Heyo, throwing a couple pics in for attention. Looking for recs on your favorite gravel bikes. Have done a couple touring/packing trips, am pretty stoked on it and it’s time to get my own. Budget is about $2000 USD or under – this will be my first bike I’ve owned since childhood.
Goal is to get more miles and do more frequent bikepacking / touring. More long term goals would be to do some more big international trips and cross country cycles. For better or worse the previous trips were rentals internationally not quite meant for the terrain/crappy FB marketplace bikes – unable to really use what I was riding previously as a good jumping off point.
Thanks a bunch!
by flannelsillygoose
4 Comments
That terrain is not really what modern gravel bikes are for, you can do this on almost any road bike. But the wider the tires the more comfortable you will be. All the way up to an XC bike for bikepacking.
If you want a drop bar and are willing to go aluminum, Canyon Grizl is widely considered a good option here for bikepacking.
Go to your local bike shop and check it out. Maybe get something used and check it out, then when you learn more about what you want and what you need then save up your money and get exactly what you want.
I bet you could get a really solid Gen 2 Checkpoint for that budget. Plenty of mounts for bike packing, but also plenty capable in a race configuration when you want to send it. I loved mine.
Salsa Journeyer is pretty decent all around.