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TECH NEWS
Merlin Cycles launch sub-£300 PR7 road bike with carbon fork + video
Merlin Cycles have launched the PR7 road bike featuring an aluminium frame, carbon fibre fork, Shimano Claris groupset and Mavic wheels with a price tag of just £299.99.
Is this the best value road bike for under £300? Merlin Cycles certainly reckon it is, and looking around at the other options, it looks like it might just be. The best nearest alternative is B’Twin’s £279.99 Triban 3, but that doesn’t have the carbon fork that the Merlin Cycles PR7 offers. Of course just because it's the best value bike doesn't necessarily mean it's the best (though it certainly helps) - riding is the proof of the pudding - we've asked for one for review.
The PR7 features a lightweight 6061 aluminium frame with profiled tube shapes and mudguard mounts, and a carbon fibre fork with an aluminium steerer. It’s very impressive that Merlin have managed to fit a carbon fork to a bike at this price, the carbon will bring the weight down and should also contribute to the ride performance.
Merlin Cycles have also managed, impressively, to fit a Shimano Claris 8-speed group set - we don’t know of any other bike at this price offering the Claris group set. Shimano updated this groupset last year and it now features the same Dual Control shifters as you’d find on the more expensive Shimano groupsets.
Mavic CXP-22 wheels are fitted with 25mm tyres, so you should get a bit of extra comfort, and Wellgo alloy flat pedals and toe clips get you started. Merlin fit their own aluminium handlebar, stem, seat post and saddle.
“We have a history in designing excellent road bikes and although this is one of the lower priced ones, it’s also definitely one of our favourites,” says Merlin Cycles.
The PR7 is available in four sizes; 50, 53, 56 and 59cm. They have a size guide on their website to help you pick the best size for your height.
Not only have Merlin Cycles put together a great value bike, but they’ve also worked on making it look good.
“We wanted to make a bike that looks the part and doesn’t look cheap sub £300 shouldn’t mean sub-standard looks,” says Merlin Cycles.
The PR7 is available now from Merlin cycles, you can order online at www.merlincycles.com or drop into their newly expanded retail store in Chorley, Lancashire.
You can take a look at 10 budget road bike bargains under £500 in our buyer’s guide here.
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
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25 comments
Really fancy this but zero geometry information on the website and they seem to give you no detail on the phone!
Looks like a great deal. The closest I can think of is Halford's Carrera Virtuoso which is always on offer for about £250, but it's a heavy beast with CroMo steel (no, really!) forks, so this looks way more attractive.
The rear cassette teeth-count really doesn't matter - switching a basic cassette takes minutes and costs peanuts. Way more important is the quality of the wheels, IMO.
Stick on 25/28mm GatorSkins and upgrade the brake blocks to mid-price, and for £350 you've a great Winter hack.
axiom do a pack of QR-mounted mudguard eyelets too, which means you can fit many (narrow) guards to a bike without mounts
My first road bike £a £300 Giant OCR) had a 39x24 lowest gear and that was fine
Beginners nowadays have it easy
Mine was similar with a lot less cogs than this one. That said, living in Bristol, I was 'doing it rather than digging it' on some of the hills (steep, extended or both) and not even doing it on a few of those.
Ah - that may just be the point
I asked Merlin Cycles about the gear ratio, because when I wrote this article it wasn't listed on the website. They tell me it has a compact 50/34 chainset and a 11-30t cassette. Hope that helps
Emailed a few questions to Merlin this morning and got a very quick response from them as follows:
- The front fork does not have eyelets for mudguards.
- The maximum tyre size the frame accepts is 28mm
- the bike weighs approximately 10.4kg
A shame about the lack of front mudguard eyelets, I was eyeing one of these for my town bike and another for my girlfriend's winter bike!
I think that is a major oversight. I know they need to keep complexity and cost down, but a bit additional flexibility would have really helped the commuter market, seeing as it can take a rack.
Buy mudguards that don't need eyelets then; like CrudRacer2.
