clearance for the range extender — both frames are also coil-compatible.

All three of these bikes also feature Shimano’s EP801 drive system. Unfortunately, none of the builds have the XT Di2 drivetrain, so you won’t be able to take advantage of the coast and auto-shift functionality of the motor.

The Merida eOne-Sixty CF is the carbon version with a smaller, non-removable battery.

Merida eOne-Sixty CF

Still with a full-power motor, as the CF at the end of the name suggests, this is the full carbon variety of the eOne-Sixty lineup.

Merida has bumped up the travel at both ends with 174mm at the back matched to a 170mm fork. Coming stock as a mullet, if you opt for the 29in rear wheel, it drops the travel to 160mm.

The EP801 motor is powered by a 600Wh non-removable internal battery. According to Merida, ditching the giant hole in the downtube allowed the engineers to increase stiffness and shave some grams. This also positions the battery lower in the downtube for a better weight balance, and claims the new CF frame is 800g lighter than the previous one.

Diemer says that part of the reason they felt confident to go ahead with what they call a mid-power (smaller battery, full-power motor) e-MTB was in part looking at some of their competitors — like Orbea with the Wild and Rise and Giant with the Trance X E+ Elite — who had already proved this concept can work. 

Seitz explained that when you talk to dealers when people are looking at their first e-MTB often they want the biggest battery and strongest motor. But as folks gain a bit more experience, they realise they don’t need quite so much juice. 

“If you’re buying your second e-Bike you may notice that on your first e-Bike you rarely used the full 750Wh, so you say, okay I’m going to step down because I don’t need to carry around all of that extra battery (read: weight),” says Seitz. 

Initially when the team at Merida mocked up the eOne-Sixty CF current 21x70mm battery cells used across just about every e-MTB only held 5Ah, which gave them about 500Wh for the battery size they are aiming to spec. Noller explains this gave them some pause about whether that would be enough and if folks would be put off by the potential range anxiety. But that same cell jumped up to 5.8Ah which pushed the capacity up to 600Wh calming their nerves.

Merida is also offering a 360Wh range extender that increases the total capacity by more than 50% over its predecessor. 

The eOne-Sixty Lite is the alloy version of the frame with a removable 750Wh battery.

eOne-Sixty Lite

The eOne-Sixty Lite takes the bones of the CF version — suspension, geometry, mullet and flip chip — and makes it aluminium, with a different battery.

The eOne-Sixty Lite not only opts for the larger 750Wh battery, it makes it removable without tools. Combined with the 360Wh range extender, that’s an 80%increase over the outgoing 630Wh battery!

According to Merida, the eOne-Forty is an SUV bike, which is a slightly different category than the analogue trail ripper of the same name.

eOneForty Lite

According to Merida, eOne-Forty Lite falls into the category of an SUV bike, which are super popular in Europe, but not so much here in Australia — yet. Similar to the Scott Patron, these are designed for versatility — in essence, good at everything, but great at nothing — from a weekend trail ride to commuting, grocery shopping, and bike touring.

In the same vein as the bigger version, the eOne-Forty ups the travel to 143 mm at the back in the stock 29in configuration along with a 150mm fork. This bike does have a flip chip allowing for the smaller 27.5-inch rear wheel, which bumps the travel to 151mm.

Spec’d with the 750Wh battery; it’s removable and compatible with the 360Wh range extender.

Merida also opted to move away from the flex pivot at the back, to simplify the seat stay and the mounting of racks. The eOne-Forty is also spec’d with inline shocks across the board.

What’s more, just like the analogue One-Forty, the eOne-Forty will accept the 230x65mm shock fitted to the eOne-Sixty, meaning the rear travel can be bumped to match the big bike. You’ll need to increase the fork travel by the same margin, but it does allow you to DIY your way into the bigger platform should you choose.

eOneSixty Geometry

Bucking the trend from just about every other mountain bike on the market, in a size Mid, the new eOne-Sixty actually has a shorter reach than its predecessor, measuring 459mm the same frame. 

According to Seitz from Merida, a lot of the stability of an e-MTB comes from the extra weight, so a shorter reach aids in manoeuvring that heavy bike.

The stack has also been brought down a hair over the last model, while the head angle is one-degree slacker at 64.4 degrees, and the seat angle is steeper, now at 78.4 degrees.

Both eOne-Sixtys are just about mirror images of one another with the only difference being standover height.

eOne-Forty Geometry

Sporting a 471mm reach in size medium, the stack is 624mm paired to a 1235mm wheelbase, which is only 10mm shorter than the eOne-Sixty.

With a 66.5-degree head angle being the same, the seat angle has steepened to 79.6 degrees and the reach has grown by 21mm in a size M. The eOne-Fourty Lite definitely cuts a less aggressive silhouette with a clear tilt towards efficiency. While this bike borrows some of its features from the analogue platform, don’t confuse this as a copy-paste across to the e-version, as this bike is designed for a different purpose.

The eOne-Forty is quite a bit less aggressive than its long-legged sibling.
Colin spent a few hours aboard the eOne-Sixty Lite 675 riding at Hidden Vale Adventure Park.

