http://www.merida-bikes.com/en_gb
In September 1972, Ike Tseng (1932–2012) a brilliant engineer and visionary founded Merida.
While visiting the USA in the early 1970’s Ike had seen a sign in the entrance to a bike shop stating that due to unacceptable quality the shop refused to repair any Taiwanese bikes.
This annoyed Ike, and in defiance he set out to realise his dream of high quality bikes “made in Taiwan”. The factory based in Yuanlin, Taiwan was called Merida Industry Company Ltd.
The Merida name has three syllables “Me-Ri-Da” and is roughly translated as the company’s intention to manufacture only beautiful, high quality bikes enabling anybody to reach their destination as pleasantly as possible.
Ike’s leadership of Merida created a world leading factory and he played a huge part in changing the perception of Taiwan, which is now seen as the highest quality country of origin for bikes.
But Ike was not satisfied, so in 1988 he took another big step by launching the Merida brand.
2013 is our 25th anniversary, and we are justifiably proud of keeping Ike’s visions alive, manufacturing a huge range of bikes from children’s bikes to world class professional road and mountain bikes for our Lampre-Merida and Multivan-Merida riders.
After 41 years, our bikes still live up to Ike’s “Me-Ri-Da” vision. Maybe the words; “reaching their destination as pleasantly as possible” suggests soft and leisurely journeys. But in the cutting edge of professional racing “pleasantly” could easily be swapped for “efficiently and comfortably”. Professional riders need to reach the finish line in the best condition possible in order to win the race.
Everybody has a different journey, but anybody can benefit from a Merida.
Visit the Merida Bikes website: http://www.merida-bikes.com/en_gb
