Merida eOne-Sixty SL 6000 is only a handlebar swap away from being pretty much perfect.
- Brand: Merida
- Product: eOne-SIxty SL 6000
- Price: £5,500
- From:Merida Bikes
- Tested by: Benji and Aran for 4 weeks
- SQUIRREL_TEXT_13238679
Pros
- Excellent handling
- Really well put together spec
- Has its priorities right
Cons
- Prefers high cadence pedaling riders
- Motor noise not as quiet as other midpower motors
Our rating
Strange times in the ebike world. A whole lotta talk about power. Loads of talk about range. Some talk about handling. And a bit of talk about weight, but not enough.
I am starting to become ever more suspicious of the recent move to stating bike weights in kilograms instead of the traditional pounds. 20kg compared to 23kg doesn’t sound like much of a difference does it? State it as 44lb compared to 50lb and things sound and feel rather different.
I begin this review in such a way because, on paper, the Merida eOne-Sixty SL 6000 is probably not going to be on many people’s eMTB shortlist. For £500 less you could have the Saracen Ariel 50E Elite. More significantly, for £500 more you could have the base model Amflow PL Carbon.
I would choose the Merida over both of those, admittedly decent, eMTBs. Every day of the week.
Why?
Because it rides better.
I feel like everyone, myself included, is impatient for the time when eMTBs cost significantly less than £6k, have full-power, big batteries, decent geometry and weigh 20kg/44lb. Everyone is so impatient that some our kidding themselves that that time is now.
It ain’t.
Every single eMTB available is a compromise. And a whole load of folk are compromising on the wrong thing. The very last compromise you should make on ANY mountain bike is handling.
And in my experience, the best handling eMTBs are the midpower ones. This Merida eOne Sixty SL and the Lapierre E-Zesty AM are the only two ebikes that I’d be happy to have as my only MTB.
Bikes like the full-fat Ariel 50E are just too heavy sometimes. Not just when lifting them over trail obstacles, but when steep trails get slippery, 54lb ebikes aren’t very fun. They’re just frightening.
As for the Amflow PL Carbon, the DJI Avinox motor is undeniably The Best Motor, but the bike it’s plumbed into does not light my fire. The geometry just wasn’t as capable as a bike in 2025 should be.
So what are the compromises with the Merida eOne Sixty SL 6000? Well, it’s power isn’t it? 55Nm of torque is considerably less than the 85-105Nm of full-power eebs. I can live with 55Nm. Whether you can is down to your circumstances – and riding group (hey, if you want ‘revenge’, just take your full-power ebike pals on a route with loads of stuff to lift the bike over and steep, loose terrain to ride down!)
What about range? Surely only having 400Wh is a compromise? Not really. Ironically, because the power is lower. Even riding around almost exclusively in higher power modes, I didn’t worry about emptying the battery. And at least with Bosch, you can get a 250Wh range extender piggyback battery at some point down the line if you feel the need.
This Merida eOne-Sixty SL 6000 weighs 45lbs (the Amflow PL Carbon Pro we tested weighed 47lb FWIW). It also requires next to nothing in terms of component changes. Merida has its priorities right on this bike. There’s no short travel droppers. Or too-small rotors. Or ropey OEM tyres.
The fork and shock are excellent. The drivetrain is great. The brakes are fantastic and have 220 and 203mm rotors. The seatpost is a proper 200mm travel dropper. The tyres are suitably chosen Maxxis – and also 3C MaxxGrip (front) and MaxTerra (rear) compound. Okay, the larger size models could do with higher rise handlebars but a lot of bikes have that issue these days and a decent bike shop should swap in a set of 50mm rise bars if you ask nicely (or just pay the difference).
Now that I’ve (once again) made my case for midpower eMTBs, shall we dive more into the specifics of the midpower Merida we have here? Yes, let’s.
Perhaps the my very favourite thing about the Merida eOne Sixty SL is that it’s a midpower eMTB that is also extremely capable on technical terrain. All too often, midpower comes with meh geometry or mid suspension travel. The Merida reminds me of the cult classic Specialized Turbo Kenevo SL, except way, way better.
The eOne Sixty SL has similar suspension travel to the Kenevo SL but the Merida’s geometry is much more progressive and all-round capable. The Achilles heels [sic] of the Kenevo SL was the short back end and the seat tube (rather slack and couldn’t take much dropper post insertion).
While we’re talking about suspension travel, the nominal rear travel on the Merida is 160mm. The fork is also 160mm. You can get more rear travel (174mm to be precise) by switching the bike into mullet mode via the flipchip in the rocker (oh, and supplying your own rear wheel and tyre).
Essentially, the Merida eOne Sixty SL is like the sort of all-day all-mountain bike that I’ve always loved and owned. But it has a pedal assist motor. What’s not to love?
The rear suspension design is ostensibly a linkage driven single pivot but with flexy stays instead of pivots on the stays. It’s a design that works well. It’s certainly supple enough to require a half a turn of low speed compression and some clicks of rebound on the Marzocchi Bomber Air shock to make it super stable under pedalling. Sometimes when pairing longer travel with flexy stays can do funny things to the rebound deeper into the travel but I didn’t find that to be the case here.
