Smaug1

(see below for bikes I already have)

Steel Gravel Bike: I have a cyclist buddy at work who is telling me gravel bikes are the dog's danglies and I should definitely have one in my fleet. He travels quite a bit to do gravel races. It sounds like fun and I hear they also make great commuters. (not that I need another commuter) The bigger tires would make it more comfortable to ride on the bad roads around here too. I just LOVE the ride on my old steel Schwinn, so that's why I'm thinking of steel. (CF and Ti are too expensive, as I'm thinking of a max. $2500 budget)

Gravel eBike: This would give all the advantages of the gravel bike at the expense of some weight. Only problem is that it wouldn't be admissible in gravel races. I don't know how I feel about this, as I've never done a gravel race. Should I do one on my Domane AL3 with its 32 mm tires deflated a bit, or would that not really give me a proper idea?

Another Folding eBike: This would be a "spare" to go with the Lectric XP Lite I already have. Then, when I go on vacation or a weekend mini-break with my daughter or wife, we could bring a 2nd folding eBike and have a lot more fun. My wife is a super-weak rider and if she's not on an eBike, she goes 6 mph, which drives me nuts. My daughter is in good shape, but doesn't have the legs yet, as she's 12 and her swimming muscles aren't translating. I bought her a road bike last year and she's not usually keen to ride it with me; she much prefers the XP Lite folding eBike.

My instinct is to go for another folding eBike, as I will enjoy biking time more with my daughter during her fleeting childhood and ALSO open up more options to travel & ride with my wife. My wife & daughter are not into "cycling" but like "going for a bike ride", if you get my drift.

Current bike fleet:
- Juiced HyperScrambler 2 - eMoped
- Aventon Level.2 - my commuter eBike
- Lectric XP Lite - "lightweight" (46 lbs.) folding eBike; daughter's/loaner/travel eBike
- Electra Townie GO! 7D - wife's bike/eBike
- Old Trek Mountain bike - daughter's bike
- Old Trek road bike - daughter's road bike. I bought it for her last year. She's only used it once so far, and always prefers to ride the XP Lite. Not sure this is going to take. It has a very small frame, (46 cm?) so if she isn't going to ride this now, it doesn't make sense to keep it.
- Trek Verve 3 hybrid/comfort bike - selling tonight; was thinking of replacing it with a gravel bike. I haven't been riding it since I got the Level.2.
- 1972 Schwinn Varsity - Nostalgic bike. I love the (steel) ride on this. Not sure I'll keep it long-term.
- 2023 Trek Domane AL3

Thanks for sticking with it despite the intimidating wall of text, but your help in this decision is appreciated.

Koyote

If you have to ask other people which bike to purchase, you probably don't need another one.

njkayaker

So, your max budget is $2500.

Is there a gravel ebike less than $2500?

This is confusing: there's no way for people to figure out what you really are looking for here. So, either you are just bringing the "XP Lite" (one bike) or you are bringing two bikes (the "XP Lite" and something else) or you are talking about needing three bikes. If you are bringing two bikes, what other bike are you bringing and how are you carrying two bikes?

Most of this is bizarrely irrelevant.

===================================

In any case, asking random people to help you choose between a gravel bike and a foldable ebike makes no sense at all.

GamblerGORD53

Why do you need 3 or 4 e-bikes?? Make no sense.
If anything, get a gravel NOT E bike, but I doubt there's much for steel around. You will get stronger and be able to keep up with the girls on e bikes. That won't be all that often I gather.
It would also double as a tour bike likely.
There's a YT guy and his GF using Alu Koga belt Rohloff bikes on the craziest rough terrain I've ever seen. They plow right thru rivers too. LOL

Smaug1

If you don't want to try to help, then why bother posting? Oh, just to put someone down and make yourself feel wise? Or you wanted to have the first response and get a lot of Likes from other snarky members?

It should be quite obvious by my bike list that this is a want rather than a need. ...but then you probably didn't get that far, in your rush to make the first reply.



Yes. Ride1Up just made one, and it's carbon fiber, too:
https://ride1up.com/product/cf-racer1/

Quote:

It would be either:

1. bring only one folding eBike,
2. no bikes at all
3. one folding eBike in the CR-V and one regular bike on the strap-on rack out back.

Feel free to ignore it then. If someone asked my advice on their next bike purchase, my first question would be: "What do you already have?"

Quote:

In any case, asking random people to help you choose between a gravel bike and a foldable ebike makes no sense at all.

