Merida (Taiwan) – After the recent launch of the new Time Warp TT, there is another ‘special’ bike in the arsenal of the Bahrain Merida Pro Cycling Team.

Despite being a dedicated Scultura rider, Vincenzo Nibali chose the Reacto for his Milan / San Remo victory. The overall performance plus the measurable aerodynamic advantage convinced him to chose the Reacto. However, the standard Bahrain-Merida version of the Reacto in its race-ready and sponsor conform setup tips the scale at 7.2kg which means, that the complete bike including power meter is 400g over the UCI weight limit. That is a bitter pill to swallow for a lightweight climber like Vincenzo.

After Nibali mentioned to the Merida R&D team that he would be keen to ride the Reacto in the high mountain stages of the Tour de France if they would be able to bring it down to the UCI weight limit, project ‘Reacto KOM’ (King of the Mountain) was born.

To achieve the race-ready target weight of 6.8kg the R&D team looked at the following aspects

• Specific frame with standard lay-up, but with the lightest possible carbon strains chosen and integrated into the various segments of the overall frame
• The team sponsors FSA and Continental supplied a super light cockpit, tubular tyres, titan axles for wheels and pedals for the KOM project
• Despite the extreme weight saving on the paint job, there was no lack of imagination going into the project. Vincenzo Nibali’s Reacto KOM shows the colors that symbolise the leader jerseys of his grand tour victories to date: Tour de France 2014, Giro d’Italia 2013 & 2016 and Vuelta a España 2010
• The silver ‘teeth’ are a reminiscence of Vincenzo’s nickname ‘The Shark of Messina’