RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

The bike sector’s development cycles are much shorter than their car industry equivalents. Therefore, our R & D experts carry out their ambitious search for always revolutionary and new solutions on an annual basis.

Nevertheless, there passes a certain amount of time between the first idea and a MERIDA bike’s final realization! Only this guarantees that our products match the highest demands we can imagine – your demands!

THE SEVEN STEPS OF MERIDA
BIKE DEVELOPMENT

1. “Everything starts with an idea” – the best description for the development history of a MERIDA bike. At first, our R & D department around Head of Design Juergen Falke defines the new bike’s specification sheet – as a matter of course, together with or MULTIVAN MERIDA BIKING TEAM athletes as well as distribution experts from 70 different countries monitoring the ever-evolving international bike market. Which performance features are expected by future customers? Will it be a carbon or aluminium bike – or should there be even two versions? Which trends have been discovered by internationally leading bike magazines? Which development stages will characterize competition? During these concept conferences, our R & D experts answer all essential questions concerning the bike’s future performance range.

2. In close cooperation, MERIDA Chassis Engineer Holger Krauss and Responsible Designer Timo Wurz create first computer-based concept studies. Simultaneously, our developers are always aiming at the best possible approach on a constructional level. This already includes design-related limitations like necessary tire widths, limits set by suspension travel or disc brake rotor sizes. Thanks to professional tools such as “Igorion” suspension software or Pro-E 3D solid object simulation, possible and impossible geometric solutions can be separated in a highly effective way.

3. Time for fresh air! According to the concept studies, first test carriers are welded from aluminium. Now, our engineers and MULTIVAN MERIDA pro riders absolve detailed and attentive test runs on most diverse terrain. At this point, weight and configuration of these test carriers still play a minor role. Therefore, only focus is on (later decisive) chassis performance and geometry-related steering performance.

4. Everything OK? Then the engineers give way to our designers: Different visual concepts are created while all strict standards (e. g. for maximum acceptable weight, pre-set stiffness data or manufacturing processes) are monitored by the engineer team.

5. Now, the final bike scheme is brought to life by our Taiwanese parent company. Taiwan is the world’s most renowned and experienced bike manufacturing nation. As international brand with Taiwanese manufacturing facilities, MERIDA therefore benefits twice from its roots. The Far Eastern frame masters now decide if the chosen design still needs a revision due to manufacturing reasons. If not, the necessary tools can be produced. Depending on frame material, manufacturing is managed “in-house” or by a premium partner (e. g. in the case of carbon manufacturing).

6. Afterwards, first CNC-machined preproduction models from Taiwan arrive at our German headquarters in Magstadt (close to Stuttgart). Before the first production model quits the MERIDA manufacturing plant, every single frame size is tested according to the official European Test Norm EN14766, where we add some additional percentage in “safety back-up” to the required standard. Only when preproduction models successfully pass this MERIDA safety check, they can become production bikes. The in-house MERIDA test bench range includes all machines of the renowned TOUR standard. The latter controls head tube and BB stiffness as well as the fork’s comfort and lateral stiffness data. These safety checks are complemented by the strict fatigue tests of external testing partners like Velotech or EFBe.

7. The complete test program must be passed successfully. But that’s not all: The recorded data even have to over-exceed the test standards! Only then, Taiwanese serial production is started – delivering your new MERIDA already after a few weeks to your local retailer!

Seven steps, one objective: Setting a new benchmark with each MERIDA bike!