daviddavieboy

A touring bike is what I thought of first as well. You can used fairly cheap, they will accept tires large enough for riding off road, they are super comfy if sized properly, have mount points to attach ANYTHING. For older bikes a Disc Trucker, Stragler, or Cross Check - all made by Surly. A Trek 520 is a classic that works well off road and the new 520 is excellent off road and can still be fast on pavement. If you think you will be off road for the majority of time why not a hard tail MTB- def not as fast on roads but way more comfortable off road in the rough stuff

Also, could you be more specific of what you meant by "rocks"

beng1

Mountainbike hands-down. It can go anywhere, do anything any other bike can, and almost never gets flats compared to bikes with skinnier tires. Also if you get a nice used one from the 1990s with a steel frame it will last a lifetime and used parts for it are dirt-cheap.

rosefarts

A 90’s mountain bike is essentially the same thing as a modern flat bar gravel bike but with smaller wheels. It’s a solid option. The setup pictured is probably unstable at any speed and any surface, due to improper setup.

You did a great job illustrating an incorrect bike fit to the OP. I wish you would have explained more. Looks like that bike is frame is at least 2” too small for the rider. The seat to stem drop seems to be 5-6” inches which is way past the 2” drop a bike like that should have. The stem is too long to compensate for the small frame it’s upside down. It’ll also be difficult to open your lungs in that position.

But yeah, it’s a great start, just use this picture as a reference of what not to do.

georges1

Yep that would be my pick as well and they are also very versatile on all kind of terrain

georges1

This what I use when going mountain biking or in not so friendly paved roads or trails, it is 31 years old but solid as a tank, upgraded wheels and drivetrain and it performs flawlessly.

1989Pre 

Just remember that whichever bike/frame you choose, you can also have more than one set-up for it. For example, I have a summer and a winter set up for my mtb. In winter, I use 2.1" knobby tires. In summer, I use 1.25" slicks. I also swap out my suspension fork for rigid aluminum every spring. There are other tweaks I make, including saddle, seatpost, pedals, stems and wheels. So, I basically go from "heavy and rugged" in winter to "light and fast" in summer.
If you buy something used, you might have the money left over to give you some variation.

Desert63

This is the same thing I was looking for, and I believe I found it. But my recommendation is based on how hard you want to ride. REI has the COOP, both a MTB and a Cruiser Hybrid. It is lower on the Shimano components list, but I have thousands of miles on mine in every environment you talked about. I do limited downhill and do it pretty gently, so its not a MTBers hardcore downhill bike, but I have used it for that. Selling used all over Seattle for $300-$500. On my COOP cruiser hybrid, I have put up to 2.1-inch tires, but I keep the default 1.6 ones on normally. That gets me through everything, except really deep gravel or borderline sand. Love mine. I am on the heavier side at 6'2", 200.

bwilli88 

I live in Cambodia and have a home in Pennsylvania.
These are what I ride on the crappy roads here, everything from concrete, crappy tar, dirt, washed out gravel, singletrack or paths.










Get a bike and ride it.

Mike sgonre

Personally, I also prefer gravel road bikes, because gravel roads combine the characteristics of mountains and roads and adapt to any complicated road conditions. My friend owns a SAVA gravel 105 22speed carbon fiber bike. I used it once and it feels great. While I'm currently on a hardtail mountain bike, the next one might be gravel road