ok, so for example, Wallnut, you mentioned you like your Specialized bikes, well my LBS (the one that spends 30 minutes fitting a bike to me for a 30 minute test ride) is a Spec dealer (along with Surly, Cannondale, Salsa, and Santa Cruz)
Here are 3 of them, increasing (slightly) in price, and what I *believe* also increase in how 'rugged' they are:
Roubaix SL4 Sora
Secteur Sport Disc
Diverge Sport A1
I admit outright that I know squat about what makes a road bike 'rugged'. I look at the tires. If they're wider, I figure it's probably more rugged. *hangs head in ignorant shame*
I look at these bikes and think "if I took it offroad, I'd break it in half". Not even talking about getting air, just having to deal with some of the roads being tore up from the humvees, I can't always ride around the big dirt potholes, sometimes i have to hop them, sometimes I have to ride them as they're a bit too big to hop over but too small to just ignore.
Obviously these bikes are going to help me do work on the road to get me to the humvee trails, but once I get there, are they rugged enough to deal with the heavy gravel and the tore up dirt road, or do I need an 'upgrade' in beefiness to something like an
AWOL or
Salsa Vaya or even a
Salsa Fargo?
EDIT - hmmm...seems MRT2 gave me some data here while i was doing my numerous edits...