Do it. Get the Extra Bike.

So I've been riding bikes pretty casually my whole life, but a few years back I started commuting on an ebike and haven't looked back. Since then I've gotten a mountain bike to take on easy trails and I love it, but found it way easier to get on pavement often than trail occasionally, so the desire for a gravel bike hit me hard. Enter the Marin Fairfax 1. Not technically a gravel bike and lacking drop bars, but as I've never had drop bars on a bike before this fit the bill perfectly for me; affordable, easy to maintain, and solid components.

Holy hell this bike is fast. On my MTB, I have to push fairly hard to maintain a 12mph pace over flat ground. This thing just cruises up to 15 with minimal effort. I'm still maintaining 10 up hills. It's like night and day. My wife doesn't believe how much better it is, she thinks it's just new bike excitement and she may have a point. But I can tell you for sure that I have zero buyers' remorse. This'll be the new commuter.