{"id":40333,"date":"2023-10-11T09:04:37","date_gmt":"2023-10-11T08:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.merlincycles.com\/blog\/?p=40333"},"modified":"2024-01-11T15:27:08","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T15:27:08","slug":"testing-the-merlin-malt-725-steel-mountain-bike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merlincycles.com\/blog\/testing-the-merlin-malt-725-steel-mountain-bike\/","title":{"rendered":"Testing the Merlin Malt 725 Steel Mountain Bike!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Over the past few months a few of our staff have put this do-it-all versatile hardtail, all-round adventure bike to the test&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"600\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.merlincycles.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Untitled-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-40338 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1500px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1500\/600;\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ll begin by sharing my own personal experience with the bike! The first outing I had was on our staff ride to Rivington Brewery along the Leeds to Liverpool Canal, Healy Nab and Rivington bike trails. I found I had excellent control on the climbs and more technical sections, making it a great choice for cross-country and trail riding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"600\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.merlincycles.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Untitled-2-6.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-40350 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1500px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1500\/600;\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I also opted to take the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merlincycles.com\/mountain-bikes-75266\/?brand=merlin\">Malt 725<\/a> for a long day of riding on the trails on a particularly wet day and it did not let me down. The frameset is manufactured from 725 CRMO steel tubing which is a lightweight and strong steel alloy and I was pleasantly surprised just how light the bike felt over a few hours of riding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"600\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.merlincycles.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Untitled-2-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-40346 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1500px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1500\/600;\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Rob has also put the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merlincycles.com\/mountain-bikes-75266\/?brand=merlin\">Malt 725<\/a> to the test this year. Here he is pictured at Lee Quarry Mountain Bike Trail! The quarry is full of drops, berms and other technical features, so made a perfect testing ground for this capable hardtail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I found the bike to be a lot of fun, it felt very playful and responsive. It&#8217;s been a while since I&#8217;ve had a hardtail bike and this one is more than capable of ripping round a trail centre.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"600\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.merlincycles.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Untitled-2-7.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-40398 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1500px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1500\/600;\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>For an affordable hard tail to take on weekend adventures, you can&#8217;t go wrong&#8230; Equipped with Boost dropouts you can use the bike as a 29er as well as 27.5+ with up to 3&#8243; tyre. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merlincycles.com\/mountain-bikes-75266\/?brand=merlin\">Malt 725<\/a> SLX features full Shimano SLX M7100 12 speed transmission, RockShox Judy Silver TK forks with 120mm travel, WTB Wheelset with Magura brakeset and Controltech Components finishing off this beautiful bike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"600\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.merlincycles.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Untitled-2-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-40348 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1500px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1500\/600;\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>You can check out our video the the Merlin Malt 725 in action <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cXnAtIx8TTc\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And for the full bike spec simply click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merlincycles.com\/mountain-bikes-75266\/?brand=merlin\">here<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the past few months a few of our staff have put this do-it-all versatile hardtail, all-round adventure bike to the test&#8230; I&#8217;ll begin by sharing my own personal experience with the bike! The first outing I had was on our staff ride to Rivington Brewery along the Leeds to Liverpool Canal, Healy Nab and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":40338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[68,7,4,8],"tags":[216,71,64],"ppma_author":[4638],"class_list":["post-40333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cycling-buyers-guides","category-merlin-athletes","category-news","category-reviews","tag-enduro","tag-mtb-2","tag-shimano","author-alex"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Testing the Merlin Malt 725 Steel Mountain Bike! - Merlin Cycles Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merlincycles.com\/blog\/testing-the-merlin-malt-725-steel-mountain-bike\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Testing the Merlin Malt 725 Steel Mountain Bike!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Over the past few months a few of our staff have put this do-it-all versatile hardtail, all-round adventure bike to the test... 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