Has the lightweight mid-power e-bike had its day? It definitely feels like the pendulum has swung the other way for brands, with the newest bikes like Transition’s Regulator, Amflow PL Carbon Pro, Whyte Kado and more all sporting the most power possible.

But I’ve got to admit I still like the feel of an SL (although I’ll curse these words next time I’m dropped on a climb by a full-power pal). I’m no e-bike denier, but I love the lighter, softer feel that seems to come with an SL bike: a sensation that’s hard to put your finger on but could probably be explained by more flex in the chassis, and a livelier suspension tune.

Despite its lowly spec the eOne-Sixty SL 6000 has become one of my fave bikes in 2025, mostly because it’s a laugh riot of a ride

Merida’s eOne-Sixty SL 6000 has both those features, it’s a nimble, playful ride, with good suspension and decent components that are designed to keep the price down. We didn’t manage to cram it into our Superlight E-Bike of the Year shootout in 2024, but I’d bet it would have done pretty well. One the best electric mountain bikes you can buy? That’s harder to answer, but I’ll give it a go…

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Merida eOne-Sixty SL 6000 need to know

• Bosch SX motor with 55Nm torque and up to 600W peak power
• Carbon frame uses flex-stay suspension and gives 160mm travel
• Meridas traditionally use Shimano EP801 motor with more torque
• 6000 model is cheapest in the range, with Marzocchi suspension

Long chainstays and a flex stay suspension design make the SL 6000 pretty unique for a 160mm e-bike

Frame and Geometry

I won’t dwell too much on the bike’s frame and geometry because Mick reviewed the pricier bike in the range, the Merida eOne-Sixty SL 8000. To sum things up though, the bike isn’t a pumped up trail bike, instead it gets a Cat 4 enduro rating, 160mm travel and 29in wheels. You can increase the travel to 174mm and switch to 27.5in wheels too, but that grows the chainstay length with it.

It’s a flex stay design, doing away with the traditional chainstay pivot, which Merida says lowers the weight and reduces maintenance issues. We’ve been testing this design on big travel bikes since I reviewed the Merida One-Sixty back in 2022, and it’s not failed us yet.

In geo terms the wheelbase grows from around 1,200mm up to 1,300mm across the spread of five sizes. And the reach goes from 420mm up to 512mm – about 5mm shorter than on the brand’s regular, non-e-bikes.

The dinky Bosch SX motor gives the Merida a clean look (when it’s not gummed up with mud), but it’s underpowered in 2025

Motor and battery

Bosch’s SX system is probably the best lightweight motor out there. By which I mean it’s more powerful than the Specialized and TQ, and more reliable than Fazua’s Ride 60. Although to be fair the reliability issues we encountered early on could well have been fixed in recent months, as the YT Decoy SN Danny tested proved flawless.

The SX range is good too, I’ve taken it out with plenty of full-power bikes and eeked out some pretty similar range rides… albeit with me in bits by the end. You can also buy a range extender, which I reckon is a must to get over 1,000m of climbing in top end Turbo power mode.

The Purion display gives you charging status, speed, riding mode, range, trip distance and total distance… I could do without it though

Merida has specced the Bosch Purion 400 display, mounted to the bars it gives more information than the traditional top tube mounted light arrangement. It’s probably useful for some riders but I barely looked at it, except to get annoyed when it told me to shift up or down. I get enough of that from my car.

The Bomber Air shock isn’t the most adjustable, but it doesn’t matter to me when it’s this plush off the top

Suspension

One of the big draws of this bike for me was the Marzocchi fork and shock setup – speccing the cut-price Italian brand is a noble effort on Merida’s part to offer a budget SL. At over £5,000 it’s still expensive of course, but nothing like the five figures of some brands… including the top spec Merida eOne-Sixty SL 10k at £11,500.

The 6000 here gets a Marzocchi Bomber Air shock with low speed compression adjustment and rebound too. There aren’t indexed dials on the low speed though, unlike RockShox or Fox, instead you sweep the dial round and just hope you don’t catch it and ruin your settings. There are 13 clicks of rebound, on a more traditional indexed dial. Fundamentally though it’s just a Float X shock with a different skin.

The Rail damper inside the Z1 fork now feels really supple when you’re on chattery trails

At the other end of the SL is a Marzocchi Z1 fork, it’s got some basic controls like another sweeping dial to let you add low speed compression damping, and a rebound knob at the bottom of the fork.

Components

Shimano’s Deore drivetrain is reliable enough to use and almost forget, but after riding with XT recently it’s noticeably harder to push the shifters. It doesn’t thunk into gear as crisply either. That said XT is twice the price of Deore, and GX AXS four times as much, so I can’t be too cross with Merida here.

Shimano Deore might not have the toughness of SRAM’s new mechanical T-type, but it’s great value and proved a solid workhorse

Tyre choice is spot on for an enduro bike, with a Assegai and the brand’s stickiest MaxxGrip rubber up front, and a quicker rolling Minion DHRII on the rear with quicker rolling rubber. The wheels are Merida own brand but didn’t feel pingy, while the Shimano hubs have lasted the winter just fine.

The cockpit is decent, with a short 40mm stem and a 780mm bar that’s just wide enough for me. It needs more rise somewhere though, perhaps 20mm more to stop the front end feeling too low.

