I am looking to purchase a new or used (preferably used) gravel/cc bike for about $1000. Just looking for recommendations as I've been out of the bike game for a while. Gravelling my mtb was my favorite cycling activity. Now I desire to get serious with it using a bike meant for particular activity.

Not sure if you're aware there is a serious bike shortage. Most stores are sold out with not date for new deliveries. And used bikes are going for 2x and more of their real value.

So you're not going to able to be picky. In facty you might not find a new or used bike that fits your needs.

Wow I did not know that. Thanks for the information. I was dumbfounded as I was looking for bikes. Almost everything is out of stock. Do you know the reason why?

Rumors of a pandemic apparently

Free toilet roll with every new bike.

I heard the same.

Everyone bought all the bikes on the floor and with production stopped in China back in December, it will be a while before new inventory arrives on the west coast and then shipped to the east coast.

Avon Mountain bikes are a good choice. You can check them out. Else there is Hercules, Hero these brands also manufacture amazing bikes at very affordable price.

I've got my problems with Trek, as I have made clear on other threads. But Trek has some nice gravel bikes. My wife and I just bought Trek Verves (we bought the non-electric "low entry" versions, because we're both ... uh ... veterans of life). They are a bit heavier than my old hybrid, and they have big (but not "fat") tires. In riding these babies recently, I've found that going from pavement to gravel is absolutely a breeze. And rough pavement, broken sidewalks, dirt ... it's hard to trust that a bicycle can actually make these transitions without my biting the dust. But that's the case.

We had to order both bikes--just within the last month--and we got them within 3 weeks. So there's not a huge catch up.

But ... check out the used boards. I was doing it for months looking for a new bike. There's lots and lots of stuff available. Some of it is badly used, some of it is really clean. Most of the used bikes will take some maintenance, but bike maintenance is so incredibly easy ...

Didn't realize used bikes were scarce and therefore higher value, time to sell off a couple that are taking up space.

A vast majority of bicycle manufacturing has moved off shore. they shut down production to control the virus spread,
Trans Pacific Shipping crews have also had issues, Ports short handed..

It all adds up..

Quick anecdote from my life. When I bought my first ten speed--1975--the major brands were still Raleigh and Schwinn. I'm sure there were German and I know there were some French bikes, all way more than I could afford. But right at that point in the last 70s, all of a sudden Japanese brands started coming in: Nishiki, Univega, etc. They were decent bikes, nicely componented, and far cheaper than the traditional "major brands." I bought a 1975 Univega that was still "in service" in my family until the 2000s.

Fast forward to the late 90s early 2000s. All of a sudden there was this crappy Chinese brand called Giant, sold in kind of barely-above-generic stores like ToysRUs. They were pretty much nothing more than acceptable quality. Now, of course, Giant is a major manufacturer, and appears to be making a run at the expensive bike market. They've got some nice bikes, good designs, lots of interesting models. So though it's true that the manufacturing "has moved offshore," that past tense encompasses more than 40 years of movement, in bikes alone.

In some ways, it's amazing that the Schwinn and Raleigh brands are still around. But I wouldn't be surprised if they were made in the Giant factory, or whatever the parent company is. I'd be almost sure they're not made in the US and GB any longer. Which is, IMHO, not a bad thing: it's better for the safety of the world if the economies of the world were integrated so that nobody's cut out of the gold rush.