Originally Posted by
pennstater
Agree about the tires making the biggest difference in how smooth a bike rides. Three years ago I bought a Lynskey road bike. Fit it with 700x32 tires. It was like the cracked and pot holed roads here in northern New Jersey had been repaved. Retired my carbon road bikes that maxed out at 25mm, but also bought a carbon gravel bike that clears 37s for riding on gravel roads in the Berkshires. I like the titanium but I had a cracked head tube on an older Lynskey that was repaired under warranty. Also had a crack in the seat tube of Specialized Roubaix that was replaced under warranty. Anything can break. Regular cleaning and inspection are mandatory. Any squeaks or unusual noises should not be ignored. So I would recommend considering any frame material but go with wider tires and whatever makes you smile.
When my wife and I began traveling in our travel trailer and covered pickup truck with our cross/gravel rim brake bikes we each had two sets of wheels: one with full-on road tires (23-25mm), and the other with 35-37's. The idea is that in extended trips, we might like to ride "real" road bikes from time to time, but wanted gravel tires too. It was easy to swap wheels, they all had the same cassettes and the rims were close enough to each other in width so as to not require brake adjustment. Easy, right? Well, we did swap a few times, but then just left the fat tired wheels on.
At home I do like riding my skinny tired road bikes a lot. But ride my gravel bike with 35's and even 50's as much, even on pavement.