Today's Bike Ride

[Graham Breeze]

You are spot on Marco. The only thing I would add Fellbeast is that a gravel/adventure bike is great off road if that off road is relatively smooth. You refer to "all things off road" where perhaps the surface is very rutted or has lots of stones or rocky sections where suspension would be handy.

Over a small section you would probably get away with it but being rattled for hours on end is not fun and a Mountain Bike could be an option. Again, as Marco has alluded to, smoother road type tyres are available for Mountain Bikes and roll well, but enable you to travel faster, more comfortably, over rougher surfaces.

I don't dissent from my esteemed forumites. I would get an adventure/gravel bike and you can fine tune the tyres. A dealer might let you trade what it comes with for what you really want. A MTB is good for "mountains" but they are heavy because the frames have to be stronger, the suspension is heavy, the wheels/tyres.... and so they just aren't fun on the road and the gearing will be lower so you can never go really fast (!) So eg my road bike is 19lb, my adventure bike is 24lb, my MTB was around 30lb and that might not sound like much but when you've lifted it over a few stiles you will be able to cancel your gym subscription.

And although they can be fiddly you will probably want disc brakes cos they will stop you better.