Originally Posted by
ddeand
Heh, heh. At my age, I generally don’t do routes where there are many surprises. I just spent a few days riding my son-in-law’s 1x bike, and I liked it a lot. My gravel riding will be relatively conventional, so I should be able to get a setup that can handle that.
If your riding is relatively 'tame' any old bike will do if you can get cx tyres in. That, however, might be harder to find than you think. From the early/mid 70s tyre clearances got smaller.
I've got about 25 road bikes between 1978 and 1989 and only one of them can be fitted with cx tyres. It's a 1983 Kuwahara built bike that is pretty much in road set-up (downtube 2x6 indexed) with cx tyres and does a splendid job.
Touring bikes are often a bit heavier and older bikes may limit your gear choices a little more w/o some intervention. I would also be a little reluctant to turn a beauty into a gravel grinder.