"A cynical person might think the industry wants to sell multiple bikes to each customer"

The Doc's feeling overwhelmed by off-road category creep

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I do almost all of my riding on the road. Partly that's my preference, partly it's because I live in a part of the country where the off-road options are limited. If you're still keen, you can thread rides together by adding up lots of short bridleways and field edges with bits of road and the odd longer path, but you've really got to want to do it.

I did go through a phase a few years ago where I tried to ride my mountain bike more, but I had a deadly combination of a desire to ride hard, an ability to kick out quite a lot of power, and minimal off-roading skills. I was like a Ford Focus with a jet engine. I'd hurl myself down tracks at 400 watts, and to say I fell off a lot would only begin to cover my interactions with the terrain. In fact, I fell off always.

I enjoy watching off-road racing, though. I watched the European cyclo-cross champs last week, and lost count of the number of times I'd have fallen over. The skill levels are stunning.