im not really trying to be combative here pops, but no. Fire roads are not mountain biking, but a mountain bike is useful here and is a large part of my riding. Its basically a money issue, I can have one bike for a variety of tasks and CX bike provides the best bang for the buck for my tastes. I understand that for the sort of riding you're doing, that is almost unusable. I do know that I can use a CX bike for singletrack, because Ive done it before.