hokiefyd 

The lower the pressure, the softer they felt. Of course, that seems obvious, but it's particularly the case for wide tires on narrow rims. I'm about 240 pounds, I ran them at about 30 psi front/50psi rear. I ended up taking them off because I bought a dedicated MTB, so I put 40mm hybrid tires back on it.

Be careful also with tread design. Tires with larger side knobs, especially when run at a lower pressure, can give you some "self steer" as you lean. That is, the tire feels like it wants to keep pulling in the direction you turn. The bike can feel less stable because of that. I have owned a few tires like this, and have started preferring tires with a more rounded profile, with less accentuated side knobs. My MTB currently has 2.1" WTB Nanos. They have a pretty round profile that doesn't seem to self steer much. I can directly compare those with 2.1" Vittoria Mezcal tires on the same wheelset and the same bike. At pressures higher even than I'm running the WTBs, but the side knobs on the Vittorias would stick out and want to grab the ground, creating more of the self steer feeling. I had to run them at a much higher pressure in order to get rid of that feeling.

I don't think so. I have an '05 MDX and an '09 Ridgeline, both with good transmissions. The MDX has almost 180k on it and the RL has about 140k.