Riding the new Merida eOne-Sixty Lite 675

At Hidden Vale, I had the opportunity to spend a few hours pedalling the alloy Merida eOne-Sixty Lite 675. This is the base model equipped with Marzocchi suspension at both ends and a Shimano Deore Linkglide 1×10-speed drivetrain.

Riding a little over 40km on two rides, all on unfamiliar trails is hardly the arena to tease out the nuance of a bike you’ve never ridden before. However, what I did learn made me all the more excited to spend more time on this e-MTB.

I was on the Mid size eOne-Sixty Lite with a 459mm reach, and straight away, I felt comfortable to push. It’s a very neutral ride both on the climbs and descents, and it doesn’t require much, if any, body english to guide the front wheel over a chunky rock feature or around a tricky corner. Some big, long bikes require a bit of experimentation to find that sweet spot that keeps the front wheel planted — going up and down — this is not the case on the new Merida.

Before we got the bikes set up, I asked Seitz about shortening the reach for the eOne-Sixty compared to the version without pedal assist. He said that e-Bikes gain a great deal of their stability through weight, and copying and pasting the geometry straight across would make the bike feel too long.
Hey, what did you think about the new eOne-Sixty?

Despite the reach being a tad shorter than what I’m used to, the handlebars didn’t feel like a cramped airline seat on the climbs. That 78.4º seat tube angle puts you in an efficient seated position, and you don’t need to rest your chin on the handlebars to keep weight over the front wheel. I was very comfortable on the Mid size bike, and Long size measures 479mm which is at the upper end of where I’m comfortable, and I would be interested to see how it feels.

170mm is a lot of travel and probably a bit of overkill for most of Hidden Vale’s trail network, but even still, the handling is decidedly low-fuss. Even on tighter and flatter singletrack, the eOne-Sixty rarely felt like a boat—all the more impressive considering it’s anything but a lightweight.

And in that same vein, it doesn’t feel to have come at the expense of overall stability, and it’s anything but skittish through looser and rougher sections of trail. I am super keen to get the eOne-Sixty into some steeper terrain to see what this bike is actually capable of.

Even with its weight and stability, the new eOne-Sixty is still pretty darn agile for a 170mm travel e-MTB

When we were at Hidden Vale, the suspension setup guide was not available yet. While I got close, there was still a bit of puzzling needed. Even still, the rear end was exceptionally smooth and active around the sag point, and the rear wheel felt glued to the ground with a near coil-like fluidity.

There was still ample support pushing into berms, and it stayed relatively high in the travel through repeated hits and janky rock features. For an aluminium tube shaped and sculpted so that it bends under force, that flexstay creates an impressive ride feel.

Of note was also the EP801 motor. While it still can’t quite match the grunt of a Bosch Performance CX, the extra watts it packs over the EP8 are immediately apparent. But even more noticeable (or more accurately, unnoticeable) was the way assistance cuts out when you hit the 25kph limit. It doesn’t feel like you’re getting clotheslined when the power cuts out as it does with some of the other full-power motors — especially those like the belt-driven Specialized/Brose units. Rather, the way it tapers off, it just feels as though the bike is heavy again.

There was no shortage of baby-head rocks strewn about Hidden Vale which would attempt to throw you off line and it took quite a lot to get the eOne-Sixty bent out of shape.
I expect to see far fewer “I found a Merida battery cover” posts thanks to this new latch.

Of course, this is the alloy version with the removable battery. Probably one of the most common posts I see in local mountain bike groups on social media is folks who have found a Merida battery cover at the bottom of a rough trail, describing the tree they’ve hidden it behind, so the owner can go back and find it. Now, instead of the rubber pull tab, there’s a twisting latch that seems to be quite a bit more secure — well done Merida.

There is still A LOT to unpack with the new Merida e-One Sixty — we didn’t even get to ride the carbon one! But the short time I spent on the bike left me impressed. I immediately gelled with the geometry, despite some of the key lines on the chart being a little different from what I gravitate towards. The suspension is well balanced, as are the handling characteristics, both when gravity is at your back, and when you and the Shimano motor are pushing against it.

We have an eOne-Sixty headed back to Flow HQ to spend some time riding it on our home trails. Stay tuned for the full review.

We are very excited to get to know the new eOne-Sixty better on home trails.

Merida eOne-Sixty CF models

Merida eOne-Sixty CF 10K

With the integrated battery, the eOne-Sixty CF 10k cuts a much slimmer silhouette than its predecessor and the Lite version. The top end build receives Factory suspension and SRAM’s XX Eagle Transmission AXS.

Merida eOne-Sixty CF 7000

Sitting second in the lineup the eOne-Sixty CF 7000 sees a solid Fox Performance/Shimano XT build. We expect this is going to be a popular bike.

Merida eOne-Sixty Lite 875

The new eOne-Sixty Lite 875 looks a lot more like the previous version of this bike with beefy tubes and a removable battery.

Merida eOne-Sixty Lite 675

Taking another step down in price this forest green eOne-Sixty Lite 675 is one of the first times we’ve seen a Marzocchi Bomber Air rear shock spec’d on a bike in the wild.

2024 Merida eOne-Forty models

Merida eOne-Fort Lite 400

Only one model of the eOne-Forty Lite is headed for Australia, the base 400 model.

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