You're the second person to say this, but then spend time typing up a snarky response. Why bother, if you think it doesn't make sense?
Have you never seen the value in an outside viewpoint?

njkayaker

Pointing out problems in how you are asking for help is trying to help.


You could have taken this as a hint that there might possibly be an issue with how you are asking for help. Maybe, it really doesn't make sense and that's something you should fix. Instead, you are blaming other people for your mess.

Edit: it's three people who think your question doesn't make sense.

Bikes that you aren't using or are planning to get rid of don't really help other people.

How does an old Schwinn varsity that you are thinking of getting rid of have any bearing whether you should get a gravel bike or a folding eBike?

It seems that you should be OK riding on a regular bike. That is, an extra eBike seems unnecessary here. (You'd really only need a 2nd eBike your were riding with your daughter and wife at the same time (bringing 3 bikes).

Smaug1

Well, to someone who is not an avid cyclist, it makes no sense to have more than one bike PERIOD. I have become an eBike connoisseur, so...
Just for fun, I'll share my justification for having three already:

• The Aventon Level.2 could be my only eBike; it does most things well.
• The Electra is my wife's bike. It's a laid-back cruiser, not really my cup of tea. Plus it's not as fast, being a Class 1 instead of Class 3.
• The Lectric is foldable and portable. Less efficient than the Level.2; not very realistic for anything more than 20 miles as it's a single speed, geared for 14+ mph. Hills will quickly kill the battery. This one is also a 2nd eBike, for if I want to have a guest join me or my wife and I, and we don't feel like sweating on a nice summer day.

Thanks for this thoughtful advice!

slow rollin

Get another folding e-bike. This way all 3 of you can ride together. Or wait till your daughter is strong enough to ride with the road bike so you take 1 folding e-bike for the wife, and you and your daughter take the road bikes.
If you don't plan on riding as a family often get a gravel bike. If this was on the cheap I would have kept the hybrid bike and swapped the bars to road bars....

PeteHski

So gravel bike vs e-folding bike. Well that’s kind of a personal decision in my book. There is no rational way that a 3rd party could help you with that one.

It’s a want vs a need. So just buy the one that [you] want most.

njkayaker

Interesting.

If they can build an electric CF bike for $2300, there should be a non-electric CF bike for less.

Outrider1

An ebike connoisseur... There's a dedicated subforum you may find more suitable.

Smaug1

Yes, I mostly participate there, but since this poll also involves a non-electric option, I thought I'd post here instead.
I will say they are quite a bit less snobby than a lot of people here...

SoSmellyAir

If I understand correctly, it looks like Smaug1 already has four e-bikes (1) Juiced HyperScrambler; (2) Aventon Level.2; (3) Lectric XP Lite; and (4) Electra Townie GO! 7D for three people (1) Smaug1; (2) his wife; and (3) his daughter to ride together. So it seems that there are enough e-bikes to cover the riding with his daughter during her fleeting childhood.

Smaug1 ventures that if he gets another folding e-bike, that would enable all three of them to travel with e-bikes. Although that may (or may not) be the case, it seems that a larger trailer would be a more obvious solution. It also seems that if his wife and daughter "are not into cycling but like going for a bike ride," how frequently would they want to travel with e-bikes rather than just travel?

Whereas Smaug1 does not have, but appears to want, a gravel bike. Ding ding ding!

icemilkcoffee 

Problem is you are confusing everyone by including your wife and daughters' bikes. Leave those out. And how come you are not listing your Trek Domane there?
Anyways, I think you should get the acoustic gravel bike. You have enough e-bikes there. You have a distinct lack of acoustic bikes.

veganbikes

So I would sell most of that fleet and get one nicer e-bike and one nicer non-e-bike.

indyfabz

I think his comment could have been most helpful if it weren't dismissed outright. And labeling others who liked his post as snarky is actually snarky, and that's putting it nicely.

Sangetsu

I have a gravel bike, a folding bike, a mountain bike, and a road bike. I don’t have an e-bike, but I do have a motorcycle, I got a very nice, low-mileage Ducati 996 for $4.5k. She’s purty…

Camilo

My answer: yes

mstateglfr 

What width tire can your Domane handle? I know it has 32s now, but is it one that fits 38mm tires and really fits 40? If so, just ride that for 500mi of gravel and see if you like the setup or not. Depending on your experience, you can then buy a proper gravel bike or buy one of the bikes you mentioned.

MattoftheRocks

It seems like your family is really into motorcycles but you keep buying these slow barely motorised contraptions with pedals instead of pegs.

When the eeebike fad passes and you’ve done flagellated yourself on the wide tire road bike that your co-worker told you to get because they need a bicycle sit-n-poke buddy to chat with at lunch, you’ll wish you had a fleet of reliable Hondas with 80-250cc four stroke gasoline engines for the family to pleasantly sit & buzz around town at 25-45mph on.

I vote steel gravel bike. Get a custom Rodriguez brazed out of Reynolds 531 steel with long point lugs dimensioned 74/74° head/seat tubes, 56cm c-c top tube, 50mm BB drop, 10cm head tube, 420mm chain stays, horizontal dropouts, 25.4mm threaded steerer, fork with a sloped crown lug and French curved blades offset 40mm, clearance for 26x3” tires & fenders, canti bosses, internal dynamo lighting ports including SON dynamo interfacing fork ends, powdercoated yellow. Ride it for a month to appease your co-worker, then sell it to me for $100 and then go buy a Honda Grom or Ruckus and live your life to the fullest.

Smaug1

Yep, just no good way yet to bring two of them on a trip.

I was thinking just two of us, each with a folding eBike.

I don't want to get into trailers, but I had been thinking of putting a trailer HITCH put on the CR-V and buy a proper hitch-mounted rack. That would be an option too.

Yes, I'm leaning toward a gravel bike now.


OK, I added the Domane; thanks. I am leaning toward an acoustic gravel bike now. I'm thinking either a Priority Apollo (aluminum, belt drive, IGH) or Surly Straggler. (steel, chain drive) I like the look of the Surly better, and probably the ride too, but I like the idea of never doing chain maintenance again on the Priority. My friend questions whether the low gears will be low enough for climbing, I don't know how to compare them.

Well, the Aventon Level.2 is a nice eBike, in my eyes.
As icemilkcoffee pointed out, I forgot to list my Domane, so no need for a nicer road bike anyway. My coworker pointed out that I could push the Domane into a gravel bike role. I'd be a little slower off pavement with the 32 mm tires, but faster on the paved sections. Or I could just put a fatter set of tires on it. More on that below.

It can take up to 35s.
I'm thinking the gravel bike will be my go-to for commuting, at least until it gets really hot, then I'll switch to the eBike so as not to arrive to work sweaty. Roads around here are bad, so the softer ride will be appreciated even on pavement.

Hehehe, well, the wife couldn't handle a motorcycle and neither could my stepdaughter. Daugher could, but she's 12 and her mom would kill me.

I don't think this fad will ever pass, unless it gets over-regulated by the government. (which has already happened in the Florida Keys) I'm not ruling out a 160 cc class scooter though in the future! I had one before; it was great.

You had me for a minute there, I started thinking: "Can I get that for my $2500 budget?"

MattoftheRocks

“Hehehe, well, the wife couldn't handle a motorcycle and neither could my stepdaughter. Daugher could, but she's 12 and her mom would kill me.”

You're simultaneously grossly overestimating the difference between a tiny motorcycle and a heavy AF emoped while grossly underestimating your family members’ mental and physical capabilities. Ten man-points. Good job.

GamblerGORD53

So your Trek Domane isn't that special or expensive, then it is fine for commuting with 32/ 35c tires.
I see NO need to get another derailleur bike. Pinion / belt is the way to improve.
Grannies in Vietnam were going 15 mph on their Hondas. LOL.

Smaug1

How arrogant of you to think you know my girls better than I do!

You also assume a lot re. my knowledge of small motorcycles vs. eMopeds.

I rode motorcycles and scooters tens of thousands of miles from 2000 to 2022; everything from 49cc scooters to a 1300cc Yamaha FJR 1300A. A heavy eMoped is 120 lbs, but that would still be VERY light for even a lightweight motorcycle or scooter. A 49cc Honda Metropolitan weighs 180 lbs., for example. The eMoped has a higher center of mass, so there's that, but you're still way off-base.

MattoftheRocks

Are they handicapped?

wait… there’s tons of videos on YT of people with just one leg and people under 4’6” riding full sized 600cc+ sport bikes.

You may as well also assert that they also can’t handle cooking meat on a grill.

If both your wife and daughter are under 4’6” and one-legged, you’re right. I overstepped.

if they’re actually totally average **** sapiens, and they already have experience rolling on two wheels, there’s no rational reason for anyone to think that they couldn’t handle a dinky <300cc bike.