I’d love to hear some opinions on what type of bike and specific models you’d recommend for Chicago. I’m looking to get a new bike now (some upcoming trips late next month and February and I want my bike to be ready by mid January). I’m leaning towards an endurance road bike, or possibly a gravel bike. Here’s what it will be used for:
-Mostly for leisure and exercise. This will not be a commuter bike at all. I live close to the lakefront trail and will be riding the full length of it very often.
-Occasional longer trips to the suburbs, or even further such as Milwaukee or Indiana. Century or charity rides.
-I may want to ride on gravel trails, such as the Waterfall Glen trail that goes around the Argonne Laboratory, or Des Plaines River Trail. However, I have a full suspension mountain bike (I frequent Palos Hills), so this new bike doesn’t have to be super versatile as I can fall back on that. But, there’s a part of me that wants to be able to haul ass through gravel trails like I can’t on my mountain bike. This would probably count for less than 10% of my usage, so I’m not sure it would be worth the gravel bike performance loss for my other 90+% of biking. At the same time, I will be riding through city streets, and perhaps a gravel bike would be a good idea for our rough city streets?
Here are some models I’m looking at. I’m trying to keep it under $3500 for the bike alone, which is tough to do as I’m looking for carbon frame, electronic shifting, disc brakes.
Road:
[Canyon Endurace CF7 eTap](https://www.canyon.com/en-us/road-bikes/endurance-bikes/endurace/cf/endurace-cf-7-etap/3085.html?dwvar_3085_pv_rahmenfarbe=BK%2FBK)
[Cannondale Synapse 2 LE](https://www.cannondale.com/en-us/bikes/road/endurance/synapse-carbon/synapse-carbon-2-le)
Gravel:
[Canyon Grail CF SL 7 AXS](https://www.canyon.com/en-us/gravel-bikes/performance/grail-generation-2/cf-sl/grail-cf-sl-7-axs/3576.html?dwvar_3576_pv_rahmenfarbe=R119_P01)
by techfiend5