Originally Posted by
Metieval
Trek Aluminum frames will beat the heck out of you. (I know first hand) and the bigger tires won't save your neck shoulders body from the big hits, freeze cracks etc.
I'll second this. I did a "season" of gravel/off-road credit card touring and when I'd encounter some rough stuff it was miserable. Heck even extensive road riding on some of the brutal Sonoma chipseal was unpleasant. This was on a 2016 Crockett.
I replaced it with a Steel Niner RLT and noticed an immediate difference on the same courses. Sure the gnarly stuff still jarred no matter what the frame but it was much more enjoyable on the little stuff.
That being said, I just added an SL5 Checkpoint (due later this month) so we'll see how that compares. I haven't owned a Carbon bike in 5-years but I'm not going to wait for Trek to do a steel Checkpoint.