I have done the road bike thing, I love my dual sport on the road ... far more than any road bike.

 

:: Grins :: Well thats why I put the 'If your like me' lable in there. Been on dirt bikes all of my life for the most part, I don't even like regular street bikes on the street, I need a SuperSport or a high end Motard. Either of those I'm reasonably happy, though I'm happier on a SuperSport because on abandoned backroads I see 3-digit speeds constantly and do track days where I see speeds a Motard can't reach. But if I'm under 100-mph then I love the handling of the high end Motards, but those also have a much different suspension setup then Dual Sports or MX or Enduro bikes.

A regular Dual Sport with the slop in the suspension and traction of the knobbies keeps me painfully slow and sluggish, even properly sprung with sag levels proper the response is really bad versus a Supersport or Motard on concrete. But mine is sprung and set for alot of rocky turf and technical trails so its a bitsofter then even a basic MX suspension.

Its all just prefferance and generally I enjoy extremes so if I know I'm going to be on a given type of turf I like the bike to be optimized as much as I can manage for those given conditions.