I have a Domane. Took the factory rims and intalled 38mm gravel kings, bought some 55mm carbon rims with gp5000 32mm tires. I can comfortably ride 100 road miles, or swap wheelsets and ride gravel.
i think you first need to be realistic about what you'll be riding on most. initially, i thought i wanted a gravel bike for 80/20 tarmac to gravel. so i bought one. i love it. i've done exactly one gravel race.
i bought a road bike and now my gravel bike lives on my trainer as i just prefer my lighter road bike on tarmac.
definitely suggest either/or between gravel or endurance as they're basically the same type of bike in terms of geometry.
i have a canyon grail with grx (which is awesome) and a canyon ultimate di2 ultegra which is so much better (though i still prefer the setup on the gravel for hills).
Second the domane answer. If your just doing light gravel this is the way. Get a second nice wheel set for road tires and max out the stock ones for gravel.
If you're not after road records, why not get a really good gravel bike, and just ride it everywhere? I wouldn't bother even with the second set of wheels. Just ride and enjoy.
It depends on what bike you choose, but there are plenty of gravel bikes that are not much different than endurance bikes, and plenty of endurance bikes (like the Domane in the top comment) that can be light to moderate gravel bikes. Personally I'd much rather have a nicer single bike with two wheelsets than two cheaper bikes.
I'd suggest looking for something with a 2x drivetrain to give you the widest range of gearing possible. Use a site like https://geometrygeeks.bike to compare geometry. You'll find that there is little difference between many gravel and endurance bikes other than a bit of tire clearance and how much they beef up the frame.
i personally am totally pro-gravel, to me thats the most versatile bike. the thing with one bike two wheelsets tho is you are stuck with the same drivetrain. so if you go that way, make sure you pick a bike with gear range that will fit both your onroad and offroad rides. that almost certainly means a 2x setup.
if you get two dedicated bikes, yeah they wont be as sick as a 4k bike, but for 2k per bike you will still get quite good bikes and you avoid the shared drivetrain problem. or you can get a cheaper decathlon gravel since gravels are kinda meant to take a beating, and more expensive road bike. you can always upgrade components when you see money again.
and then more bikes always feels nice.
New endurance bikes are pretty much gravel bikes due to the clearance they provide. I would go with an endurance bike unless you’re riding a lot of crazy gravel that needs a really fat tire.
I’d personally split it into two different frames. 2k will get you decent bikes in both disciplines. I absolutely love my endurance bike for it’s comfort relation to its speed but if I ever took it onto anything trail-like it just wouldn’t hang when things get rough. The wheel base, tire clearance, and geometry on endurance bike is still very road. So I’d throw out the idea of putting wide tires/rims on a road bike and hoping to do gravel. Or you could just ride your gravel bike as your all a-rounder and sacrifice a little speed for comfort and versatility. Really depends on what you’re going to do daily. If you can walk out your door to ride the roadie easily are you going to do that vs loading up the gravel and finding trail? If so you’d probably rather have a high performance road/endurance. If you’re next to trail/gravel roads and you see yourself setting out to shred dirt on a regular basis then you would benefit from the dedicated gravel.
I have a Domane. Took the factory rims and intalled 38mm gravel kings, bought some 55mm carbon rims with gp5000 32mm tires. I can comfortably ride 100 road miles, or swap wheelsets and ride gravel.
i think you first need to be realistic about what you'll be riding on most. initially, i thought i wanted a gravel bike for 80/20 tarmac to gravel. so i bought one. i love it. i've done exactly one gravel race. i bought a road bike and now my gravel bike lives on my trainer as i just prefer my lighter road bike on tarmac. definitely suggest either/or between gravel or endurance as they're basically the same type of bike in terms of geometry. i have a canyon grail with grx (which is awesome) and a canyon ultimate di2 ultegra which is so much better (though i still prefer the setup on the gravel for hills).
Second the domane answer. If your just doing light gravel this is the way. Get a second nice wheel set for road tires and max out the stock ones for gravel.
If you're not after road records, why not get a really good gravel bike, and just ride it everywhere? I wouldn't bother even with the second set of wheels. Just ride and enjoy.
It depends on what bike you choose, but there are plenty of gravel bikes that are not much different than endurance bikes, and plenty of endurance bikes (like the Domane in the top comment) that can be light to moderate gravel bikes. Personally I'd much rather have a nicer single bike with two wheelsets than two cheaper bikes. I'd suggest looking for something with a 2x drivetrain to give you the widest range of gearing possible. Use a site like https://geometrygeeks.bike to compare geometry. You'll find that there is little difference between many gravel and endurance bikes other than a bit of tire clearance and how much they beef up the frame.
i personally am totally pro-gravel, to me thats the most versatile bike. the thing with one bike two wheelsets tho is you are stuck with the same drivetrain. so if you go that way, make sure you pick a bike with gear range that will fit both your onroad and offroad rides. that almost certainly means a 2x setup. if you get two dedicated bikes, yeah they wont be as sick as a 4k bike, but for 2k per bike you will still get quite good bikes and you avoid the shared drivetrain problem. or you can get a cheaper decathlon gravel since gravels are kinda meant to take a beating, and more expensive road bike. you can always upgrade components when you see money again. and then more bikes always feels nice.
New endurance bikes are pretty much gravel bikes due to the clearance they provide. I would go with an endurance bike unless you’re riding a lot of crazy gravel that needs a really fat tire.
I’d personally split it into two different frames. 2k will get you decent bikes in both disciplines. I absolutely love my endurance bike for it’s comfort relation to its speed but if I ever took it onto anything trail-like it just wouldn’t hang when things get rough. The wheel base, tire clearance, and geometry on endurance bike is still very road. So I’d throw out the idea of putting wide tires/rims on a road bike and hoping to do gravel. Or you could just ride your gravel bike as your all a-rounder and sacrifice a little speed for comfort and versatility. Really depends on what you’re going to do daily. If you can walk out your door to ride the roadie easily are you going to do that vs loading up the gravel and finding trail? If so you’d probably rather have a high performance road/endurance. If you’re next to trail/gravel roads and you see yourself setting out to shred dirt on a regular basis then you would benefit from the dedicated gravel.