I got a green Mybo Elite a few months ago. It is a great riser with a superb fit and finish, on par with Hoyt/W&W if not better. I personally like the design a lot and think it is somehow a piece of art. The grip was a quite good fit, although i built a custom one after some time because i prefer a rather high wrist when shooting recurve. Mybo/Merlin does offer a wooden grip instead of the rubber one, though, so that shouldn't be much of a concern.

If you have specific question i can try to answer these, same for detailed pictures.

 

I'd love to get closeups of the limb adjustment system, maybe how well ILF limbs fit into them, and closeups in general. The pictures on the mybo website look beautiful, but don't provide too much in detail. Thanks for the input!

 

This gives you some pretty good details.

 

I am in the market for a new riser soon and the Mybo elite looks like an interesting option. So I do have some questions..

On the pictures of the Mybo website, the locking screw for the tillerbolt on the back of the riser and the adjustment screws on the sides look rather small. My fear is that these screws will destroy the threads rather fast. Is this a valid concern?

Was the riser a blind buy or have you had the opportunity to compare it to other risers in a shop? I would be interested how the elite compares to other risers, specifically how the grip compares, how it balances, how stable it feels in hand, how it behaves during the shot (vibrations, feedback) and if it can be attributed to be more forgiving or efficient.

Lots of questions, I hope not too many. Thank you in advance!

 

I will take some pictures of it for you. Unfortunately i can't do it until weekend, not at my bows place currently. Let me still try to answer some of your questions.

The ILF limbs i tried (W&W, Mybo) fitted perfectly in there. I will take a picture next weekend, maybe i can talk someone into borrowing me limbs for additional photos.

I bought the riser as a blind buy. At the time i was looking for a new riser i had my eyes on different brands which i could actually try out: I really like the Fivics Patina and the Hoyt GPX was also in my list. I would put the Mybo Elite in the same category with these. No shop around me carries the bows by Mybo so far. I already own a stabilizer set and some minor parts from Mybo and was always more than happy with quality, finish and the product you get for the money. Knowing that Mybo is the house-brand from Merlinarchery UK helped on the decision as well. Considering the price of the other risers on my list and the Mybo... Yeah, it was a lucky shot, but i am super happy that i tried it. And i feel no remorse, because all the effort Mybo/Merlin put into that bow is worth the money for it.

Screws: The screws are not overly small, not sure about the actual size, though. It felt as if they are comparable to the standard used in other brands. I don't think it will eat the threads during normal use.
Grip: The standard grip on the Elite is kind of a black rubber, somewhere between low and medium wrist and rather slim. Other than typical plastic grips it has a silky smooth touch to it and really bonds to the hand. For me as a mainly compound shooting person it felt great because it was so slim, but as mentioned before i switched it for a higher-wrist grip which i built myself, but Mybo/Merlin offers also wooden grips to buy.
Balance: Phew, without stabilizers the bow sits pretty straight in the hand, maybe a bit heavy on the top side, but i would need to verify that first before claiming it. In any case it feels very stable, actually better than the Fivics, but that might be subjective. It definitely balances better than the GPX.
Vibrations: I only shot it with my preliminary stabilizer setup and the bow was feeling good. Not dead in the hand style, and not super quiet, but it 'feels' stiff, even though it is something you really cannot feel. Maybe because there are no parts that are super slim and prone to bending during the shot, maybe due to the well-constructed limb pocket, i don't know. I can just describe it as feeling stiff, something i would attribute to be rather positive. But here i need more and fresh comparisons to other bows before i can make more of my super subjective statements.

Hope it helps, pictures will follow later...

 

Wasn't familiar with this riser so I just looked it over. Nice looking riser - reminds me of the TR-7 above the grip. I'm sure they will sell well.

 

The new Mybo bows are really nice. Engineered and finely made. Lots of improvement done on the Mybo Origin and Elite from its predecessors during the Merlin brand name.

 

Thanks alot Montalaar! You helped me out big time! :thumbs_up

Just from the pictures, the grip reminded me on the one on my SF Forged +. Your describtion also matches that impression, I think.

 

Looks a loot like the old Merlin Elite recurve minus some cosmetic details.

http://www.stringworks.net/images/elitehigh.jpg

http://s463.photobucket.com/user/Mikey_Ba/media/P1280147.jpg.html

Great raiser then and now. I think it was released sometime around 2008-2010?

 

I wasn't aware that Mybo had origins from Merlin. That explains a lot.

 

It is more or less the same. On the website it reads

MYBO is a divsion of Merlin Archery Ltd.

. If you check their Facebook-page you will even get pics from the manufacturing process at their place.

 

Some pictures. Please note that the riser has my self made grip not the factory one mounted. Oh, and the finish is just perfect. Everything that looks like little dents in the riser is just dust.

 

Limb fitting. Hard to take a good picture.

 

I had original Merlin Elite. There are slight differences in pocket design but it is very, very similar, improvements have been in small details mostly. Merlin Elite was a fabulous, fabulous riser, with amazing after shot reaction and feel. It went to a junior archer I was coaching at the time, and now has found it's way to another club mate's hands, replacing Hoyt GMX.

I have had plenty of Merlin stuff in my time, I have always found them to be absolute top quality and to top that, the folks at Merlin to be some of the best guys in archery business to deal with. I really like that take on limb alignment, new version is fairly similar to the old model, which was copied a lot after Merlin used it. It never went wrong after you set it.

I would prefer it to be sold with a Merlin name, but I see the point of the guys trying to distinguish their retail and manufacturing business.