>There are very few cross bikes around. I've never been asked so many questions about a bike.
Yeah, I've never seen another one off-road. Went on a group mtb ride with 20+ FS mtb, and more than half the other riders found time to sidle up alongside me and ask what the hell I was doing on singletrack on a road bike... The funny bit was when a couple of them would be like "oh, there's some singletrack with berms and stuff coming up...are you going to be ok on that?"
(The not so funny bit was when, on some singletrack with berms and stuff, I failed to clear a fallen log and sprained my wrist...)