Merida Matts - Is TFS 500 A Good Choice?

We were so underwhelmed by the 300-D's fork that it ruined our experience of the rest of the bike. Thankfully, the merida matts TFS 500-D redresses the balance. While the 120mm Suntour Raidon fork has its faults, it's actually a reasonable budget coil unit - and better than many we've seen.

At lower speeds the naturally active rear end keeps the back wheel tracking accurately over roots, rocks and small mammals while the fork patters away contentedly up front. Incidentally, it's a good thing that the rear wheel tracks so well on technical climbs, because you'll %uFB01nd that it's here that the Merida's weight can really be felt.

Pick up the pace and the shock and fork continue to work as a team, smoothing out medium-sized trail detritus ef%uFB01ciently. It's only when the pressure's really on that things start falling apart up front, with the fork's harsh feel on big hits and occasional tendency to top out betraying its budget underpinnings.

By this stage the rear shock's beginning to struggle too, but to be fair the fork handles tough descents better than many other budget coil units we've ridden. The handling's tidy too, though the swept back bars can cause some wayward front wheel moments on those steeper uphill grunts.

Merida Matts came out with the acronyms - the 'TFS' in the Trans-Mission's name stands for 'techno forming system', which is Merida's lower-cost alternative to the ubiquitous hydroforming process that's used to shape and mould aluminium tubes.

The merida matts TFS 800 spot a nice shape that comes with main tubes and curved, complex cross-section stays plugged into airy, cutaway dropouts. The matts TFS 800 looks exactly like the modern hardtail. TFS stands for Techno Forming System, which may sound like a dodgy Euro dance band but is actually a clever variation of the more costly and widely used hydroforming process for producing complex section tubing.

According to Merida, the main difference between the two tube-shaping processes is that hydroforming allows thinner tube walls and therefore lower weight, but the 800%u2032s all-up 28lb heft is right on the money and the tube forming process should result in strength and rigidity exactly where it's needed. Neat touches like the bullet-ended cable stops add to the feel of a high quality frame that would certainly warrant long-term upgrading as components succumb to wear and tear.

Holding up the front and trying to point everything in the right direction is this bike's weakest point - a coil-sprung RockShox Tora 302 fork with 100mm travel, adjustable compression and rebound damping. It's just not anywhere near as plush or as adjustable for different rider weights and styles as, for example, its air-sprung Recon stablemate - although budding racers will appreciate the lockout function.