De Rosa says that its new Merak is a ground-up update and the result of two years’ development. Changes include a bulked out fork and rear section to the frame, with larger cross-sections, with the latter claimed to increase the bike’s stability at speed.
According to Cristiano de Rosa: “I’ve spent the last few weeks riding this bike like a madman on descents. I’ve found myself reaching speeds I had never even come close to before, and what surprises me isn’t so much seeing that number on the bike computer, but feeling completely safe while getting there. The faster you go, the more you understand the work we’ve done on stability. That’s probably what impresses me most about the new Merak.”
De Rosa has pared back the Merak’s weight too, with a claimed frame weight of 700g and full builds from 6.9kg to 7.1kg. The standard spec includes a one-piece De Rosa branded Vision cockpit and a Selle Italia SLR Boost Carbon saddle.
De Rosa claims the new Merak is more stable at speed (Image credit: De Rosa)
The bike can be kitted out with the full range of Shimano, SRAM or Campagnolo electronic groupsets and there’s a range of wheels on offer.
De Rosa describes the frame graphics as ‘retrofuturism’ with a smaller downtube logo and the heart symbol removed from the head tube in favour of a De Rosa wordmark. De Rosa will offer three different finishes for the new Merak: Classic, Dynamic and Race, with slightly different prices for each.
De Rosa's graphic treatment of the new Merak is more understated than its predecessor (Image credit: De Rosa)
De Rosa is leaning into its history with the new graphics. Like Colnago and Pinarello it’s a longstanding Italian bike brand. Founded in 1953, it made steel frames for Eddy Merckx, which were rebranded with his own name when he rode for Molteni and has had the Merak in its range for over 25 years.
Back in the day, the Merak was an alloy bike and was ridden to the UCI Road World Championship in 2000 by Francesco Casagrande. It’s been through a number of iterations since, with the last version launched in 2020. Until the 2023 season, De Rosa was the bike sponsor to the Cofidis team and its bikes were ridden in Paris-Roubaix in 2024 by Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB.
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De Rosa Merak specs and prices
Colour schemes include this Dynamic option (Image credit: De Rosa)
The Merak frameset with fork, headset, seatpost and thru-axles is priced at €5,600 for the Classic, €5,800 for the Race and €5,950 for the Dynamic finish.
De Rosa quotes full bike prices of €13,230 with Campagnolo Super Record 13 and Bora Ultra WTO wheels, €11,390 with Record and Bora Ultra WTO wheels, €11,880 for Dura-Ace with Fulcrum Speed DB wheels and €12,500 for SRAM Red AXS with a power meter and the same Fulcrum wheels.
Paul has been on two wheels since he was in his teens and he's spent much of the time since writing about bikes and the associated tech. He's a road cyclist at heart but his adventurous curiosity means Paul has been riding gravel since well before it was cool, adapting his cyclo-cross bike to ride all-day off-road epics and putting road kit to the ultimate test along the way. Paul has contributed to Cyclingnews' tech coverage for a few years, helping to maintain the freshness of our buying guides and deals content, as well as writing a number of our voucher code pages.
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