Merida Scultura Endurance 6000

Since its introduction in the 2021 model year, the Merida Scultura Endurance stands for excellent comfort, high everyday usability, and a clear focus on long-distance use. Positioned between the Scultura ProTour racing bike and the Silex gravel bike, it appeals to recreational and hobby riders as well as ambitious racing cyclists alike and possesses - depending on the equipment variant - also a startlingly high versatility: From a reliable commuter bike to a sporty training bike to a comfortable endurance racing bike.

Merida Road/Endurance/Gravel

In accordance with the principle of "never change a winning team," the carbon frame and carbon fork set have remained unchanged to this day, delighting both young and old with its direct power transmission, consistently good damping characteristics, and the maximum tire clearance of up to 35 millimeters. Moreover, the Scultura Endurance 6000 presented here shines this season in a fresh look with a noble metallic finish, semi-integrated brake lines, and a technical upgrade in the form of the new Shimano 105 Di2 12-speed group.

To better assess the capabilities of this comfort racer, we tested it both with the standard 32 mm road tires and with 36 mm Anyroad and gravel tires from the manufacturer Challenge. We present the result of this comparison at the end of the article in the form of a One-For-All buying guide for "Road vs. Granfondo vs. Gravel". There, you can find out which off-road applications can be covered with the Scultura Endurance 6000, whether the base is also suitable for a gravel racer, and what would be necessary for a worthy conversion.

The head tube is somewhat longer and logically leads to a more upright sitting position. The same applies to the wheelbase and the chainstays, which contributes to the high running smoothness. Consequently, the handling loses a bit of agility compared to the Scultura racing bike, but remains lively thanks to the torsionally stiff carbon fork and the not too shallow steering angle - even with the mounted 32 mm wide Maxxis tires. The Endurance version also offers the high stiffness in the bottom bracket area known from the Scultura models, which contributes to the overall direct power transmission.

The damping comfort in the seating area is more than just fine thanks to the Flexstay construction of the chain and seat stays, the slender seat post, and the wide tires, but could be higher at the handlebars. At least a better damping or thicker wrapped handlebar tape would be necessary here, since both the fork and the aluminum handlebars transmit shocks extremely intensely to the wrists.

At this point, I would like to recommend the Merida Expert SL saddle. The design and shape show clear parallels to the Specialized Power saddle series and guarantee equally high sitting comfort in every cycling position.

Beauty, as so often, lies in the eye of the beholder; but when it comes to frame design and the metallic paintwork, everyone should agree: Merida has really done a great job with the Scultura Endurance.

Furthermore, a real feast for the eyes are the CNC milling on the cooling fins of the Disc Cooler and on the Directmount mount of the derailleur, the integrated seat post clamp in the frame, and the possibility to completely remove the bridge at the rear. The in-house Expert components and the semi-integrated FSA stem/headset solution complete the tidy overall impression.

Even though the temptation is great to transform one's current endurance road bike into a gravel racer (or even into a gravel adventure bike) and this seems not so far-fetched due to the frame base, the devil is, as so often, in the details.

Scultura Endurance as a Gravel Racer?
This was exactly the case with the Scultura Endurance tested here. By using wider, more profiled tires, its off-road capability could indeed be increased from 10% to about 20%, but due to the components installed, further significant improvements were not possible within a financially reasonable frame. Because apart from the straight aluminum handlebar and the uncomfortable handlebar tape, the narrow wheels as well as the gear group mainly designed for pure road use, or its gearing at the front, were hindrances for more demanding off-road use.

Scultura Endurance as a Gravel-Adventure Bike?
While a "Gravel Racer" is at least theoretically feasible, the notion of a "Gravel-Adventure Bike" remains pure fantasy. In plain language: Despite the dedicated tinkerer's investment of much time and money, it is not possible to create a "true gravel bike" for rough terrain, bikepacking, or other adventures based on the Scultura Endurance frame platform. This would require even more tire clearance, a significantly slacker head angle, and more varied mounting options on the frame and fork.

It is also important to note that an endurance road bike is positioned closer to an all-round road bike. Therefore, adapting it to a decent gravel bike proves to be uneconomical in most cases. On the other hand, converting from a 2x gravel bike to an endurance road bike can be done much more easily and cost-effectively - it simply requires fitting narrower tires. However, the owner's trained eye must overlook the aesthetics of the protruding handlebars and the increased tire clearances.

Application: Gravel Race

Tip: For those looking for an out-of-the-box, lightning-fast gravel racer without compromises, the recently introduced Merida Scultura Endurance GR is recommended, which positions itself between the Scultura Endurance (Granfondo) presented here and the Silex (Bikepacking and Adventure Gravel).

The new GR model is based one-to-one on this endurance frame set and has the same characteristics: Comfortable seating position, stable handling despite high agility, and good damping properties (very good on poor asphalt and sufficiently good off-road); gravel-specific wheels, wide lug tires, a flared gravel handlebar, and an adequate gravel groupset complete the GR variant. Therefore, it has the best prerequisites to handle everything from fast Anyroad training sessions to demanding Gravel Granfondos in a confident manner. The missing mounting points for racks and bikepacking bags highlight the sporty ambition.

The Merida Scultura Endurance 6000 meets all the requirements of a full-fledged Granfondo racing bike and also positions itself on the sporty side within the endurance category. In our opinion, it should be a more sensible choice for most road cyclists than a ProTour racing bike.

The Shimano 105 Di2 groupset works flawlessly, and the rest of the equipment is overall successful - including Merida's own components such as handlebars, seat post, and saddle. A minor downside is the thin handlebar tape and the slightly outdated wheels with only 17 mm internal width, which makes mounting wider tires, especially with tubes, "more challenging".

In summary, the Merida Scultura Endurance is an excellently equipped road bike with an attractive price-performance ratio and confident riding characteristics - perfect on the road and comfortably capable on unpaved paths! However, those looking for a true Gravel Racer should wait for the Scultura Endurance GR as a no-compromise conversion of the 6000 model would be too costly.