I ride my 7.5 or my Cobia on the gravel roads around here (photos from recent ride: http://www.allthepages.org/archives/...dy-april-ride/) and my road bike on the paved roads. Also, fwiw, I'm leaning more and more towards using the mt bike only on mt bike trails; it's just so heavy compared to the 7.5. Otoh, given the road conditions shown above, I was more comfortable on the fat-tired Cobia.