After playing with their neatsy-cutesy, ADSL oriented Web site for quite a while with no success, I gave up.

So, my question is: have Specialized frames (some?) always been made by Merida?

No, not always. Now that Merida owns something on the order of 41% of Specialized it kind of makes sense for them to make some frames for Specialized.
Did you expect them to advertise that Merida makes the majority of their stuff?

Not really. But I had always assumed - though I did not pay much attention to them, I must admit - that Specialized built their own.

However today I saw a photo in in a French cycling mag article about Merida that showed frames being finished which had Specialized displayed prominently on the down tube. Made me curious.

I read somewhere that Giant makes a lot of Specialized's mountain bikes.

T.J.

i'd think "used to". as mentioned above, now that Merida owns much of Specialized, i don't see why they would have one of their competitors build the frames.

Specialized did indeed at oome time build many of their frames at their own factory in the states. my 1997 M2 Stumpjumper was one. but i think those days are long over. they may do a few special frames, or maybe even some of their S-Works line, but most are probably built in asia. much like how Trek builds fewer models in their line-up in Waterloo these days.