Merida Silex 8000

12 speed SRAM Apex wireless shifting is the highlight of this gravel adventure bike

Over time gravel has evolved, splitting in to racing and adventure. Silex remains all about the road less travelled, the spirit of adventure and camaraderie. The new Mission platform takes on the role of racing. That’s not to say the Silex was a slouch off-road, a week before its launch, Matej Mohoric won the 2023 Gravel World Championships!

The Silex concept was a ground up design that rather than taking a road or cyclocross bike and re-jigging the recipe, started with modern MTB inspired geometry; long top and head tubes and a short stem, offering nimble, confidence-inspiring off road handling. This 2nd gen frame runs a revised fork design meaning you can swap to a suspension fork without affecting the geometry.

All frames have five sets of bottle bosses, the aluminium frame has rack mounting points offering multiple luggage carrying options for any adventure and has the ability to run internal routed dropper posts and even dynamo systems. All Silex (except the 200) feature powerful hydraulic disc brakes and 180mm rotors. Calipers are mounted on the chainstay for better dissipation of braking forces using the flat-mount standard for a neat, flush fit. On carbon models calipers sit on CNCd aluminium Disc Cooler fins reducing operating temperatures by up to 35%; particularly important when running fully loaded.