RAH! 28C!
Ref mudguard mounts, the SKS Raceblade Long is quite the schizzle. It will fit bikes without dropouts whilst being just as solid as permanently bolted-on guards, but is quick-releasable in seconds. Best of both worlds.
Oh, and will often fit bikes without the clearance for normal full guards.
They probably read the post ;-), but a 11-30 is very good. With 11 u can always pedal and with a 30 u can get up most hills.
I've bought a €699 Specialized Allez a few years ago and if i see what u can get for the money now i'm so jealous the 2300 on it (that i still use) isn't super, max 26 teeth on the back and the thumbshifters sucks.
Shimano Claris is so much better, 32 teeth, shifting like all Shimano groups and good breaks (2300 didn't have breaks in the groupset.)
Hmmm... given the apparent target market and an 8-speed cassette, i'm not convinced about the 11T - personal preference perhaps, but if I was spec'ing it as a cheap run-about or for first time riders, i'd probably be thinking of a 12T or 13T.
Not sure why, but I find that Campagnolo have a much better handle on gear spreads than Shimano. YMMV clearly.
Well i've missed an 11 or 12 on my bike plenty of times (downhill or on a long straight road with wind in the back), and Campagnolo is to expensive for bikes like this.
I've never 'missed' an 11T as such, by the time i've spun out of a 12T i'm doing over 60km/h which is normally enough for my leisure type riding in the UK ... but my point was more about bikes for new riders, especially with an 8-speed drive chain - they might the type of people who would appreciate tighter ratios but whilst retaining a nice low gear for hills etc.
Sorry, I didn't intend to mean that Campag should be on the bikes - just that I personally find their range of ratios to be wider and with some (subjectively) better choices of cog.
I have had a couple of Merlin Malt mountain bikes. The first was my first proper mountain bike and it was perfect. Sadly it was stolen and the frame of the second ended up in a skip after a weld failed.
The PR7 looks like good value, but I'd like to know more about the frame and its geometry. Is it butted? How much does it weigh? How long are the top and head tubes? What are the stack and reach figures?
In my experience most people can get up most hills on most gear ratios, however most newbies always could use an extra gear or two! Wide ratios all the way for entry level bikes
Would make for a great bike if it can accomodate a triple with a 46 big chainring.
Would be an awesome first roadbike, if i would buy my first roadbike today this would be one i would consider.
But what's the gearing because i've seen alot of 11-25 gearing on British built bikes.
I hope it's 11-28 or 11-30!
Agree this is vital for a beginner bike. It looks like a 30t or possibly 32t to me from the photo.
Bike sounds very good value. I doubt it will be terrible from Merlin.
According to Merlin's website the cassette is a Shimano HG50 8-speed ... and according to Wiggle the maximum spread available is 13-26.
It's still got 16 gears though. That's plenty for recreational cycling.
The bike looks outstanding value to me.
Evans' website suggests the same cassette is available in both 28 and 32 tooth variants, so it's hopefully one of the latter on this.
I don't think a narrower spread of gears would be sufficient on a bike such as this. It's reasonable to assume that people buying bikes at this price point will be beginners (I can't see many seasoned cyclists upgrading to a £300 bike...) and so may well lack the fitness/strength to cope with only a 34/26, unless they happen to live in Norfolk.
Merlin's website for the PR7 lists the cassette as 11-30t.
I swear that wasn't specifically listed on there only an hour or so ago, hence the speculation...
I wonder if they've seen this and updated the specification? The article on here is just a glorified advert after all.
Must have. That detail was definitely not there before!
merlin have made quality bikes for years, I had a merlin mountain bike from them in the early 90s and it was simply the best pound for pound bike I could find. There still good value and even have a shop were you can buy items, tried this with Ribble recently only to be told no payments could be taken in store, only on line. First store I've found that turns away sales. Any way back to merlin, the only down side for me is they don't deal with NHS bikes cycle to work scheme. Well worth a look though as lots of bargains.