I'm not a hardcore roadie or anything (3500 miles is a solid year for me), but until about a year and a half ago I was only riding road bikes. Then for kicks I picked up a cheap hybrid, and ended up later getting an adventure dropbar bike, both of which take 40-50c rubber. I also got a dirt cheap 90s Trek mountain bike with 2.25 knobbies. As it turns out, my road bike started shifting poorly around the same time, so I just kind of set it aside and started riding these other bikes, which again are all I've been riding for the past year and a half or so. Recently I found some time to take a better look at my shifting problems (in the STI shifter) and got it functioning again, and took out the road bike for a spin, and while I am slightly faster on it versus the other bikes, it is a significantly harsher, and less pleasant experience. It's a 2006 Lemond Tourmalet with 28c 90psi Contact 2's, while I've been mostly riding 40c MSO's underinflated to about 38psi. I would also add that because I am training for a long distance gravel event, I've been riding my gravel bike loaded up with multiple water bottles, and lots of other stuff just to make it heavier, and it probably weighs in close to 40#, versus about 20# the way I ride the Lemond. Given the condition I find a lot of roads and streets and other paved areas to be in, which varies from okay to extremely questionable, I'm not sure if I will or won't be spending a ton of time on the road bike in the future. I'll give it a shot, but having experienced the alternative. A long way of asking if any of you dedicated roadies have experimented with smooth rolling, high volume (38c and up) tires and found yourselves trading in your pure road machines for more of a cross or gravel type ride.