Merida Big.Nine TR 8000 review

The Merida Big.Nine TR 8000 is the Taiwanese brand’s flagship XC-bred do-it-all hardtail.

The Big.Nine family covers a number of bases in Merida’s range, with this carbon TR model taking the XC whippet Big.Nine and adding 20mm of fork travel, a dropper post and chunkier tyres for a price of £5,000.

It still clearly has XC at its heart though, because the ‘more aggressive’ tyres are still super-fast rollers and the dropper’s travel is relatively limited.

This means the bike is absolutely brilliant at picking up speed – and on the right trails it's an absolute pinner.

However, with skinny tread comes sketchy handling on steep and loose terrain, so you need to make sure you’ve got your wits about you to make sure you keep it rubber-side down.

Merida Big.Nine TR 8000 frame

The frame is undeniably sleek, with skinny, angular carbon tubes giving a fast, futuristic look to the refreshed Big.Nine line.

The straight lines from head tube to rear axle not only look great but also keep the standover height refreshingly low, ensuring the bike doesn’t feel gate-like between your legs.

The stays at the rear are shaped to give lateral stiffness, while still enabling a little vertical flex, to keep things as comfortable as possible.

In the middle of the bike is a threaded bottom bracket, while there’s room for 2.4in rubber in the rear triangle.

There are three pairs of bosses, with two on the top of the down tube – you’ll want side-loading or FidLock cages for these, if you plan to run a pair of bottles in the frame.

Tools can be stashed via the bolts under the top tube.

There’s thin protection on the chainstays to prevent paint loss from chain slap.

Merida Big.Nine TR 8000 geometry

The CF3 Carbon frame comes in five sizes and follows Merida's Agilometer sizing structure. This means there are short seat tubes, low front ends and longer reaches.

As such, you should be able to size up or down, depending on your preference. Sizes should be chosen based on reach and stack rather than seat-tube length.

My Large test bike had a 66.6-degree head angle, 75.4-degree seat angle at 750mm saddle height (measured), a 470mm reach, a 624mm stack and 445mm seat tube.

Across the five sizes, reach ranges from 420mm to 500mm, while seat tubes are between 380mm and 500mm. Chainstay lengths rise from 430mm to 442mm.

Merida Big.Nine TR 8000 specifications

A price of £5,000 gets you quite a lot of Merida, with this build representing pretty good value for money, all things considered.

At the front, there’s a Performance Elite Fox 34 StepCast fork with 120mm of travel and an on-bar TwistLoc lockout from RockShox. The fork features Open Mode adjustment to tune the feel via its Fit4 damper.

The wheels feature deep carbon rims from Reynolds and spin on Ringlé hubs. Surrounding these are 2.4in Wide Trail Maxxis tyres – a Rekon at the front and a faster-rolling Rekon Race at the back. Both are triple-compound MaxxTerra versions with the EXO casing.

The halo product is the SRAM GX Eagle Transmission, the latest iteration of the American brand's wireless groupset. This is joined by SRAM’s two-piston Level Stealth Silver brakes with a Flat Mount rear caliper.

Completing the package is a host of Merida-branded kit, including a carbon bar and 100mm dropper, as well as a headset supplied by Acros, which routes the rear brake hose through the headset for clean lines.

Merida Big.Nine TR 8000 ride impressions

The Big.Nine TR 8000 was tested on my usual XC-trail test loops, handling a range of wooded singletracks and trail-centre loops alike.

Setting up the bike posed no real issues. I ran the tyres with appropriate pressures for their slender build and my riding locale, weight and style – 23psi up front and 24psi at the rear. This is a couple of extra psi than I would use with a ‘proper’ trail tyre such as a Maxxis Minion, to ward off punctures.

How you set your pressures will depend on your weight, riding style, preference and trail conditions – it’s always good to play around and see what you prefer.

The fork was easy to set up to my preference. I referred broadly to the pressure chart on the rear and adjusted it to suit the ride of the day. These charts are generally pretty accurate in my experience.

As with most mountain bike forks, I ran the rebound damping relatively fast, as per my preference.

