I currently am down to one bike - my rigid ss 29'r mountain bike (sold my entry-level road bike and geared mtb a while ago). I ride several times a week, pretty aggressively on trails and singletrack. But I typically drive to the trailhead due to my location. I want to add another ss bike to the garage, mainly for those times when I don't have time to get to the trail, but I want to hop out on the road and get in a workout. That said, there are also plenty of fire roads near my house too.
I was thinking a Cross bike would be cool because I could also ride on the fire roads. However I'm assuming a Cross bike isn't going to be quite as good on the road as a dedicated road bike (more tire rolling resistance, possibly heavier, etc.). My budget is tight--around 1k-1500 bucks or so.
So, should I go with a road bike and have two distinctly different tools in my quiver(one dedicated off-road, one dedicated on-road), or might I be ultimately be glad I have the versatility of the Cross bike even if it's not as good a roadie machine?