Originally Posted by
Mother_of_birds
I think the 28s feel so unbelievably narrow to me because I've only ever ridden MTBs on the road before. 23s sound insane! The rides I did were on tarmac road but since they were out in the countryside there was areas where gravel, dust, manure etc. had made its way onto the road so not a perfect surface but at least I didn't have to worry about cars or people seeing me crawl around corners lol. I do like the idea of a bike I can take anywhere.. at the moment I'm leaning more towards a mountain bike for reasons I've mentioned in previous posts, maybe one that has lock out forks would be good for when I am on the road.
I have a hybrid bike (what they would now call a gravel bike I think) with a suspension fork that I haven't used since going folder, and I miss the cushion it gave to my hands, and I ride purely on-road. Unless the fork is really mushy, I think you'd like having that suspension, even on-road.
23 is skinny, that's tour de france race bikes or even smaller. I suppose decent cushion starts at 32, quite common on touring bikes, but you won't fit that on your road bike, unfortunately.
Tire traction on pavement is complex, non-linear, and sometimes counterintuitive.