JohnUSA

I want to add a gravel bike to my stable, but I’m having trouble finding one that fits my needs.

Basically, I want a bike that’s fast enough that I can do road rides in the winter in messy conditions, as well as mixing in a lot of gravel roads. However, I really want the bike to have big tire clearance, because I’d like to be able to do some trails with it as well. Preferably, I want something that can comfortably use 700x35 tires and then when need be, can handle 700x45’s or even slightly bigger MTB tires for singletrack.

My uses for the bike will be gravel road riding, light singletrack duty, and finally, I really want to try bikepacking. Also, I’d like to do some gravel races if possible. I know this sounds like a very wide range of disciplines, but I’m confident I can find a bike that will suit my needs. Right now I’m looking at the Jamis Renegade Expat, which looks nice, but the tire clearance (700x42) isn’t the greatest. Any options for me under $1200 or so? I’m 17 years old so I don’t have a huge cash flow. If necessary, I could stretch my budge to $1500. I really don’t care about having high end components, Sora or even Claris would be acceptable, I just want a quality frame, preferably steel, but aluminum would be acceptable.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and thank you for your help,

John