It was quite important for the last couple months as I was researching. But if this Roubaix is a particularly good deal then I'll get that and later on a mountain or a steel touring bike for mashing the trails. If I was to get a road/gravel style the. Would like to run as fat as it can take. I love the soft feel of fat tires. I have a thing for the Specialized Sequoia but it's out of my $ range for a first real bike. I haven't clocked enough miles to deserve that yet.