Behind the brand: Michael Brenner, Bike Designer

If picking the colour of your new bike can seem like a hard job, imagine how hard it is to pick the colours of all new MERIDA bikes – but that’s the job that our Bike Designer Michael Brenner has.

He’s the person responsible for creating the colour schemes and concepts of our bike range, designing the logos and badges that go on them, and then making sure that these ideas work for mass production.

While being the person behind such a vital part of how our bikes look is quite a responsibility, it’s also a very satisfying job, as Michael explains his favourite parts.

“There are two things basically - the first one is being part of somebody’s bike experience, whether that’s them shredding through trails, enjoying a long-distance ride or someone having a ‘new bike day’.  While I’m not physically there, there is still a little part of me at the riding spot through the design I created, especially because colour and design does play a big role in choosing your bike.”

“The second one is receiving actual painted samples or fully built bikes once they are manufactured for the first time. After working on projects for extended time periods it’s kind of a childlike experience of curiosity and fun seeing these ideas come to life as a physical real object. Plus, the fact that it’s bikes I design is pretty cool - at least in my eyes!”

It’s not a total surprise that Michael is often inspired when out on his bike, especially when out mountain biking on his local trails.

“It’s a 40-minute uphill for warm-up and once you get there, there is a decent variety of trails that are connected through fair climbs in beautiful forest sections. So the connection and variety between fast, slow, climb, and descend is in a nice balance. And if I’m exhausted, I just sit and enjoy the forest, which is always an advisable thing to do.”

His tool of choice for these forest trips is his custom MERIDA ONE-SIXTY, which obviously has a very special paint scheme and perfectly matched components. 

“I love the colour harmony created also through the matching suspension parts. The paint job is a one-of-a-kind colour which basically makes this bike a unique piece worldwide and I am the dude who has it, so that’s pretty damn nice to me. It is by far the best mountain bike I have had so far and it’s without a doubt my dream build.”

While the bike is certainly a dream build, his ideal sort of ride doesn’t need to be that fancy or in an exotic location to bring him joy.

“In general the best trips for me are just casual days with a nice evening ride, enjoying the blessing of having a healthy body, being able to move and experience the forest, fresh air, being around good people and maybe seeing a sunset. Being able to have and enjoy all of this is the actual gift!”