I ride off-road plenty with my Roadini, but what I'm thinking about is a little different.
Leo's main wheels have 43mm GKSS. These are great on multi-surface rides including pavement, rail trails, and small sections of dirt/gravel trails where I take it easy on the corners.
I have a trail system in town, mainly gravel, built through small forests connecting a lot of neighbourhoods with a creek being the constant. The trails are up and down (steep as 19%); twisty, with some sharp, off-camber turns; sometimes the gravel is loose, and there are little ruts after rain storms. It's as fun as MTB'ing on singletrack. I ride a Salsa Fargo with 2.2" tubeless gravel tires on these trails. I can fly through the 'course', however, that bike is about half as comfortable as Leo.
Like a cat, Leo is light and nimble, playful, but if you push her, she's not happy. My Fargo is more like a dire wolf, butting sitting upon him, I'm just not comfy. And who doesn't want to be comfy.
So I'm thinking of outfitting Leo with some aggressive tread 45mm tires; lots of knobs, supple, confidence inspiring. I would then take her end to end on my local trails and see how she compares to the Fargo. Less volume may hurt, but maybe I can make up for that with work on my skills?
Alternatively, I give occasional thought to buying a Hillborne. I want drop bars, I want as similar to Leo as I can get, I like the idea of fenders with some narrow tires (maybe) on one wheel set, with another maybe going up to 48mm. I'm just now sure it's worth it. But if I can get it as comfortable as Leo, then I can dedicate Sam to the trails, shoulder season (roads more likely to be wet) with fenders and maybe winter tires.
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