A 203mm rotor on the back is a big plus for me, it’s only about 30g heavier and boosts the power for steeper, sketchier terrain

The Deore brakes are faultless, in fact I’ve never had an issue with Shimano’s lower tier stoppers – there’s no wandering bite point and no odd loss of power. The 203mm rotors (front and rear) the bike comes with are a solid choice too, adding more bite.

The under-saddle tool stash is a nice touch, its protected from crap by a rubbery cover too

Performance

If Merida had brought out this bike a year ago the Bosch would probably have seemed on the money in terms of power and motor choice. But in this new age of super high powered e-bikes, the SL 6000 feels distinctly undergunned. Despite that the SL 6000 is an accomplished climber and a fun bike for the descents. I like the plush feel of its suspension and the simple setup of the Marzocchi hardware – add in air and off you go.

Climbing

There’s no getting around it, the Bosch SX on the SL feels like it’s been left behind by Bosch’s newest motor, the CX. And I mean literally left behind, I rode this bike with a friend on a CX-powered bike and they could drop me on any hill he felt inclined to.

It’s noticeably less smooth when applying the torque, when I tried to pull away in the wrong gear the motor (and my knees) let me know with some nasty graunching noises. Compare that with the new CX and its almost effortless acceleration and the SX looks dead in the water.

There’s no looping out the SL 6000, with a low front end and long chainstays its very good going up

Surely I’m missing the point though, this is an SL and that means it needs a lightweight motor, right? I’m not so sure, old bikes like the Orbea Rise LT have been joined by new models like the Amflow PL Carbon Pro that can do it all. That’s relatively low weight and high power.

That’s a shame because the rest of the One-Sixty SL 6000 is a good climber – the long chainstays and relatively low front end kept my front wheel from lifting on steep climbs. And the suspension is supple and slips into its travel nicely – combined with grippy tyres it’s good on techie climbs. In fact it’s fair to say the motor power gave out long before the bike’s ability.

This shot sums up the Merida eOne-Sixty SL 6000 for me – it’s silly fun

All the more frustrating then that this bike doesn’t come with a CX motor, especially when Bosch now makes the mounting points identical for both its top end motors. There are also no plans to uprate this bike with CX, Merida tells me, unlike on the Whyte eLyte Evo Stag Works.

Descending

The Marzocchi Z1’s top cap is made of flexy plastic rather than the machined aluminium of Fox or RochShox, and while I know it doesn’t actually impact performance it feels kinda cheap and nasty. It’s also one of the first things you touch when setting the bike up.

There’s also very little machining on the lowers or around the brace compared with an entry level Fox fork, and that’s bound to have an impact on weight and stiffness. The shock is similarly underwhelming in looks, the piggyback reservoir sits at a comically off-kilter angle, while the main air can is pinched in the middle like an hourglass.

I wasn’t expecting much from the SL 6000 but it’s got good grip and proved nicely balanced front to rear

It’s all the more surprising just how well both ends of the bike work then, and how well matched to each other. The fork dips into its travel easily and smoothly, it doesn’t ramp up the way the latest batch of overdamped Grip X2 dampers choke, and I found it ate small bumps and rough chatter for breakfast.

At the other end of the bike the Bomber Air shock feels pretty similar, it’s plush off the top and  has a linear action as the bike digs into its travel… at least to start with, anyway. Go deeper into the 160mm of movement and it starts to ramp up plenty, and on bigger hits or G-outs it’s a bit too much, the bike almost kicking you out of the trail.

I managed to overshoot this gap by about 10ft, something that scared and exhilirated me in equal measure

Whether this is down to the shock or the bike’s suspension kinematics is hard to say, but judging by Mick’s experience with the 8000 model I’d venture to say it’s both. With the shock out he found the inflection point, or where the flex stays change their direction, is way down in the bottom of the travel.

I can’t say it’s possible to feel this when you’re actually riding, but it’s one heck of a lively bike. I found loading the bike into jumps so easy I almost overdid it a whole bunch of times, landing flat or overshooting corners until I adjusted for it.

Steeper tracks had me swinging off the back of the bike to accommodate its low front end

It’s a similar story with your wheels on the ground, it’s a sensitive bike that belies its lowly place in Merida’s SL pecking order. Press it into the ground and you’re rewarded with instant acceleration and pump to eek speed out of flatter trails. That’s a feeling I’ve only felt recently on the new Norco Sight and its high pivot idler design.

There’s enough grip to cling on to off-cambers or scuttle across roots that seem purpose built to drag your wheels down. A combination of good sizing, a long back end and low bottom bracket made me feel confident in the bike, sure footed on the ugliest of tracks, and (almost) always in control.

Merida eOne-Sixty SL 6000

Mick complained about the bike’s low front end, and sure enough I did jack the bars up as high as they’d go to stop myself hugging the front tyre. It’s not irremediable though, a higher rise bar would sort it out. And besides, with a decent amount of mid-stroke support in the fork it wasn’t too much of an issue for me.

Somehow the charging port has come loose in its mount, and I suspect there’s a loose connection now

My main complaint though is that the bike stopped working after about a dozen rides. I don’t mean it cut out in the middle of a ride, rather the whole charging port assembly came loose when I tried to pull out the cable, and after that it simply wouldn’t charge. I imagine this is a pretty simple dealer fix, but it highlights the fragility of Merida’s charge port assembly.

Scrubbing my way into another corner