Originally Posted by
jayvo86
I'd just go with a straight up cyclocross bike then. You can use it on the road and on the trails. (And then you can do some cross racing if you choose.) I've had my cross bike (avatar) on the trails before and it does fine. If anything, it will teach you about taking the smoothest line up and downhill.
I tested a few cyclocross bikes in the parking lot and streets, and any rough pavement or bumps felt pretty jarring to my aging body. So I thought I'd be miserable with one on the forest roads around the mountains here. There are some pretty rough ones with washboards and potholes and tree limbs, etc.
Maybe I'd be fine though.....not sure. I haven't ridden a bike in 15 years, so maybe I'm just not used to it. I'm 39 and body parts are starting to hurt all of a sudden.