In general, the suspension felt pleasingly sporty and punchy. Plenty of support. Grippy enough at slower speeds but no trapdooring, wallowing or excessing bottoming on rougher, faster terrain. Really sorted both on technical ascents as well as descents. The fun, rewarding stuff. I’d go as far to say that I prefer the feel of Marzocchi stuff over Fox or RockShox currently.
The main niggle of Marzocchi dampers is the lack of indexing to the compression dials. They just smoothly turn with no clicks. For paranoid riders who wonder about these dials being moved accidentally: 1) don’t worry, 2) put a little sticker on the body adjacent to the dials’ ‘arms’ to keep an eye on things drifting.
Often on full suspension eMTBs it’s the seat tube that presents issues. A lot of the time the seat tube ends up being kinked (or interrupted) which does two unfortunate things. It reduces dropper insertion/travel and slackens the seat angle. In other words, the seat tube impairs both climbing and descending. And then there’s the ability to fit a proper size water bottle into the front triangle.
None of this stuff is an issue with the Merida eOne Sixty SL. There’s plenty of dropper insertion. The seat angle is genuinely steep. Once you’ve ridden steep seat angles, you really notice how inferior a slack seat angle makes things. Yuck. And you can fit a proper bottle in the frame no problem.
You can’t run a water bottle as well as a range extender piggyback battery but I don’t think that’s a real problem; if you’re going for a ride that requires a range extender, you need a Camelbak.
It’s when descending that this bike truly shines. It has the usefully heavier-than-analogue weight – which helps the suspension perform brilliantly (sprung vs unsprung and all that) so the overall composure and traction is immense. But there’s not too much heft that the bike runs away from you or can’t be flicked about (whether the flicking is demanded by the trail, or just because you feel like it, doesn’t matter).
As well as the Goldilocks weight of the bike, the decent amount of standover (and aforementioned dropper post travel) help immensely. You always feel like you can get out of trouble should things go pear-shaped. Which is not often you feel like that on an ebike.
In terms of the specifically E stuff: the charging port is well positioned halfway up the seat-tube (further away from filth and just easier to reach!), the bar remote is great, the Purion 400 display is much better than just having LEDs on the top tube (I like knowing stuff like battery %, cadence and the time etc) and the Bosch Flow app is one of the better ones for tweaking your assist level mode ‘behaviour’.
In terms of range, the bike can comfortably do my typical 20km with 500m ascent without being ‘careful’, and can just about do double that (40km/1,000m) with judicious use of higher assist modes and/or just, you know, putting more effort in.
Overall
The Merida eOne Sixty SL 6000 is one of the few eMTBs that I’d happily have as my one and only off-ride bike. I’d gladly take the compromise on top-end power in exchange for the overall weight and – more importantly – the incredibly capable handling that comes from the well thought out geometry, suspension tune and component spec. Honestly, it’s a handlebar swap away from being pretty much perfect.
Merida eOne Sixty SL 6000 specification
- Frame// CF4 Carbon, 160mm
- Shock// Marzocchi Bomber Air
- Fork// Marzocchi Z1, 160mm
- Wheels// Merida Expert TR II 28mm ID rims on Shimano TC500 hubs
- Front tyre// Maxxis Assegai, 3C MaxxGrip EXO+ 29×2.5in
- Rear tyre// Maxxis Minion DHR II, 3C MaxxTerr EXO+, 29×2.4in
- Chainset// FSA CK220, 165mm
- Drivetrain// Shimano Deore 12-sp, 10-51T
- Brakes// Shimano Deore M6120, 220/203mm
- Stem// Merida Expoert eTR II 35, 40mm
- Bars// Merida Expert eTR 35, 780 x 30mm
- Grips// Merida Expert EC
- Seatpost// Merida Comp TR III, 34.9mm, 200mm
- Saddle// Merida Comp SL
- Bottom Bracket// Bosch
- Motor// Bosch Performance Line SX, 55Nm, 600w peak
- Battery// 400Wh
- Size tested// Long
- Sizes available// X-Short, Short, Mid, Long, X-Long
- Weight// 21.4kg/45lb
Geometry of our size Long
- Head angle// 64°
- Effective seat angle// 78.5°
- Seat tube length// 445mm
- Head tube length// 115mm
- Top tube// 616mm
- BB height// 27.5mm BB drop
- Reach// 489mm
- Chainstay// 450mm
- Wheelbase// 1,278mm
SQUIRREL_13238679
That looks really well put together, and very stealthy hiding its “E”.
But, for £1,000 more, you can now get the Whyte elyte Works, with a £500 range extender included. That was previously the best handling e-bike wasn’t it?
Just noticed that cable routing through the headset though……
It does indeed hide its E-ness well. Although is that partly because we’re accustomed to increasingly chunky-tubed ‘normal’ bikes with downtube storage etc?
I know I’ll regret ‘only’ having 60Nm and 430Wh when I’m riding with others on Amflows, but that’s the compromise. For solo rides I’m very happy with a mid-power, low-weight ebike. Heckler SL (an actual 20.6kg in XXL in real-life with pedals, mudguard etc) feels very similar to my non-ebike in general, and lots better than Mrs a11y’s 26kg full power Cube. Currently reduced to £6k so puts it into same price bracket as an Amflow but with a better spec (GX AXS build) – very different bike clearly.
Hiding it’s E-ness well: