Originally Posted by
staehpj1
It depends. Do you want a pure road bike? More versatility? How much stuff will you carry?
The length of your trip doesn't really tell us that you will need much stuff. Some folks get by on 10 pounds of stuff camping and cooking for weeks or months. Some carry more than that for a day ride. I find that on tour I carry pretty much the same stuff regardless of tour length. I typically don't do less than a week or 10 days at a time, but carry the same for those shorter tours as I do going coast to coast. Staying in motels to some means not taking much more than a credit card. To others it might mean lots of off bike clothes, heavy camera gear, and so on.
I often suggest if starting from scratch it would make sense to first decide what you will carry. Assemble that gear and then figure out what style of bags suit that load. Panniers? 2? 4? Seat bag? Bikepacking style bags? Only then choose what bike suits the ride.
OTOH, don't discount the value of choosing a bike you will just enjoy riding. I chose to ride my twitchy vintage (1990) Cannondale crit race bike for a southern tier ride and enjoyed it. Most would say it wasn't suitable, but I enjoy that bike a lot.
Also factor in what you think you are likely to want to do in the future if you might have different requirements later. The gravel bike will be more of a do everything bike if you want to do more dirt roads or whatever in the future.
The Pacific Coast can be ridden on pretty much any bike, but you may find you want lower gear than you might expect. There is more steep climbing than you might expect for a coastal route. So keep that in mind.
bheine, do take all of stae's points to heart, they are all pretty much spot on.
The point about lower gearing is an important one, many of us have done this route and there is indeed steep climbing sometimes, riding with even minimal weight of a load you'll want and appreciate lower gearing of a gravel bike with a smaller crankset and bigger cassette in back.
as another nod to a gravel bike, I've ridden a cyclocross bike for 11 years and still love the versatility of it. It can take wider tires but with good slicks it is as fast and as fun as a road bike (well close anyway)
having the ability to change tires and ride fast on all kinds of surfaces is really fun, plus a "gravel" bike will be a bit tougher and more suited to putting bags on.
From my experience going an appropriate gravel bike is a no brainer.
have fun researching bikes and figuring out carrying stuff on a bike for the first time, lots of bag choices out there now for minimum setups.
Also 32mm tires are great for both rolling fast and having more stuff weight on bike, I personally love my 32mm Supremes by schwalbe.