One Bike?
 

I am looking at selling my road bike to get a do-it-all bike, which will be my only bike. I have recently started the search and honestly it only seems to be getting more confusing. So far I have looked at cross bikes and the "new" adventure/gravel bikes with full disc brakes and likely leaning toward carbon. At this point in my search it appears the GT Grade appears to be one of the best bang for the buck options, assuming you can find one. From a price/spec/material standpoint it appears to be less expensive while better spec'd than equal price options like the Diverge, Renegade, RLT, Boone, Supernova, etc. For me in some logical order of use it would be most likely road(AL roads can vary greatly from smooth to why did they bother trying to pave this), gravel, century rides, light touring, cx.

So if you had to choose one bike for multiple purposes what would it be and why?

I recently went through a similar process. I've been riding a lot of the same events every year, mostly road centuries, and a lot of my riding buddies were encouraging me to get a new, "lighter" bike (carbon). My road bike is a 2005 Jamis Eclipse (Reynolds 853 with carbon top tube, seat tube, seat stays, 18lbs with pedals and cages). A number of them ride Parlees, SuperSix Evos, etc. However I've ridden D2R2 8x and look forward to it more than any other ride every year. I've started riding more dirt/gravel/all-road rides like the Honey One Hundred and F2G2 and my goal for this year is to ride even more dirt/gravel/all-roads rides in the Northeast like Battenkill Gran Fondo, VTOGP, Raid Rockingham. I also like getting off the main roads and exploring dirt roads and trails, the road less taken...

I decided instead of spending the $ on a new road bike, which is serving me just fine, it was time to replace my dirt/gravel/all-roads bike a '90 Trek 750 that weighs 27lbs. GT Grade, Specialized Diverge, Salsa Warbird Ti were on my shortlist, but I decided to go with a steel frame handmade in the USA as I love the ride of steel. I also wanted the bike to be right at home on fast group rides, centuries, and solo road training rides.

I settled on a Gunnar Hyper-X after test riding my LBS owner's Crosshairs on last year's Honey One Hundred. I had also borrowed his Roadie while my road bike was in the shop and I really like the ride of both. With the right tires like Panaracer Gravelkings or Clement XPlor USH, they roll really well on pavement, but also do very well when the road turns to dirt or gravel. I plan on riding this bike a lot this year to explore more local roads to find more dirt roads to add to my routes, and with this bike I won't have to turn around when the pavement ends. Fender eyelets were also important for me, so I had the Enve CX disc fork sent to Parlee for fender eyelets and paint. This bike will handle 700X35 with fenders, and 700X40 without. I wanted a bike that can take 700X40s on rides with loose dirt/sandy/rocky conditions for more float and rim protection, so that might also be a consideration for you as well. Some of the bikes you mentioned can only accommodate 700X35 max.

Any of the bikes you mentioned will probably serve you well. Get out and test ride as many as you can.

http://i1140.photobucket.com/albums/...psuamrfsnv.jpg

I would have it built up exactly how I wanted with exactly the components I wanted. I would start with this frame: Moots » ROUTT 45 » Overview

Why, because it's one of those setups that would be a lifetime bike and would fill the need of probably everything I'd ever want to do.

That is a great looking bike bgav! I also appreciate the insight and helping to expand my options. I would like to do Dirty Kanza next year and D2R2 is on my list. I have a lot of riding close by that right now I have no way of exploring do to my current bikes limitations. I am aware that some of the bikes I posted have possible clearance issues above 35's. I would love to be able to test ride a whole group of bikes but at this point I've only been on the Diverge Comp, Boone 5 and 9. One shop is supposed to be getting the Grade and Renegade in within the next month so that will help to give more idea.

I haven't seen much real world review of most of the bikes I am looking at other than the cross bikes?

Thanks, and glad you found the insight useful. Good luck with the test riding, enjoy it and take the time to explore your options and find the right bike for you! I really took a lot of time to figure out what I wanted, and while getting an off the shelf bike would have been quite a bit cheaper, none of them would have been exactly what I wanted (paint, gearing, wheelset, power meter, tire clearance) hence the custom build (but stock geometry).

Let me know when you make it up here for D2R2.

Have you seen these reviews?

http://bicycletimesmag.com/first-imp...enegade-elite/

http://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear/...-ride-gt-grade

PS I don't know what your budget is, but this is a sweet bike:

http://22bicycles.com/collections/bi...arrow-complete

I will let you know, if at all possible it will be this year! I have seen most of the online reviews of the Grade, Renegade, and Diverge. I had not seen that 22! I would like to keep this purchase somewhere between $2500-3500, however as what I hope to be a long term investment that is still debatable. While an off the shelf bike would be easiest I haven't completely settled on that route. I can actually get a really good deal on a NOS Supernova frame but once you start building it up the price keeps going up!