Thank you!
You can make the gearing you want. The small cog on SRAM Eagle is a 10t and the bottom is a 50t. The bike will likely come with a 32t ring. You can get bigger rings from Wolf Tooth Components and others.
My Trek dealer said I would not be able to find a ring for MTB of 44t or bigger, because road cranksets are not compatible with MTB drivetrains and Shimano or SRAM do not produce that big rings. But as you mentioned, there are bigger rings from Wolf Tooth. Sorry for my lack of knowledge, but will this one be compatible with Procaliber 6 (SRAM SX Eagle) or SCALE 960 (SRAM NX Eagle)? It says "They also work with 12 speed SRAM Flattop, SRAM Eagle", but maybe there is something more to take care of? If it does, it will change my view drastically.
130 BCD Gravel / CX / Road Chainrings on wolftoothcomponents(com) (they do not allow me to post URLs yet...)
Maybe look at a Surly Bridge Club... though it doesn’t have a suspension fork, it’s nice springy steel, it can mount many wheel and tire sizes and drivetrains and has all the barnacles for accessories.
Looks very nice. I have heard a lot but never tried myself - does steel really makes difference with regards to road vibration?
Among Treks I’d pick XCaliber/Roscoe over the DS. They are real MTB’s, the DS is just copping the style.
Fully agree. But DS are smaller, tires and handlebar, and I am commuting on narrow roads with pedestrians walking by... Maybe just have to change my riding style.
Same with the nicest levels of Specialized Rockhopper or Pitch vs the Crosstrail. The Fuse is nicer but I don’t think it has any rack or fender provisions.
Rockhopper is one of the possible choices. Never heard of Crosstrail, but made a search and found Specialized Crosstrail Elite 2020 Hybrid Bike which with bigger tires looks like what I really want, made a call to Specialized and... they do not have it in Japan. Never heard of it... I will visit them directly and talk on the issue.
If you are an American shopping in Tokyo, can you find bikes that fit?
I am Russian, but choices are wide. Some models you have mentioned might be hard to find, but the majority is there.