Down-country oriented lightweight carbon full suspension frame with 120mm FOX 34 Float SC fork, Reynolds carbon wheelset, Shimano XT 1 x 12 drivetrain and Shimano XT hydraulic disc brakes. Merida's mountain biking history is long and illustrious, the Multivan Merida Biking Team dominated XC and marathon racing for many years. Pro racer Ralph Naef spearheaded the original Ninety-Six project; a lightweight full suspension bike and rode it to a silver medal at the World Champs at Fort William a week after it was launched. Today’s XC, marathon and stage race courses have become much more demanding. There's also a growing number of riders looking for Down-country bikes combining the climbing and sprinting ability of a lightweight XC race bike with the ‘trail-ability’ of a trail bike. So the new Ninety-Six is a super modern cross country race bike. Modern, in this case, means that it is much more downhill capable than its predecessors. Available in 2 variants; RC for full on XC racing and for down-country riders non RC models have 120mm front forks, grippier tyres and more powerful front brake. To improve the downhill performance, the head angle is slacker, the reach longer and the bb and stand over height are lower. All these changes make the bike more stable and there is more space to manoeuvre on the bike. The seat angle is made steeper to allow greater pressure on the pedals. The new Ninety-Six leverage ratio is more progressive. The higher ratio at the beginning of the travel makes the suspension sensitive to small impacts, and the progression gives it great support in the mid-travel. The new P-FLEX system means there is no seat / chainstay pivot point, which saves weight, improves stiffness. The properties of carbon and the leaf-spring-like frame design allow sufficient flex without having an impact on durability.