I want a bike for what I would say is 50% road and 50% gravel, but just regular roads – nothing extreme in either direction, for example, no downhill over stones and roots. I've been looking at the Trek Domane SL5 Gen 4 and the Checkpoint SL5 Gen 3 for that, since I'm getting a decent sale: Domane for 2250€ and Checkpoint for 2550€, lower than the advertised price – which is well within my budget of <3k€. I'm getting 10% off in any case, so if anyone has different recommendations I should check out, there is room.
Now, a friend has a Rose Backroad FF, I believe, and when I tested it on the road I liked it, but it's more expensive and I think I liked the Domane just as well, which is why I'm looking at those two. I rode the Domane in the store.
Here's my question: does it make sense to go for the Domane and get a bike with more gears, regular gear system, and maybe change to a bit thicker tyres, or do I go for the Checkpoint and get a real gravelbike with more tyre clearance, wireless gear system, etc.? Does the Checkpoint ride nicely on the road as well, or is it overkill for my use case, and a endurance bike would be better?
I'm going to a bike store today to have my measurements taken, and while they can probably tell me lots of stuff, I'd like to get a second opinion by people who are using these bikes or similar ones.
I'd probably be riding only a bit of rough gravel, the rest would be maintained light gravel and regular roads, maybe the occasional ride on a forest road:
by BikingToBabylon