My wife and I run the Marathon Mondials 622-50 on our adventure touring bikes. We have taken them on many gravel roads in Tuscany and in our local mountains where we have lots of rough logging roads and tarmac with loose, sharp basalt chips on top. The 2 inch wide tires of the Mondial tread style have relatively low rolling resistance. It is a common misconception that wider tires have lower rolling resistance. Just the opposite is the case. This was counterintuitive to me a first, but this article made sense to me- Tech Info | Schwalbe North America. One big thing is that speeding down a gravel road, especially with extra weight on the bike, the wider tires just gives you more confidence and control. The volume of the 622-50 provides the comfort too, so the stiffer sidewalls is not a big issue. It is a waste of time to put thicker tubes, liners or sealants in these tires, because you just won't need them, and that is needless weight. I am not afraid of changing a tube. I have done it thousands of times, but now I just have to do it for my friends that don't have these kind of tires.