Hi all I'm looking for my first road bike in 15yrs after going to the dark side and riding mountain bikes lol. After to many broken bones I'm going road/gravel and I also fancy seeing how fit I can get at the ripe middle age of 47 😁 so the question is I'm in the UK so **** rough roads and I basically live on the coast to coast cycle lane which is light gravel no single-track do you think just go endurance/allroad which is could fit 35ish mm tyres maybe upto 38mm if I go ribble or giant defy or do I go full gravel and have 2 sets of wheels ? Any suggestion welcome 😊

Do you plan on riding in the wet and mud? If so the additional tire and fender clearance of a gravel bike might be a deciding factor.

Not much in it really. A gravel bike is ultimately more versatile if you really want to explore the gravel trails and not much of a compromise on paved roads. Especially not with a second wheel set. An Endurance road bike will be more limited on tyre width, which may or may not bother you depending on your gravel use.

Hi tbh I've still got a xc bike and emtb so its definitely sticking to tarmac and cycle track, but looking at gravel bikes I'm noticing there going further and further with reach number, I really don't understand this as a long reach on a mtb helps going downhill for control out the saddle but road and gravel bikes you mainly stay seated so surely it's just makes you more stretched out its weird ?

Longer front center, specific to gravel bikes, is to help stability during front wheel impacts as well as provide reduced feedback when the bike is leaned over. Similar to MTB but different enough give the other geometry and fit choices. Paired with a shorter stem usually to keep rider in the same position just change the front center and rear center relationships, and weight distribution.

Make sure you take the stem and bar reach into account when comparing road vs gravel bikes.

Hi cheers for reply tbh I'm going to a few shops to try as im 6ft6 ish and I'm strange in I'm all legs short torso long arms 🤣 I'm liking some of these merida scultura endurance, merida silex , cube attain or nuroad but the ribble gravel sl looks good value aswell ?

I don’t think there is much in it between the various reputable brands. Fit is going to be the most important factor, especially at your height. You are almost guaranteed to be looking at their largest frame size and some manufacturers have a bigger size range than others. This could be important for you.

Consider what amount of saddle to bar drop you want. With either type of bike, there'll be some models that are made give you a lot and others that are made to only give a little. It's not a matter of changing the saddle height as the proper saddle height will be virtually the same for any of those bikes. And without spending extra money, the stem only has about 40 maybe as much as 50 mm to play with.

At your height, head tube length or stack height is going to be critical to getting a comfortable fit on the long rides. Get the tallest you can find. I would prioritize that over the claimed reach, stem length will let you modify that part a bit. Even at my "average" height, I have longer arms and legs with short torso that usually puts me on a bigger road frame than expected. I still use the same cockpit length as I did 20 years ago, but I shop frames with a higher stack now. Makes getting bars up easier when you don't have to go in search of special ugly stems and steerer extenders.

More tire clearance is always a good thing. You can put skinnier tires on for fast rides, but frames with no clearance take away options.

That's what I'm thinking tbh I think alot of people are on bikes to big for them 🤔 also I'm not as bent as I was when doing TT years ago lol that's why I'm looking at theses bikes not race bikes 🤣

Hi right well my saddle height is 840mm center bb to top of saddle I've found that there's quite a few bikes with 630plus mm stack the trek domane is 650mm which sounds massive so I've going to sit in them this week ?

I have an Endurance (Roubaix SL8 APEX) and a Gravel (Checkpoint SL6 AXS). Most ride dynamics come down to the tires. I take the Checkpoint for rougher rides, as the beefier frame inspires more confidence, and the Roubaix for long, smoother road and trail hauls, as it's lighter and faster.

If I could have one, I'd take a Roubaix and likely run 40 wide tires.

test ride as many of both that you can... make your choice after the test rides.

Gravel gets you bigger tires. Thats very useful in dirt. You can also get a second set of wheels and run skinny asphalt tires like 32’s or so. Two bikes in one.

In recent months, I had only a gravel bike in my stable. With my usual 44mm gravel tires, it served me on all but the most demanding MTB trails, as well as general rolling around on mixed surfaces. With 32mm high-quality road tires, it served pretty well as a fill-in road bike, with the primary limitation being its 1x gearing when joining faster group road rides. The versatility was quite good. When I go on vacation next month, in an area with great road and dirt riding, that's the bike I'll take, with both wheelsets.

840 mm saddle is pretty tall, so a 560 mm stack is not as massive as it sounds. If you look at the Canyon Endurace, a 2XL frame has 803-903 mm saddle height range and 656 mm stack. Next size down XL has 773-873 mm saddle height and 637 mm stack.

If there is a lot of local hill climbing a 2X might serve you better than a 1X. I would also recommend a gravel bike - very versatile and you can swap wheels and tires for tarmac and trail.

don’t really need another set of tires or wheelset w / tires if you ride a gravel bike on pavement

many gravel tires roll almost as well as many good road tires … some of the top rolling gravel tires are among the best rolling tires available … Hutchinson Caracal Race is one example

fairlight secan in 61t size.
It's local to you(I assume, based on phrasing) and an incredibly well designed frameset.

Were you intending to respond to my post, in particular?

You don't "need" it, but can be a nice option. My alternate "road" wheels have a tighter range cassette, and very fast road tires. The lack of tread on the Carcacal would be an issue with how I want my gravel bike to perform in the dirt. For other folks, however, it might work just fine.

on rough pavement the difference might be even less

while I would not want to ride gravel tires with an especially spirited road group - anything less / more casual would be fine … (for me)

I was going to get a carbon wheelset with road slicks for my Checkpoint, but all in the wheelset wasn't that far off in price from a new bike, so I went that route instead.

nope. Just to the OP, but building on yours. Hope that’s ok