Recommendations for a new bike

[Murray]

Related to my previous post, I need a new bike so I thought I would reach out to all of you for recommendations.

I am cycling across Canada this summer, with support. My Trek Domane is (was) the perfect bike for the trip. The Trek was limited to 25 mm tires which was great on pavement but tiring on gravel. Since I have to buy a bike, I would like to get something with a view to the next adventure. I'm thinking of cycling from Tuktoyaktuk, which means about 900 km of gravel. But if I can only have 1 bicycle, I need something light enough to keep up with you on a morning ride and get me across Canada efficiently. I don't need load carrying capability. Even when I ride unsupported, I go for weeks with only 13 kg of gear.

So the search criteria are:
-comfortable on very long rides
-Light. I need to be able to ride 150k/day, 6 days a week on paved roads, without being exhausted.
-Handles gravel well (i.e. accommodates larger tires)
-Fast enough to ride comfortably with the TSC B group

-Disk brakes?
-I really loved the electronic shifting. Is it impractical on a gravel bike?
-One bike with two sets of wheels?

I don't race, I'm unlikely to do cyclocross, this bike needs to be all about endurance riding.

Does anyone have experience with a Giant Revolt Advanced or a Trek Checkpoint?

What would you buy?

[Bosie]

Yes to disc brakes..No question. Better braking. Future proof.

Electronic shifting has the advantage of being almost maintenance free. Long term (ie 3 or 4 years down the line) , the problem with electronic shifting though is that as the newer stuff comes on the market, the older stuff becomes obsolete as the manufacturers stop supporting the upgrades or sneakily make their newer iterations not speak to the newer ones. It means that if part of it breaks that is no longer supported, you either need to get lucky and find something on Ebay, or you need to change out the whole groupset.Electronic shifting has been used for a while on gravel and MTB without any problems. My winter bike has Di2 and never has problems, except for the qualifier above:)

Craig

[rduncan]

Murray,

You have just described a gravel bike. They all have endurance geometry, longer chainstays than cx bikes and lower bottom brackets.

Most major manufacturers have a bike in this category since it’s the fastest growing market. Some are more race oriented like the giant you mentioned and others like the salsa cutthroat is ultra endurance oriented and has 3 bottle mounts. The salsa warbird is a fave in the dirty kanza race. Lynskey snd moots both make gravel rigs. Apart from the giant, they are all pricey but all including the giant could have a road wheel set swapped in for TS rides.

New tech is hydro discs, thru axles, and tubeless tires. Any bike you try will likely come stock with these features.

Have fun test riding!

[rduncan]

Manufacturers to look at
Devinci
Trek
Moots
Lynskey
Giant
Salsa
Opus
And norco

The salsas and pretty awesome but I’d probably buy a giant unless I started doing things like the bc epic 1000

[wonger]

I really recommend that you check out Naked Bicycles on Quadra Island. Handmade frames, steel or titanium, spec’d to your liking. My Naked X is steel, super comfy on long rides, can handle 40mm+ tires. Has been seen winning the odd B sprint. Worth a look.

[shawn]

I've been riding a Cervelo C5 disc with Ultegra Di2 since October. I call it my "anywhere" bike. I have it fully fendered right now with 28mm road tires and I've been riding it on road and gravel. W/O fenders it can take 32mm tires so I'm going to take the fenders off for Summer and put on some fatter gravel tires. The Mavic All Road Pro wheelset is tough. It's a super light frame and very comfortable. Your adventure sounds wonderful!!

[Robgrant]

My wife has the Trek Checkpoint and it's a great bike, though you will have to buy the frame and do a custom build for Di2. Lot's of room for big tires, or skinny ones. For the Cross Fondo she rode 38mm knobbies and didn't flat. Not quite as light as your Domane, but loads more clearance and many bottle mounts. Also rack mounts on the fork if you get into more loaded touring.
I have the Cervelo C3 (not as light as the C5)- 32mm tires are TIGHT with only a few mm of clearance. The bike is very comfortable and with said 32mm tires, I've done all kinds of gravel riding in QC + the Great Trail up over the Malahat. If you are looking for higher volume tires, you are out of luck.
Rob

[Murray]

Thanks for all the responses. I picked up my new Trek Checkpoint on Friday. Need to fine tune the fit but otherwise loving it. I'll learn to live without the Di2.