Originally Posted by
DirtRoadRunner
I was originally thinking of just buying a road bike (such as a Trek 1.2 or 1.5, but I'm open to other options), but they aren't exactly recommended on the gravel Katy Trail,
Who ever told you that?
I live in St Peters, 2 miles up Jungs Station hill from the Katy, so I ride it quite a bit. My bike-of-choice for the Katy is my old Bridgestone road bike with 28 mm Gatorskin tires. I occasionally ride my Klein road bike, with 23 mm tires, a short distance on the Katy but I don't like to ride it long distances on the Katy for purely esthetic reasons. Relative to performance it does fine.
I've never owned one but I'm sure that cyclo-cross bikes are fine. I just don't agree that a special purpose bike is necessary for crossing railroad tracks or for riding the Katy trail.