Pretty happy with my Surly Straggler...Steel with room for x42 (and a little more) and fenders, and discs..

I'm in the midst of buying a bike for gravel/road riding. I think a lot of it depends on the type of riding you do and the terrain you do it on. And of course how the bike fits you!

If your rides are relatively short, say 50-60 miles and reasonably flat with hard packed gravel, then virtually any bike capable of handling larger tyres will probably be fine, even MTB's will do.

The Salsa, Surly steel and the CAADX alloy bikes that are recommended above are great multipurpose bikes that can easily handle the punishment of gravel, and make good commuters.

My needs are for a bike that will handle virtually any gravel roads and most kinds of singletrack (not the highly technical stuff), be an excellent, stable climbing/descending rig (10,000ft+/100miles) and be comfortable for 100-200+ mile rides. I also want it to be well mannered and capable as a roadie when I switch to 25mm slicks and ride in a group.

I've been looking at the new generation of 'adventure' bikes that are just about to come out. They are sort of a cross between cross bikes and road bikes. They typically have longer chainstays than road bikes with slightly less head tube angle (72/72.5) and lower BB drops than cross bikes. They also have longer head tubes for a more upright (for me = more comfortable) riding position on long rides. They also can handle 35-40c tyres, have through axles for strength and steering precision, have fender and rack mounts and have hydro disc brakes. In other words extremely versatile.

The models I'm looking at are the Specialized Diverge, Jamis Renegade, Norco The Search and GT Grade. All these models are offered in carbon with weights in the 17-18lb range have 50/34 compact cranks with wide range 11-32 cassettes which make them prefect for climbing. Hopefully one of them will fit the bill when I test ride them.

The main thing is to go and test them and see which fits you and your biking needs the best.

Having to replace a bike that I recently wrote off, I have been looking at the Giant TCX slr 2.

This is the Australian version.
http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-au/bikes/model/tcx.slr.2/19008/76729/

Fits in the price range that I am comfortable with. It will be mostly used for commuting and a little gravel path.

Any thoughts?

Also, I'm not a fan of mechanical disc brakes. They are hard to modulate for me. I really like the hydro disc brakes that are available these days but if mechanical is the only option I'd prefer to stay with rim brakes.

I'm running Vittoria Cross XG Pro tires on my 'cross bike now. In 32. This is my second set of them. They are, in my relatively limited experience, good all-around tires. I've used mine extensively for greenways (smooth paved, rough paved, and unpaved) some road, grass, racing 'cross, and a bunch of gravel. The were good enough that I bought another set after I wore the first ones out.