Going the distance

£3500 Gravel-curious mile-muncher

The Scultura has been Taiwanese bike-maker Merida’s lightweight road option for many years. The new Scultura Endurance moves far more into endurance territory and into the realm of rough-road riding with generous tyre clearances, comfort-oriented geometry and, as a bonus, mounts for proper mudguards. It joins bikes, such as the Specialized Roubaix and Trek Domane, in blurring the line between a conventional road bike and full-on gravel machine. The Scultura Endurance 7000-E is the top model in the range and, no, it’s not an ebike – the ‘E’ denotes an electronic Shimano Di2 groupset. More affordable models feature lowerspec builds but get the same full-carbon frameset.

Modern looks

The Scultura Endurance is built around a carbon frame weighing a claimed 1124g including all hardware. The matching fork comes in at