Hi. I have always been "that guy" who buys MTB even though I rarly ride anything to be considered off road. My current MTB is more expensive to repair than it is to buy a new bike (I bought it dirt cheap).

Since I mainly use the bike to comute from my home to the gym (2,5 mile commute), and would use the bike for shorter distances, mainly sprints, I was wondering if an entrylevel road bike would be advisable.

In the pricerange I`m looking at (sub 500$) I have entrylevel options in Hybrids, MTB and a road bike model. The MTB and Hybrid comes with disc breaks, but they are considrably heavier @ 33.7 lbs. The roadbike weighs in at 23.5 lbs and comes with Traktro R317 breaks and mainly entrylvl shimano components.

One of the concerns I have with the road bike is the skinny tires. I believe it comes with 700*25c tires, So it might be able to fit 28mm tires. I`ve heard a lot about roadbikes not liking gravel, so this is a concern.

I mainly ride on paved roads, on and off sidewalks, and rarely on small gravel sections. Would a roadbike be inadvisable for what I`m going to use it for?

Thanks!