Since you’re not looking for razor’s edge performance, and mainly do group rides, I think you have more leeway with bike choice. Having said that, if you want gravel capability, personally I would want the ability to mount at least 42mm tires, and preferably 45mm.

Doing long rides over gravel can be pretty tiring, and it’s really nice having the extra tire volume. The Caledonia is only rated to hold 34mm tires. It could probably accommodate something a little larger, but again, that’s too narrow IMO for long gravel rides.

What about a Trek Domane? It’s rated for 38mm tires and will hold 42’s. My wife has one and I’ve tested 42s. It’s really smooth on road and chews up the miles, although it isn’t the sportiest handler.

Another idea is the Specialized Diverge, which is rated for 47mm tires.

This is what me & the Mrs have. 2 sets of wheels: 1 set with road tires & 1 set with gravel tires.

---

Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

There are alot of variables but I would think that performance loss would possible be dominated by a different frame geometry, or possibly gearing depending on how you have it set up.

I have an Ibis Hakka MX with a Rival 1x groupset and 2 sets of wheels 650b with 2.1" tires and 11-42 cassette, and 700C wheels with 42mm wheels and a 10-42 cassette. When I was shopping for a gravel/CX bike being able to use 650b wheels and wider tires were a high priority. The bike is so much fun off road with 2.1" tires. It handles well on the road but not quite as good as my pure road bikes.

Most of the exploros and up's are setup 1x which makes it harder to find an ideal setup for both road and gravel. I have a 40 tooth chainring and an 11 tooth cog is pretty easy to spin out above 20MPH off road this is fine for me, but on the road I want a little bigger gear. The 10 tooth cog helps it gives me a few more MPH before I spin out. That is good enough for me on the road but stronger riders would want a larger chain ring. Personally i like having a 40x42 bailout gear for steep climbs so I do not want to move to a larger chainring.

There really isn't much performance loss.

I ride knobby 40c tires on my Aspero on the road and average ~18mph instead of 19-20mph. So you really don't even notice it unless you're going for KOMs. Plus I can just swap over to 25-30c road tires when I'm doing longer road rides or faster group stuff. I'll probably use this bike in some Cat1-3 races once those are happening again

The Ventum GS1 looks like it has a pretty solid mix of performance & gravel-ability too

I own an Exploro (etap 2x) and a Tarmac Pro (di2 2x). I basically don't ride the Tarmac anymore unless I'm racing. I've actually considered using the Exploro in road races instead of the Tarmac, since i'm almost positive the Exploro is the more aero of the two and the weight is essentially a wash between the two. I'd prefer the Tarmac in a crit because if feel more confident in corners on that bike.

I only do group rides on my Exploro, and I use gravel tires. Typically my NP is about 10w higher at the end of a group ride on my Exploro than i would have been on my tarmac. At zone 2 and zone 3 it's not noticeable, but at zone 4+ you can start to feel the difference with big tires. A 10w change at Zone 2 isn't a big deal, but 10w when you are above threshold is a lot.

But, that's all with gravel tires on an exploro vs fast road tires on a tarmac. I think if i was to put fast road tires on the Exploro it would be as fast or faster than my road bike.

I road bike my Giant Revolt with a second wheelset, works great and no noticeable loss of performance, have no issues with 24+mph group rides. I've even done fast/long group rides on the gravel tires, def takes more effort tho. lol

As someone mentioned, if you're not chasing podiums and racing on the edge, a gravel bike with two wheelsets will cover all the bases for most people.

8.5kg in gravel mode with 42mm Pathfinder Pros, 8kg in road mode with 32mm GP5000s, could def get lighter, that's with alloy wheels (Fulcrum gravel, FFWD road) & stock alloy bars/stem.

Thanks for all the replies! This is super helpful and eased my fears. I'm now leaning towards either a Domane w/ the capability of 40mm tires or the Exploro, going to depend on geometry and how some test rides go.

I'm pretty sure I wrote close to the same post about 3 months ago, word for word.

The CGR SL is really tempting at the price.

I was at a bike shop in Talloires France last summer and they had an Exploro in for service. It was love at first sight. Then the Aspero was released.

I just regard them as an aero endurance bike that can fit fat tires. Dress them up as needed and have fun.

Because of the run on bikes from Covid, I'm waiting until the spring to buy. My first choice is still the Exploro with the Aspero a very close 2nd. I'll see where to get the best deal when the time comes.

Any reason why you're focused on the Exploro or Aspero more than the CGR? Personally I'm looking for a 105 setup to keep cost down and the CGR is extremely appealing in price. Then I could justify using the extra saved money on a nicer wheelset to reduce weight.

I also like the 105 setup. I'm also looking at the wheelset they ship with. The CGR is more old school with a narrower inner width.

The Exploro in black is just a matter of lust, pure and simple.. It helps that it's a great bike, but to me, it just looks the best. I have never bought a new bike and I don't want to have any regret.

I have a little brand snobbery going for the Aspero. I have a number of Cervelo's in the house so one more would fit nicely.

I forgot about the Giant Revolt. That would be a good candidate as well.

Which 3T model are you considering? Seems like most of their lineup is in the $4K+ range.

Whatever you decide, report back what you find and ultimately decide to buy. This is a pretty common question.

