Gravel bikes are a fairly new addition to the ever increasing specialisations that form our beloved hobby. As I was in the market for a hill climbing tool, gravel attreacted my attention. So, after a little research I found that manufactueres come at gravel from many angles... Some take a road bike, margially lower the gearing (compact front and 11-32 or 11-34 at the rear...) make the forks and chainstays fatter tire friendly and call that a gravel bike (normally with a 30% premium over the original road bike it came from..)..
Others have stuck with the road bike origins but have properly looked at the gearing and gone to GRX or SRam gravel options and made a bike that is different from a roadie. These bikes bode well for us old farts that need lower gearing just for normal life. I found that Merida took a different route with their Silex. They basically took Mountain bike geometry, so the front is high, put on 38mm tires GRX (for the upper models (Sora for the base..).
Check out their website and look at the geometry, its very intersting and for me a good way to go for gravel. I wanted a Silex 400, with bottom of the line GRX Groupset, but sadly in my size I would have to wait well into next year or even 2023... but a shop in Taipei found me a Silex 200 that had the Sora Groupset, I paid a little extra to change out the front rings from 48/32 to a 46/30.. that gave me the gear inches I wanted. I would have prefered the GRX, but I get the same frame, wheels etc. for 250 quid less.. Riding position is more upright than other gravel bikes I've sat on, my seat and bars are at the same hight. Very comfortable and way better gearing for hills than a road bike.
