u/Away_Nefariousness59

So, I've been teaching my daughter how to ride a bike and she wants to ride as a family, my wife only cares that she can mount a seat or pull a trailer so she, hopefully, won't be as complicated as I am.

With teaching my daughter I have remembered my love of riding bikes when I was younger, 20 to 30 years ago. I'm in horrible shape because of a series of injuries in the military so comfort is an absolute must but, geometry and riding postures to handlebar height and drive gearing is confusing at best and a bit overwhelming if I'm being honest.

I gave myself a $2000 budget for getting into cycling, that's all my gear mind you. I'm trying to get the closest to all conditions I'll be riding with my family, roads mostly but crushed rock, moderate sized gravel, and dirt paths potentially with a tow behind seat or a trailer for the kiddos. With that in mind I was looking at a gravel bike I think, I found a few options but I have no idea what I'm looking at to find the right option for my needs.

Before I get to the options, a bit about myself. I'm 6'1 and 275 lbs (roughly). I injured my back a few times with choices I should have made better and for 10 years have had lumbar and ribcage issues. I have bilateral knee issues and a bad right ankle so generally speaking cardio is difficult at the best of times. I always enjoyed riding bikes as a kid into being a young adult but I never used it for exorcize.

So to my assumed options. I found 4 bikes in my believed price point and i'm sure there are a ton more but this is my starting point: Trek checkpoint ALR 3 gen 3 ML frame size, Giant Revolt 2 ML frame size, Specialized diverge 3 alloy 58 frame size, and Canyon Endurance AllRoad L frame size.

I intend to ride with my family like I said however, I also intend to ride the bike either to work or for an hour to an hour and a half aftert dinner on road mostly but I'm not sure, there's bridges for elevation changes and relatively flat terrain even if I cut through parks and such.

Am I in the right ballpark? Do I have more to research as my weight seems to over load every bike I look at? Are these good starting points?

Bladed jigs and trebles, fun fishing, not jigs but fun. I am trying to find a travel option that is mod or mod fast. My wife accepted that I wanted some rods after retirement from the Navy. I got a daiwa presso ultralight travel and a kastking zephyr 6'9 light, the longest rod I could find that covered my needs and fit in a 33" case I already had, now I'm trying to find a slower rod for moving baits. I was going to get a kuying teton but a 40ish inch breakdown isn't exactly travel friendly for flying around the east coast.

Does anyone know of a 6'6-7' mod or mod fast rod that's at least 3p? My budget is around $150 since I told my wife I'd try to keep my "gift" cost to $300 total. I have a bearking Zeus that'll be on it and I'd like to be able to cast 1/16 or 1/8 to 3/8 as my heaviest lure is a 1/4 chatterbait and trailer at 9.2g currently.

I guess my last question is, does it matter at these weights like it seems to for 1/2 and up?