Probably the Exploro Pro 105 whenever its available off pre-order. Retails for $2,699. Although I do love the Black frameset I can't justify that purchase now

Either an endurance road or gravel bike is going to be a compromise, so I would focus on what factors would be show-stoppers. I rode an endurance road bike as a gravel bike for a couple of years before getting an Exploro a couple weeks ago so maybe these insights will help.

The endurance road bike was/is a Fuji Gran Fondo. I had 38s on it with the stock narrow rims so you can get a decent gravel tire in some of these bikes. The show-stopper was muddy conditions. If you are moving to a wetter climate or someplace with clay soils yo might find the endurance bike unridable anytime the soil is wet and muddy. The geometry of the Fuji was also not intended for the larger diameter tire, so there was some significant toe overlap. The Exploro fixes all these issues.

Using the gravel bike as a road bike really comes down to gearing. I am not sure any of the gravel bikes will clear a front chain ring larger than a 50. I can live with a 50x11 on the road, but if you go with something like a 1x 40 you are going to want a 9 or 10 or figure that swapping to a larger front ring is not a huge problem. I run the Exploro as a 50/34 2x because there aren’t many situations where a 34/32 won’t get me up something and I kind of need the 50 for flat gravel Strava segments.

I would say that a gravel bike is less of a compromise, it does gravel better than an endurance road bike, but does road just as well. I can spin my 48x11 to 35mph, any faster than that and I'm going downhill anyway. lol And my 32-34 lowend can climb just about anything, could squeeze a 36 on there if I wanted/needed. I have 42mm tires that measure over 44mm on wide wheels and still have plenty of clearance if it gets muddy (Giant specs official clearance at 45mm for 700c). Can also fit 650x47 if I needed more tire.

I went with a Parlee Chebacco with two wheel set ups, one for gravel, one for the road. Handles great as a road bike, and switch out the wheels to my gravels and tear that up too.

Big fan of two bikes in one!

I second the Revolt with two sets of wheels. If I could only have one road bike, that would be it. Very versatile, decent compliance off road, and no slouch with the right tires on road. I have nothing but good things to say about mine.

---

"It never gets easier, you just go faster."
-Greg LeMond

In your price range check out the Lauf.
If you dont foresee any beer emergencies, replace the bottle opener with a front derailleur.

I've not seen this before.

I'd say it pretty much seals the deal for me.

Best I can tell from comparing the geometry/specs for sz 56, the Caledonia is basically a pre-suspension Roubaix without the Zertz.

What kind of gravel are you using the Domane in? How are you finding it for a gravel bike - I would suspect I am going to be 70/30 road to gravel, but I don't want a bike that doesn't get the job done...

---

DFRU - Detta Family Racing Unit...the kids like it and we all get out and after it...gotta keep the fam involved!

I'm not quite sure how to answer the question "what kind of gravel" but I will tell you so far I haven't met a situation where I couldn't ride through. Most of my gravel riding has been on gravel roads at Ft Bragg, NC (where allowed) & in the Uwharrie National Forest.

---

Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Just to update - 3T is no longer making the cheaper 105 version of the Exploro. I've decided to go with the Canyon Grail CF (even with the weird bar setup) due to the more aggressive geometry of the Canyon vs other gravel/all-road bikes.

I never saw it even come off preorder.

My wife recently got a Domane SLR6. We recently did a 65 mile ride w/ about 70% gravel, including some pretty rough unmaintained Class IV roads and she did fine. The bike is very confidence inspiring, it rides really smooth and she's killing the downhills on it. If you do want to start doing pretty rough gravel or trails where you want 47-50mm tires then obviously you'd want a dedicated gravel bike. Also, it's not the lightest frame around. Her 44 cm bike is about 19 pounds with 32c GP5000 on some pretty light wheels, a pretty heavy Cobb saddle, Favero Assioma pedals, but otherwise stock Ultegra, and a bit under 21 pounds in gravel mode (wide tires and mtb pedals) with the stock wheels, which aren't the lightest. Obviously if you're willing to spend the bucks you can get it lighter but I don't think you'd ever get this bike down to 16 pounds without crazy exotic stuff.

She's running 40c tires which run on the small side and measure out to 39mm and clearance is fine. But at least on her size frame I wouldn't run anything wider. I think 42mm wide which another poster mentioned is really pushing it unless there's more clearance on larger frames, you might get away with it on dry stuff but could definitely cause real problems in the mud.

I recently got an Aspero and plan to use it for both road and gravel. As test I set it up for road and held my own in a fast group ride, even had a very good time for me on a short hill climb but don't currently have power on this bike so can't really compare with my aging but still light roadie. Swapping wheels is no big deal IMHO. However, the compromise comes in two other areas. I am using SPD mountain bike pedals for gravel and really wouldn't want to use those for fast road rides, and adding a pedal swap on top of the wheel swap starts to get into PITA territory. The other compromise is in handlebar shape and position. For gravel you generally want to ride a higher handlebar position so for road riding I have to bend my arms more to keep from being too upright. The Aspero comes with flared bars and I find that wider drop position is awkward on the road. But lots of people don't use flared bars for gravel so if you are primarily doing road then I think you could set up your bars for the road riding and be OK.

So just some stuff to think about.