All-City Space Horse vs Giant Contend AR 1

“I'm also a larger rider. If looking at All-City, I'd look at the Gorilla Monsoon. 650b wheels can handle our weight a little better. And it doesn't have the problematic (but cool looking) integrated seat post clamp of the Space Horse. Like u/Djamalfna , I also want to suggest getting a bike with thru-axels instead of QR skewers. When slamming on the brakes, I've had wheels shift too much on me with quick release to trust it. I'd be looking at the Grappler with Surly as it's one of their few drop bar bikes with thru-axels. Breezer is another option for steel gravel bikes. They've got more than a couple drop bar Gravel bikes (with thru-axels). * The Radar X and Radar X Pro lean on the Adventure side of Gravel with huge tire clearance and clutched 1x drivetrains. * The Doppler Pro+ And Doppler Team+ lean on the commuter side with built in dynamo hub to always power the lights. They also use slightly more road focused 2x drivetrains. * The Inversion Pro and Inversion Team lean heavily towards road with 35mm stock tires and 45mm max tire clearance, but have premium gravel bike drivetrain so that it won't skip a beat, even when things get rough. These also get some high-end Japanese steel with Carbon forks. * The Inversion X Comp. Similar to the non-X Inversions, this is a little road focused, but comes stock with wider 40mm tires. The comp doesn't use the fancy Japanese steel, and has a steel fork with plenty of cargo mounts, instead of a carbon fork. Steel fork is arguably a good thing for our weight. It still uses a premium gravel drivetrain, just a lower tier than the Pro or Team models.”

“Go for the felt, yes it's worth 900 imo. The giant is quite old and the bar tape needs doing. 8 speed 105 was a while ago, the technology is a lot better now.”