Merida Big.Nine TR 8000 climbing performance

As you’d expect from a downcountry bike of this ilk, there’s a direct snappiness when you push on the pedals, with the frame’s tubes refusing to steal any of your hard-earned power and delivering it right to the back wheel.

A quick twist of the wrist firms the fork, too, thanks to the TwistLoc on the bars.

Add in almost scarily fast rubber and lightweight hoops and the Big.Nine TR surges with every pedal stroke.

While the geometry isn’t as radical as Merida's latest full-suspension offerings, the shape encourages you to push hard on the climbs, the seat feeling slammed forward over the cranks and the front end low, long and aggressive.

Out in the woods, the Rekon Race can spit dirt behind it when you’re pushing hard, because the tread blocks’ low stance doesn’t provide the most traction you’ll find here.

However, on smoother and hardpacked surfaces, the tyres offer minimal rolling resistance, giving the bike a real eagerness.

On more involved climbs, when you need to make mid-gradient gear shifts, the new Transmission from SRAM rarely buckles to your legs’ power.

While it might not be good form to shift without any mechanical sympathy, the new gears can take some abuse for sure.

Merida Big.Nine TR 8000 descending performance

As soon as the gradient points down, the Big.Nine accelerates well, with speed boosts only needing the slightest pressure on the pedals. It’ll hold its pace on smooth flow trails with ease.

The tyre combination rolls ridiculously quickly, with none of the lethargy of chunkier rubber impeding your speed.

This can lead the Big.Nine to feel as though it’ll be a white-knuckle ride, as you skip and skim over the trail.

You have to commit to your turns to get the front tyre’s shoulder tread biting into the dirt, but when you do you’re rewarded with a speedy dispatch of twisty trails.

The longer front end helps instil confidence in shifting your weight forward, especially because the flat bar and short head tube result in an aggressively low bar.

When things get really rough and tough, the Big.Nine TR loses out to its competitors. The tyres start to struggle, both in cornering and braking, and the deep Reynolds rims’ uncompromisingly stiff feel adds harshness and makes the bike ping over rocks and roots.

The frame’s tubes look slender from the side, and this translates to a muted frame feel as you rattle over rocks. A quick wheel swap confirmed it was the hoops, not the frame, that detracted from comfort levels.

The Big.Nine definitely has cross-country bike roots. The dropper post’s limited drop, the frame’s aggressive stance and the narrow bar make their presence felt when navigating steep, loose and slippery lines.

This made it a handful on my techy test tracks, but its speed-loving nature shone when I wanted a proper cross-country day out – or wanted to attempt KOMs at my local trail centre.

The bike’s versatility would grow with more aggressive tyres, four-piston brakes and trail-focused finishing kit.

Downcountry hardtails | How we tested

This bike was reviewed as part of a round-up of four do-it-all hardtail mountain bikes.

The bikes all had 120 to 130mm of fork travel, with two internationally known brands – Merida and Yeti – providing carbon machines, while two UK-based brands – Mason and Fairlight – supplied their steel frames with a custom build suited to the job.

Some might now call these downcountry bikes, but the reality is they’re simply bikes built for getting on with the job of crossing off-road ground quickly and efficiently.

As such, they were tested on a broad range of tracks and trails, from trail centres to wooded paths, covered during both short blasts and long laps.

Bikes on test

• Fairlight Holt XT
• Mason Raw Deore XT
• Merida Big.Nine TR 8000
• Yeti ARC C2

Merida Big.Nine TR 8000 bottom line

The TR version of the Big.Nine definitely exists at the XC end of the trail bike or ‘downcountry’ bell-curve. It’s fast-feeling, nimble and eager to pick up speed.

It fires you into corners or techy sections at speeds that require pin-point accuracy and fighter-pilot reactions to avoid ending up in a heap, thanks to its fast-rolling rubber and long, low shape.

It’s best suited to XC riders looking to mute the compromises a full-gas cross-country bike might involve, and venture onto moderately techy terrain, rather than those looking for a bike to shred on any trail your local hillside can throw at you.