I am sorry about the crashes and injuries.

You’ve been riding for 40 years and already know the drill. You have some nice steel bikes listed in your profile. I imagine steep angle short wheelbase performance machines representative of the era that have a max tire size of 23 or 25.

You already know the ride of those steel bikes is not as comfortable as you want or you would already have your answer. And apart from running disc brakes, you can probably upgrade them with whatever components you want and ride off on those skinny tires.

More comfort comes wider tires and with that comes compromise. I ride a bike that 99.9% of the people here will call garbage. I don’t really care. It is so much fun and fortunately we are blessed with good roads, so it is not a big deal for me. Bad roads might be a difference maker.

You just have to accept going for more comfort may not give you the performance you want.

John