Novice Off Road

[rspecker]

I've never owned a mountain bike.

But I have done a few rides on an old cross bike on the trails in the Santa Cruz mountains just west of Palo Alto/Los Altos CA.

The cross bike handled these trails just fine. Fun riding.

I also plan to ride in the Lake Tahoe area--the types of trails are largely unknown to me. The few I have hiked seem roughly similar (in condition) to the trails in the Santa Cruz mountains.

What I liked about the cross bike is that it rode well on the roads getting to, and back, from the trails.

My question is do any of you use your cross-bike as your "primary" off-road bike? If so, what kind of riding causes you to switch over to a mountain bike? When does the cross-bike just not cut it?

[avalonracing]

It all depends on the terrain. The steep, wet, rocky climbs and descents where I ride are better for a MTB. Sure, you can ride them on a cross bike but you can also take a 4Runner on a race track or an Indy car on a dirt track. Even if you can that doesn't mean that they are the right tool for the job.

[Steve in SLO]

I ride my CX bike on most everything around me, but do ride my MTB on anything like technical rocky terrains or trails with lots of drops.
To put numbers to it (general guesstimate here), if the trails have a lot of rocks bigger than 3" high I can't avoid, or if there are lots of potholes/ruts I can't avoid, or if there are drops where my front wheel leaves the ground more than once every several minutes, I go with the MTB. If the trails you are looking at are mostly well-travelled tracks or old jeep trails or better, a CX bike should be fine, depending on your ability to physically stand up to a fairly rough ride. If in doubt, run 35mm or bigger tires, don't overinflate them, and put a second wrap of bar tape over your bars. Then go out and have fun!