'Road' biking is the mutt's. People were taking 'road bikes' overland long before the whole concept of mountain biking arose.
The original mtbs were 'road bikes'.
They were have a go heroes carving a new path. Most MTB riders now are riding the equivalent of motorways, purpose made and maintained paths.
Boring!!!!
I started taking my racer bike overland when I was a kid, it was all about keeping it slow, and the skinny tires and bendy wheels meant using masses of skill to avoid huge buckles, which I learned to sort out on the fly.
Many of my MTB compadres nowadays are paying a small fortune to service their machines. Crazy! I have a 20 year old sports motor bike of the Italian variety that costs less to fettle than some of these jokers are paying out!
Mountain biking has taken on the worst aspects of every sport, the geek fuelled tech addicted mentality that defeats the original spirit completely.
I loved it back when it was all just biking.
I was delighted to find this site as an antidote to all that garbage.
Just get out and ride!