Anybody with a Slate experience..?

I've gotten the opportunity to get the Cannondale Slate 105 2017 ed for $1500. Would it be an alternative? I'm actually looking for a more "traditional" gravel setup, but at this price it's starting to be interesting. \nAnybody with an experience riding the Slate on gravel?

There are plenty of us with Slate experience. Mine is an Ultegra and I'm pleased after a year of use. I wouldn't want to be on an unsprung fork on the gravel I ride regularly. I'm also totally fine with the Oliver fork on pavement.

I have the Slate Ultegra. Enjoy the 650b tires and have WTB Resolute 42mm on them now. Usually in Kansas I use the G-Ones that are more durable in the Flint Hills. I have changed the cassette out to a 11-36 using the Wolftooth attachement.

I am going to give it a try in a cyclocross race and see how it works out...should be interesting.

Have had no problems with the bike on many miles of gravel and some bike packing last week.

I switched to a Slate about 8 months ago. I've been riding/racing in all kinds of terrain, from our home Ontario gravel roads and singletrack to DK200 and currently in Tuscany enjoying local gravel. The bike has been great, so much more comfortable than my old Ridley XFire and even though it is not super light, I feel it does not put me at a disadvantage. My bike is CX1, so thegearing has been great for 90 percent of the riding. I switched to G-Ones early on and haven't looked back.

I have been riding a Slate Ultegra (size M, i'm 1m72) for a year and a half now.
I really enjoy this bike, but it requires some mods. 
First mod : tires. Stock tires won't endure real gravel roads or singletracks. Moslty pavement only... I have a couple of options : WTB horizon for versatile terrain, Surly Knard 41c for dirt only (terrible on pavement) , Schwalbe G-on 38 and Panaracer pari-moto 38 for road oriented loops.
You might want to go with WTB resolute, that i've not tested but look really interresseting.

Second mod : gears. The ultegra comes with a road specific gearing (36x52, 11-28), which is nearly impossible to sustain where i live (pretty much mountains all around). I'm running a 1x11 solution : MTB cassette with Roadlink, Garbaruk chainring in 38t. So basically i have 38t - 11-40. I can climb everywhere now...

Third mod : handlebars... Cannondale stock bars are quite good and light. But i've tried Ritchey Venturemax bars for a week-end of bike-packing, and it was really fun. As i'm more into "race mode" now, i've put a classic carbon bars i had for years.

All in all, this bike a truly versatile. Can go much farther into singletrack that my previous gravel (pinnacle arkose). Very fun to ride, thanks to the oliver fork.

Weight wise, mine is 9kg with this setup bellow. with light tires such as Panaracer pari-moto, it's 8.5kg.

One important thing : check the rims. Cannondale has called back all the original slate rims (hookless) and switched them to Mavic rims, because there was some tire pop-outs when ran tubeless. I 've kept the original however, and never had any trouble... the pressure i use is quite low (28/30 psi)

hope it helps !!!

that does look like a fascinating bike...