**Competition closed. Congratulations to Neal Biddle, who has been randomly selected as our competition winner. Someone will be in touch soon to arrange getting the bike sent out to you.**
It goes without saying that a new bike is the best Christmas present, without a doubt, so we’ve teamed up with Merida, Hunt, Kenda, Funn and Elite to build up one very special bike. But it gets better, as you can win this very bike! Read on for all of the details.
To start with the bike itself, we’ve got Merida’s Big.Trail 300. It’s an accessible but aggressive hardtail that’s primed for all kinds of riding, whether it’s trail centre flow or off-piste jank. As standard, it’s equipped with a pair of Kenda Regolith tyres, an SR Suntour XCR34 2CR fork with 130mm of travel, a Shimano CUES nine-speed drivetrain and Shimano MT200 brakes. However, we’ve made some rather exciting changes.
First up, we’ve swapped with Kenda Regolith tyres for something a little more fitting for the kind of riding the Big.Trail can get you into. Up front, we’ve got a Kenda Pinner Pro paired with a Kenda Hellkat Pro at the rear. These should bring a very welcome boost in grip, while shedding weight and upping puncture protection – all important things for an aggro hardtail. Of course, these are already set up as tubeless, so we’ve done all the hard work for you.
Those tyres are inflated onto HUNT’s Trail Wide V3 wheels, a favourite wheelset of ours. This is a pair of 29-inch hoops built from 6069 T6 aluminium that’ll bring even more weight savings, while delivering improved strength. Additionally, it comes with the brand’s RapidEngage 5-degree hubs, so right out of the box, a lucky reader will be getting swift engagement on the pedals.
But there’s more as we’ve swapped out the cockpit with kit supplied by Funn. There’s the Upturn handlebar, which is nothing short of modern. This handlebar follows the current trends of high rises, although we’ve been a little more reserved and have chosen the 40mm rise. That’s clamped into Funn’s Equalizer stem, which not only looks excellent thanks to its CNC-machined build, but it’s got a neat trick up its sleeve – it can be turned upside down to achieve either 10mm of rise or 10mm of drop.
Finishing up the Funn components, and the cockpit itself is a pair of the brand’s super slim Hilt grips, and we’ve got Funn’s nylon-bodied, Taipan pedals. These come with rounded pins to add useful protection against any nasty shin strikes.
Some other brands have joined the party, too, with Mudhugger throwing in its newest Mudhugger EVO mudguard and Elite kitting the bike out with a bottle cage and its Nano Fly Thermal bottle, which should keep your fluids cool, and stop them from freezing throughout the winter.
As I mentioned before, we’re offering the chance for one lucky reader to win this very bike! Note, this is a medium frame, but if a medium sounds good to you, fill out the form below before midday on the 15th of December to put yourself in with the chance of winning a brand new and already upgraded mountain bike for Christmas.
