The De Rosa Merak was one of the Italian bikemaker’s most successful road bikes in pro racing at the turn of the millennium. A twenty year old aluminum road bike is a far cry from what’s raced in the peloton today. But De Rosa have brought back the Merak name for their latest lightweight carbon, disc brake road bike, being raced this week at the Tour Down Under by Team Cofidis.
2020 De Rosa Merak lightweight carbon road bike
With a reveal back in the latter part of last year alongside the updated De Rosa graphics and the new aero Super King Pininfarina, the reborn De Rosa Merak road bike seeks to reclaim some all-rounder Italian road racing soul. At first glance it looks similar to many modern aero road bikes, but the De Rosa SK is more their aero road bike.
Instead, with its overall outline of a horizontal toptube & dropped seatstays, plus generally optimized shapes suggest aerodynamics, the Merak’s tube profiles are all rounded off for smooth Italian looks and bit of comfort, rather than the lowest coefficient of drag. Now down to a claimed 800g (raw 54cm frame), the Merak is meant to be a lightweight all-rounder – just as suitable for climbing stages, multi-day races, or even gran fondos.
De Rosa Merak – Tech details
The Merak hits pretty much all the modern road features, built from a mix of hi-mod carbon (65% High-Modulus T800, 25% High-Modulus M46JB, 5% Ultra-High-Strength Woven Carbon, 5% High Impact 3K Woven Carbon).
Available only with flat mount disc brakes & 12mm thru-axles, the bike goes completely integrated with totally internal cables (mechanical or electronic shift) & brake lines using the 1.5″ FSA ACR integrated cockpit system. It has a drop-in wedge-style seatpost clamp in the toptube, securing a proprietary aero seatpost that gets a special grippy surface treatment to prevent slipping, plus a press fit BB86 bottom bracket.
There even is enough space for big modern road racing tires, at least 28mm (with extra clearance) in the back and more than 30mm through the fork.
The light carbon De Rosa Merak is made in Milan, in northern Italy, and is available in eight stock sizes.
Framesets retail for just under 4000€ in six simple color schemes, with complete premium bike builds starting around 7400€ with Campagnolo Chorus, 7700€ with Ultegra Di2, and climbing as high as your wallet will allow.
