I used to have a 700c touring bike and because of issues with the rough roads and road shock in addition to not being able to get enough cushion effect from 700x38 tires (largest I could run with fenders), I chose to change bikes. I scraped the 700c frame and bought a 26" Surly Disc Trucker. I now run 26x2.0 Schwalbe Marathon 420 Greenguard tires. They soak up pretty much everything the roads dish out and I've even been able to handle light off-road singletrack on them. Now that we're still stuck in the depths of "winter" (I know, first day of Spring was just a few days ago) with ice and snow still a problem, I'm running Marathon Winters in 26x2.0. The studded tires still have the same shock absorption capabilities even though they're way slower than the Marathon 420s. Both tires have a max rating of 80 psi. I typically run them at about 70 psi or so and that seems plenty good for everything I come across from a frost-heaved mulit-user path to singletrack strewn with roots and rocks to potholed city streets.