Why Do You Ride Mountain A Bike On Streets?

I'm curious about something. I have been reading this forum on
Mountain Bikes and notice that a lot of you either have two mountain
bikes, one for mountain biking, and one with street/road tires for
riding on the street, or you have one bike and you have two sets of
tires/rims, one with knobs for the mountain biking and one with street
tires.

Curious why you choose to ride a mountain bike on the streets instead
of a road bike. I am getting back into riding bikes after a 20 year
break from it. I'm 36 and used to ride a BMX Team Mongoose which I
still have but am too big for it now. I never liked your traditional
10 speed bike, or as they call them now street bikes. I was even
considering fixing up my Mongoose and riding it again on the streets
but realized that I'm too big for that bike. I could do it but it
wouldn't be a pretty site. So the next logical step would be to get
another bike. Okay which one? I don't care for road bikes. They are
cool for some people but for me not my cup of tea so to speak. Okay
so what do I get a cruiser or a mountain bike? The cruiser I tried
was very nice. Very comfortable bike but I think I wanted something
more durable and also the option to jump off curbs and occassionally
ride on dirt. So I go for a mountain bike. Not a high end mountain
bike BUT a pretty good Fuji Discovery II. I think it's a good bike.
So far so good. I still kinda want to get a cruiser bike but for now
the mountain suits my needs. I changed the tires to street/road
tires because the tires with knobs create too much resistance in my
riding and it gets hard to ride especially in hilly areas where I
live. Maybe one day I'll get a cruiser and ride that on the street,
put mountain bike tires back on the Fuji and go off roading.

So why do you ride a mountain bike on the road instead of riding a
road bike or even a cruiser?


Thank You,


James