Merida have launched a brand new cyclocross bike, the Mission CX, designed to be an all-in-one machine that can be used for CX racing, training and speedy commuting.
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Merida’s previous cyclocross bike, the aptly named Cyclocross, wasn’t equipped with the latest flat mount disc brake standards and lacked some tyre and toe clearance, therefore Merida set out to design a completely new frame from scratch in the Mission CX to keep up to date with the latest tech. They’ve made the top tube longer, and it has 12mm thru-axles and flat mount brakes front and rear as opposed to 15mm axles and post-mount brakes on the Cyclocross. The thru-axles use a nifty ‘stealth’ release system with a lever inside the axle, you simply pull it out and unscrew to remove it (shown above).
Aesthetically Merida have set out to make the Mission CX fit in with their current line-up, so there are bold colours throughout the range and also Merida’s trademark chunky head tube that flares out at the top. It has what Merida call ‘performance geometry’, and is what you’d expect from a cyclocross bike with pretty sharp seat tube and head tube angles at 74 and 71.75 degrees respectively (on a medium frame) and a raised bottom bracket area. It’s fully UCI legal so can be raced at any CX event.
Merida are suggesting the Mission CX is still a versatile bike and isn’t just for cyclocross racing, and will also be appreciated by those who want a fast commuter or adventure bike (there are front and rear mudguard mounts for winter commuting duties). For those who require a more relaxed ride with slacker angles, the do-it-all Silex is recommended.
Merida say the tyre clearance is 38mm, although you can get a little extra by taking off the seatstay bridge. The removeable bridge for attaching mudguards only appears on the carbon versions of the Mission CX, and although there is a bridge on the aluminium 600 and 400 versions, it’s fixed. The weight of the carbon frame is just 885g and the fork is 402g, while the alloy frame is 1622g.
There are three versions with 1x systems, the 8000, 5000 and 600, with Sram Force on the 8000 shown and Sram Apex on the other two. The carbon Mission CX has a removeable front derailleur hanger so you can swap back and forth between 1x and 2x systems should you need to. The top-of-the-range 8000-E comes with a Ultegra Di2 2x drivetrain and the new rear clutch derailleur system to reduce the chance of a dropped chain.
We’re currently out in deepest Bavaria riding the 8000 model of the Mission CX and Merida have also brought along a whole host of other bikes for us to try over the next couple of days, so check back for some first ride impressions and comparisons with Merida’s Silex soon.
3 thoughts on “Merida launch the Mission CX, an ‘all-in-one’ racing, training and commuting bike”
You might want to question
You might want to question them re the tyre clearance…
You know the whole thing about the Silex models being able to take 27.5×2.2 tyres. Well the alu models don’t, by a long way. You can get some 27.5×1.9 tyres in at a stretch, but you risk tyre rub due to frame flex when cornering hard.
joules1975 wrote:
I remember something about the alu ones being different so checked, and the silex is limited to 650x42mm on the alu bikes accoridng to their website
” It’s even possible to use 650b wheels and go up to 51 mm wide tyre on the carbon and up to 42 mm on the aluminium bikes”
STATO wrote:
That has been updated recently then, quite possibly as a result of my complaints.
I have a screenshot somewhere of the original wording, which stated very clearly that the only difference between the alu and carbon other than material, was the BB standard, and the exact tyre size mentioned is 2.2 on 650B.
That also confirms what I discovered which is that 650b on the alu models is pointless, given that you can happily run 43c tyres, and maybe some 44c tyres with 700c wheels, although the new wording on the website has the alu frame as max of 38c on 700c rims.
What is also rather funny is that the Ride Carbon disc bikes (quite possibly their best ever road bike) can happily accept 650Bx42c, meaning that a road bike developed before the whole ‘road plus’ thing was even a thing has the same clearance for 650B wheels as the the alu version of their much heralded gravel/adventure bike which was developed when ‘road plus’ had very definately become a thing.
I probably shouldn’t be surprised by this, cause the alu Ride Disc frames and their cyclocross frames have chainstay profiles that mean they have much less tyre clearance than their carbon equivilents, but when all the marketing said that the bike will take a particular tyre size, you expect it to be the case (and you can check all the artciles on sites like road.cc to see what they were saying).