The Brand new MERIDA REACTO

THE NEW REACTO – AERODYNAMICS SIMPLIFIED

Our air slicing REACTO road bike was originally launched in 2011 and gradually improved over the coming years, the biggest step up being the 2013 launch of the REACTO II. Now it gets a complete redesign for 2018. The original version launched the concept of the S-FLEX seatpost to the world but was not yet a 100% dedicated aero bike, while the 2013 launched REACTO II (MY 2014) was our first pure aero-road-frame, dedicated for sprinters and breakaway riders and therefore perfect for our then new partnership with TEAM LAMPRE-MERIDA. Amazing aero-values, great head tube stiffness and outstanding power transfer made it the most used bike of the team and managed to rack up an impressive amount of top results in its history (further details available on request).

But after three years in the range and strong movements in the aero market it was time to go back to the drawing board to create the REACTO III – the lightest, fastest and most aerodynamic road bike in MERIDA’s history.

As one of the main bikes in the stable of the BAHRAIN MERIDA Pro Cycling team and known for its incredible power delivery as well as comfort (for an aero bike), it was a tall order to improve the REACTO.

However, we were able to further improve the aerodynamics by 5 % while also reducing weight through a new carbon layup. Simplicity was also a main objective as overly complex solutions create a nightmare for mechanics and resulting in costly workshop bills.

IMPROVING AERODYNAMICS
We could improve the aero performance over the previous model by around 8 Watts which equals somewhere around 5 %. This was achieved by slimming down the tube shapes, introducing a lower seat stay connection and adding a one piece cockpit with integrational features to our bike. To put this in perspective: If you do a solo ride with the new REACTO over 100 km, you save as much energy as riding the same distance with a traditional round-tubed road bike but drafting 30 km of the whole distance.

IMPROVING COMFORT
Comfort could be improved by redesigning the seat stays and the S-Flex seat post with a slimmer cross-section and a bigger window. Improvement here is around 10 %.

IMPROVING WEIGHT
The total weight improvement of the complete frame kit including seat post is:
REACTO (old version) rim brakes: 2046 g
REACTO (new version) rim brakes: 1695,5 g

                                 REACTO (old version)                       REACTO (new version)
Frame                      1250 g                                                 1010 g
Fork                           406 g                                                   368 g
Seatpost                    300 g                                                   235 g
Seatpost clamp         30 g                                                     30 g
Headset                     60 g                                                     52,5 g
                                 2046 g                                                1695,5 g
                                                                                            Gain  17.13 %

The weight reduction of 17.13 % has been achieved by slimming the tube diameters and using different layup combinations.

KEEPING STIFFNESS
Due to its oversized BB area and huge cross-sections, we were able to keep the great stiffness of the previous version.

INTEGRATED COCKPIT DESIGN
The head tube and top tube section are designed to match with the FSA Metron 5D Cockpit, offering the perfect balance between gains in performance without sacrificing the serviceability of the cockpit and cable routing.

GEOMETRY
The REACTO CF4 frame shares, for the most part, the well-accepted race geometry of our SCULTURA CF4. This means a short head tube and a relatively long reach, which will make the bike quick and nimble. The REACTO can be thrown into hard corners without losing control. The CF2 geometry follows a more relaxed position where the rider sits in a slightly more upright position. This is mainly due to the taller head tube. This geometry suits people who are not used to a more racy geometry perfectly. The major difference is the head tube length and the slightly shorter reach.

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