Got a road bike on C2W and was in awe of how much faster it was than a slicked up mtb, too nice and no guards for commuting tho so got a pompino aswell, after a few years got bored of road commuting so swapped it for a CX and realised it’s a lot of fun for more than just commuting. Still do “lots” of mtbing but as most of my saddle time is getting to/from work I may aswell make it as fun as possible (either by going really quickly on a road bike or really quickly offroad on a CX)
I don’t “get” the point of riding terrain suited for MTB but then have to get off and carry the bike because it’s basically a road bike off road
agreed that would be silly (or would possibly be a proper CX race) but then I don’t take my CX bike places where I’d have to carry it. It’s more* for routes where there’s so much tame stuff or tarmac that a cx is more fun than an MTB.
Tho obviously some CX riding gods will whip down a descent I struggle with on my gnarpoon.
*IMO. Purists will, rightly, point out that proper CX bikes are for racing around a field for an hour at a time in deepest winter