A challenger to the B'Twin Triban 3?

[Kell]

The new Merlin PR7 at £300 looks good.

http://road.cc/content/news/131472-just-new-merlin...

[Gruffy]

It looks unbeatable. Better value than even B'Twin's £349 500 SE (which I'd have bought if it was around when I picked up my 3). I have to say though, Decathlon's service has been pretty stellar. They can have long waiting times for their workshop but their guys are very good, very helpful and very cheap.

[Barchettaman]

That´s a winner right there. Absolutley unbeatable for the price / specification.

Well done Merlin.

[jamiebae]

http://road.cc/content/review/134131-merlin-perfor...

Looks brilliant for the cash, I think I might order one to keep at my Mum's house and use when I'm back in the UK. I'm sure £50 on tyres and brake blocks will take it to the next level and shave half a kilo of weight off too - those tyres look like the ones off a Carrera TDF and they're totally hopeless.

[jamiebae]

However, a quick look on their website shows all sizes out of stock, and a price hike to £369...

[esuuv]

Out of stock yes - but still showing up as £300 here.

[jamiebae]

And here too now!

There were lots of comments about the price change on Facebook under the road.cc article, so maybe they decided to reverse the sneaky price change as the publicity the sub £300 price point was generating made it more sensible to hold for now.

Alternatively, they have reversed the price change for now, but new stock will come in and be priced at £369 as soon as it arrives... #cynical

[TwistingMyMelon]

Even @ 369 its still a good buy, its not like a public service to provide cheap bikes , if I was running a business and demand was high, I would up the price

[jamiebae]

TwistingMyMelon said:

Even @ 369 its still a good buy, its not like a public service to provide cheap bikes , if I was running a business and demand was high, I would up the price

Of course, but if all the mags were going to press with reviews stating that it's amazing VFM priced at £299 then you'll lose a load of potential buyers when they go the site and see it priced at £70 more.

If you look at the value of the media coverage this will generate, and the number of people it will bring into the Merlin brand it's well worth reversing the increase for the moment at least.

[leyorkie]

Out of stock until March 2015

[Greenish]

Marketing - meh. I'm in the market for a £300 bike and would have bought this evening - out of stock for 6 months - I'll buy something else.

Don't big up your stock unless you can follow through.

[jamiebae]

Greenish said:

Marketing - meh. I'm in the market for a £300 bike and would have bought this evening - out of stock for 6 months - I'll buy something else.

Don't big up your stock unless you can follow through.

Agreed, I want the cheapest thing I can buy which isn't a BSO to use over Christmas, so it looks like I'm going to be picking up another Carrera TDF now.