Finished up my new mountain bike!

don't look at photos on tiny phone.... And I think we even discussed this.
We have had perfectly space rain events here, with minor flooding, and odd snowfalls. Starting to think the dirt will never dry out.
My wife bought a new-to-her Surly Krampus, and we have barely had time to put wheels to dirt.

That is a sweet bike man. Nice job.
I stick with Tube style tires for no other reason then I'm old fashion. I like a few different tires I've used over the years but I'm always looking at different ones.

The Specialized Pro Roll X Duel where awesome. I really enjoyed their non slip grippy ability in lose dirt. I'm very happy with the speed as well. They don't slow you down when you stop pedaling like a few other tires I had.

Bontrager LT 3's where also awesome.I found these a suitable replacement for the Roll X as they are not sold anymore. I haven't tried any newer model yet but this year I really need some new tires or I'm getting a new bike.

I'm rocking a GT Avalanche 2.0 for 2004 so I've got all kinds of miles and my money out of it. I've made many upgrades to it but it's a hard tail and I wouldn't mind a full suspension bike.

I do alot of trail riding technical , canal straight riding , and some down hill. It's been a few years that I did down hill but man I'm just waiting to go back up the mountains and murder that. That was scary fun as we where hitting speeds using the brakes over 48 mph. That was some crazy scary stuff man but I liked it LOL.

On the trails I usually average around 10-15mph I don't usually go over that unless I do a few sprints then I hit about 22-25 mph before I gas out .

Here is where I will be going in June up in Northern Minnesota the top of the hill before the Screamer, then Easy Street 12 miles all down hill around all the lakes an old Iron Ore mines lots of flows. I don't think I would make the hill today got 6 weeks to get ready. A Rocky Mountain Hardtail is what I ride up there.

I bought some nice five ten MTB shoes, but I still end up in my Converse Chucks a lot of the time.... great grip on the Race Face Chesters.
Today's ride was beautiful.... some sun, some clouds, and some near hero dirt.

Very nice. Is the BSB considered a cyclocross bike?

Yeah, powering on the upcycle as well as down can rocket you to max speed in a jiff on sprints. Pretty amazing how well it works. So much more torque, and the boost just plain feels great. I was ignorant to this for years. Adds to the workout too, obviously.

That's good stuff. I, also, briefly looked into cyclocross bikes when I very first opened myself up to exploring road bikes.

I haven't really been up on what's going on in the bike world for several years now - mostly just riding, got my blinders on - so I didn't/don't really know the difference between cyclocross and gravel bikes. I'll do a little exploring here, because I like that idea, too, being able to hop off the pavement on a road-ish bike. Back when I was looking at road and cx bikes, I just couldn't quite bring myself to get one, and just pressed on in mtb. It was a good enough fit for mixed terrain, of course not very efficient for pavement. No regrets though, because my mixed terrain riding style is more urban touring, and looking for little lines, hitting little jumps here and there. I wonder whether I'd get much use out of one of these other bikes, or just feel regretfully limited, wishing I were on something more versatile?

My favorite bike is an older Gary Fisher x-cal 29r. It's a 100mil xc bike, but it's smooth, and it's fast, and relatively light. But more attractively, it's just plain soulful to ride. I can't explain it any other way. You know how it always feels good to get on a bike, and to realize you're falling into that rhythm sometime during the first five minutes, the day's stresses shedding off with the breeze as the blood gets moving? There's just something extra about what this bike offers. It's damn near spiritual sometimes.

I have a Niner RLT and it’s a great bike. Goes well with my other bikes.
Niner jet9
Scott Addict
Specialized Shiv tri bike