My bike history might help Phillippe or anybody with the same / similar dilemma.
It's amazing how the people that you ride with (I started as tar / gravel, moved to trail / enduro, drifting more to marathon XC, gravel and light trail) and the area you ride (originally Durban for me, now KZN Midlands) determines what you feel is the "right bike" and how this changes with the above two factors shifting over time.
I've really swung the pendulum on my bikes over the last 10 years or so as I got into riding (don't judge how many there are, I have generally at least not lost money on the bikes I've bought and sold 😆);
Cannondale Trail 29 Hardtail (HT) - great first bike - 2 000km on it and was great for tar and gravel.
Spez Epic HT - amazing upgrade from the basic Cannondale - 3 800km on it mostly tar, gravel and a Sani2C.
Spez Chisel HT - 1 600km - bought this as I the med Epic HT was a bit too small so bought the Chisel in a Large. Great bike with lighter Roval wheels. Sold as I was getting more into trail riding.
Silverback Slade Trail HT - 450km - 140mm fork, 2.6 tyres. Great bike on the trails but I bought quite a well used one and wanted something a bit lighter and newer.
Kona Carbon Honzo Trail HT - 750km - 130mm fork, 2.3 tyres. Lovely, beautiful bike. In hindsight the next 3-4 bikes were probably unnecessary and I should have kept this and upgraded the wheels.
Specialized Carbon Stumpjumper ST - 1 700km. Beautiful bike, perfect for Karkloof trail riding but a bit heavy and not the best pedaling bike for long gravel rides and tar.
Curve Kevin of Steel gravel bike - 1 750km. Set up on 650b wheels. Super comfortable and definitely fast enough for any sub elite rider. So versatile on everything from tar to gravel to jeep track to tame singletrack.
Cannondale Scalpel Si - 1 700km. Sold the Stumpy and Curve to have one bike as I am someone who likes to keep things simple and felt that this would do the job of a gravel bike, XC race machine and light duty trail bike well. It did, great bike with a lot of PRs on trail segments and some big (for me) gravel days done in comfort and speed.
Santa Cruz Tallboy 4 - currently on 3 300km. A friend offered this bike to me at a good price and it was one model I'd always loved so I had to go for it. Hugely versatile bike that feels like a monster truck through a rock garden but was still fast and comfortable for a few stage races and a lot of tar and gravel riding too. A lot of work to clean / look after in mud being a dual sus and while light ish for a trial bike (13.5kg), it's not super fast (but then how many of us are actually held back by the bike rather than lack of skills and fitness?). Super tricky one as I don't really like having two bikes and the new machine below is ticking a lot of boxes, especially with most of my enduro trail buddies not riding much anymore.
Cannondale Scalpel HT - only on 375km thus far. 10kg carbon frame, carbon wheel rocketship that, with a dropper, is still super fast and fun to ride on all of the non-extreme Karkloof trails. Cleaning and maintenance are obviously going to be a heap easier than a dual sus machine. I've been amazed what wide carbon rims and 2.4 Wide Trail tyres offer in terms of comfort / lower pressures. It's obviously not a dual sus but really, at 1.4 bar rear and 1.3 bar front on Maxxis Aspens, it's compliant and mutes most of the trail buzz really well. I think this bike will be perfect for training, any gravel race, Sani2C or Berg and Bush but Cape Epic looks like it definitely demands a dual sus.
You need to be honest with yourself about how seriously you want to take things, your appetite / budget for maintenance (or time available to DIY stuff at home), who you ride with, where you ride, what races you're likely to do.
The first post, to me, suggests that a 10kg hardtail with fast rolling 2.4 tyres might be the perfect bike as it still allows an MTB stage race or occasional trial riding day, whereas a gravel bike excludes those two possibilities while offering only a minor speed increase on gravel.
Good luck with the decision - worst case you get to try a few different bikes, sell them and buy others until you find the perfect bike (until the next perfect one comes along haha).
