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Video: the new Merida Silex adventure bike
Merida say their new Silex is built for anything you can throw at it: gravel, bike-packing, commuting, even road racing... the bike is versatile enough to cope with it all.
The bike has a longer top tube and big head tube with a short stem, said to offer the rider a more comfortable position when riding in the drops. A lot of riders looking for a more relaxed geometry will never ride on the drops, but Merida say the build of the Silex allows riders who would usually never go near them to ride in a more aggressive position without sacrificing too much comfort.
As shown in the video, there are numerous attachment points for mud guards, racks and panniers, and Merida even offer their own bespoke cage that bolts onto the forks so you can stick a bag on each side. As shown in the video the Silex has 35mm tyres, but it can take 650b wheels and up to 42mm tyres for specific off-road riding. At the other end, Merida say it's perfectly capable of taking on the club ride with 28mm tyres on the standard 700c wheels.
Though pricing hasn't been confirmed, this top-end version with a 1x Sram force groupset and full carbon frame will be around £3,600, and the aluminium entry level bike starts at £1000 - there will be five models in total. The Silex will be ready to buy towards the end of October.
Keep your eyes peeled on road.cc for a review of the Silex soon
Arriving at road.cc in 2017 via 220 Triathlon Magazine, Jack dipped his toe in most jobs on the site and over at eBikeTips before being named the new editor of road.cc in 2020, much to his surprise. His cycling life began during his students days, when he cobbled together a few hundred quid off the back of a hard winter selling hats (long story) and bought his first road bike - a Trek 1.1 that was quickly relegated to winter steed, before it was sadly pinched a few years later. Creatively replacing it with a Trek 1.2, Jack mostly rides this bike around local cycle paths nowadays, but when he wants to get the racer out and be competitive his preferred events are time trials, sportives, triathlons and pogo sticking - the latter being another long story.
Latest Comments
- john_smith 1 sec ago
Straight into the sun is perhaps an exaggeration, but at that time it would be about ESE, and there are bits of the road which head roughly SSE, so...
- john_smith 8 min 45 sec ago
7 October was just a bit of harmless fun until the "msm" ramped it up.
- hawkinspeter 8 min 58 sec ago
It's not censored if you just pirate it
- stonojnr 1 hour 13 min ago
an example of Kesgraves "best cycling infrastructure in the country" https://maps.app.goo.gl/GsCMbzDUTPdq59qS9
- ktache 1 hour 16 min ago
They are not going full gas at every point. They would destroy themselves. And tactics, they save themselves for when effort is really needed....
- wookey 1 hour 21 min ago
It turns out that that is national police policy. We found out from this process that there is national 'secured by design' policy which causes...
- mtbtomo 2 hours 1 min ago
Been available for quite a while, full GRX mechanical 12 speed. Probably around the same time as 105 mechanical 12 speed if I were to guess.
- TheBillder 2 hours 6 min ago
Less harmful citrus degreaser is easy to find at £8 or less for 5 litres. Works ok for me, even diluted up to 4:1. Both paraffin and white spirit...
- Veganpotter 2 hours 12 min ago
Nope, it's to keep your straps down and quieter. Plus most sunglasses are polycarbonate and aren't going to shatter like glass anyway
- Steve K 2 hours 43 min ago
And, more seriously, where's the coverage of the closure of the cycle lane which forces you to cycle on the Totton bypass.
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9 comments
"Watched" the video now, about 30 seconds. I see why folk are commenting on the shorts. Worrying and the main reason I didn't watch the full thing. Disturbed now.
Behindthebikesheds - Tredz just post everything on their site whether they have it or not. Google almost anything cycle related and Tredz will always come up No. 1. Slight exaggeration for comic effect included.
Those cut off jeans.
The Alu model supposedly was going to come with a threaded BB but the variants I'm looking at have all got press-fit, the mudguard options are "unique" quick fit options, so probably means no after market variants fit, I also didn't see any pannier rack mount on the upper part of the seat stay so not sure about the pannier bag comment in the video. The direct competiton in this market the Whyte Gisburn does have a proper pannier rack mount AND mudguard mounts on the fork end for traditional/aftermarket mudguards and importantly has threaded BB shell.
Tyre clearance at 42-44mm is pretty good, comes with 35mm semi-slicks, how big you can get under their 'unique' mudguards is another matter not mentioned (which most manufacturers don't either annoyingly).
Alu frame weight is claimed to be 1500g + 500g for the fork, the CF model is circa 1050g, one assumes for the medium sized frames.
There are EIGHT models in the range, though 5 available to UK it would seem with 5 sizes on offer 44/47/50/53/56cm.
price wise, £1k for Sora and 10.2kg, the top end bike is quoted at 8.17kg
Tredz has got the prices up already so not sure why the reviewer states prices not confirmed?
Rather have a Salsa Cutthroat thanks.
And those shorts?
On behalf of road.cc, I'd like to apologise deeply for the shorts. It was a dare, and one I now regret partaking in...
Pressfit BB - Quite keen until I saw this on the spec
Fantastic bike stand.
The bike is not level but the seat is, which means on the ground the seat is pointing down. How are we supposed to judge the geometry with the bike like this? If you don't notice the tires are not the same height off the ground and with that crazy seat angle you might think the bars are up at seat level.