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Thanks for all the encouragement, folks. On the subject of pads, when out on the MTB I wear Fox Launch Pro d3o knee and elbow pads, with the hard shells in place. Always. And I mostly ride Walnut Creek and Peddler's pass. Which for most people is way, way overkill, but even at Walnut, they have saved my knees and elbows more than a few times. On the road bike, I wear nothing but a helmet. As dumb as it may sound, I can't bring myself to wear pads on the road. Although if I did I guess I might try G-Forms. On the subject of bikes, my road bike is a Surly Midnight Special and my MTBs are a Surly Karate Monkey and a Santa Cruz Blur - both 29ers, both with droppers. I am very comfortable on my bikes. I've bought/sold enough of them these last few years to sort of know what I like. On the subject of technique, well, mine could certainly use improvement. But the last two times I got hurt happened so fast, they were over before I knew what happened. The "tailbone incident" involved me hitting a divot in the road that I simply did not see. For those "Surprise! You're Dead!" moments, I think prevention is the only real solution, as opposed to developing better bailing skills. Hence go slower and be more aware of my surroundings. Be a better judge of risk. I'm gonna have to find a way to amplify the little voice in my head. On the subject of clips vs. flats, I am a clips guy. For both road and MTB. And I have no difficulties getting unclipped in either discipline, apart from the fact that road cleats have terrible traction. Ever almost do the splits at a red light? I have. And while I agree that pavement is a harsh mistress, I ❤️ my road bike, and climbing hills around my area of town (Great Hills - go figure) has really helped my MTBing. Which I guess sounds funny given the title of this thread. Last night not long after I posted I actually got out and rode. I rode the route where I had the tailbone incident, and tried to see what I had hit in the road. I think I found it - a divot containing a little steel drain cover or something, fairly far out in the middle of the right-hand lane. There are lots of those things along the right-hand side of the road next to the curb, but this one was in the middle of the lane, so that might have been it. Anyway, whatever it was, I avoided it this time. I'm sore today but in a good way. Nothing hurts that shouldn't hurt. So I'll probably ride again later this week. One uneventful ride does wonders. -cls

Figured I'd close the loop on this thread. Ended up putting a deposit down on a Ripmo with Velorangutan. I went with the XT build, Factory 36, Factory X2 and the standard aluminum wheelset. I'm slightly second guessing my choice of wheels but didn't feel great about forking over an additional $700 for the Ibis carbon rims with the i9 hydra hubs. I was given a delivery estimate of the first or second week in September...which has now passed. No frustration towards the guys over at Velorangutan as they don't have any control over Ibis sending them the bike, but the anticipation is certainly killing me! Hoping the bike gets here soon as we are slowly approaching some great riding weather. Would also like to get seat time on the new bike before October's EB: Pandemic edition. Anyways, fingers crossed.

Having kids (well, my wife having kids...credit where credit is due) has made a significant impact on my riding. First, I have found that it unintentionally decreased my risk tolerance. Now I have this unconscious awareness that I have people depending on me. It keeps me from blindly sending stuff or attempting technical challenges that I'm not reasonably confident of completing successfully. Second, I don't get to ride as much anymore. So I don't want my precious ride time (and future ride time) to be cut short or ruined by an injury. Third, my oldest son is very cautious. He won't attempt a new thing until he has watched others do it a hundred times and studies their attempts. Then, when no one is watching him, he goes and does it like a pro. At first, this frustrated me a lot when trying to get him to try new things. But, I've now realized he gets a lot of that from me. If I come up on something technical that I'm not confident of cleaning, I won't try it unless I see other people do it a lot (often over multiple rides). This helps me visualize my own attempt at the feature until I can rehearse it over and over in my head. By the time I attempt a new feature, I already feel in some way like I've already done it. In Bentonville I sat and watched rider after rider hit the tall drop in the skills area of Slaughter Pen Phase 1, but finally I had it visualized and I hit it...felt awesome. I need to do it again though and really cement it in, and then try some of the less "sterilized" drops around that area and here at home. The upside of this approach is that it has kept me fairly injury free up to this point. I've never broken a bone, torn a tendon, or had any major lacerations. I probably have 1-2 spills a year but they usually only result in some bruising and some scrapes. My family and bank account is thankful for this. The downside is that I miss doing a lot of features that look really fun when watching my riding buddies hit them. I suck at jumping and tall ledgy climbs. I'll probably never ride Cat Mountain even though it looks like a blast.

What does The Tip's search history look like after finding that photo? What other wonders did that search return? Hello MrTheCatLady, I'm just here to comment on photos of naked dudes. I have no sage advice for you on falling theory other than I feel like I fall an average amount for the risks I'm willing to take. I do pass on features I think I have the skill for but have higher penalties for failure. I feel lucky to have not broken any important pieces when I do fall. Just a few stitches, some sprains, and rib injuries over the last few years. I too have done the splits in road cleats on a wet road before.

Top entrance to the 401 trail outside Crested Butte.

Someone has to keep the manager in check.

k Boomer

Totally unnecessary.

As much as I enjoy SS, a SS gravel/adventure/touring rig never made sense to me. Even though I like the simplicity, the mixed terrain encountered by this type of bike effectively means you're almost always in wrong gear. Yeah, that's how singlespeed works anyway I suppose. But for an adventure bike the idea is highlighted. I suppose if I lived around a ton of relatively flat gravel roads then that'd make sense.

It was pretty cool I must say to be contacted and interviewed by someone interested in hearing my story about mountain biking in my life! Enjoy the read if you would like to - https://medium.com/@zacharysisson/austin-texas-mountain-biking-interview-seth-buckner-1dc89ac87a49

Very cool. The most shocking piece of info was the fact that you were 19 in 2006.

Just. Get. Out. There. And. Ride. Do it solo to get yourself comfortable. Walk the features that you are unsure of. Session things. Take your time. Remember you are not on the couch, you are outside. And there is beer at the end. I have been off the mountain bike since February. I should be back on trails some time in early October but I will not ride with anyone until I have had several rounds on my own to get back into the groove. That includes walking things that I used to bomb down and maybe even crashing once or twice. Oh, and did I mention there was beer at the end? There is always beer at the end.

Thanks everyone! @WLemke has me on the calendar for Wednesday afternoon! Nothing like some last minute bike maintenance before a 2-4 week bike trip. 😜

@ MrthecatLady If I recall sometime back there was the video of you just getting worked on SpongeBob and it was determined that it was more of a technique related issue when you rolled it and got tore up. There is always gonna be something looking to throw me down but if my technique and or riding style in that particular moment is correct than my odds of getting wrecked are minimized. Also as noted above I have to listen to my body\mind and keep the ego in check. When I am tired or distracted or just out of it , I bail. I dont care anymore. Every time (almost) I've gotten hurt was because I tried to push through to accomplish something. My body tells me when to stop if I listen.

Yesterday a buddy and I rode segments 3, 2, and 1 of the Colorado trail. Right around 40 miles, 3.6k climbing, over 7k descending. Long, hard day in the saddle, but one of the best days I’ve had on a bike.

I came in here to say basically the same thing. As someone with a degree and a quasi-career in journalism, this is key to the job. I've had to do this on at least one occasion while writing for a newspaper and it was a tough call. if readers don't trust the journalist or the outlet, then they will not trust that the "unanimous source" is legit. if the journalist has any professional ethics, they will only quote verified sources and protect their identity and then back it up with facts or print a retraction later. journalists have been jailed and killed for not revealing the name of their sources. however, they also have to maintain credibility, or their readers' trust and ability to use unnamed sources will be compromised. there are conspiracy theory outlets that someone maintain credibility in other ways by playing to their readers' ignorance, but they regularly abuse the practice of quoting anonymous sources by citing known liars and making up quotes out of thin air. that's the scary media landscape we live in, where conspiracy theory hucksters are amplified in the public conversation. none of that applies to the Garmin story. I doubt there are a lot of scary secrets behind that.