A belated update.

So... about 30 days ago I was merrily ripping down my favorite ski slope when a (checks notes on how to be polite) rather clueless individual cut across the line of travel without looking. My buddy I was skiing with narrowly avoided the guy... I didn't luck out as much, had to slam on the brakes, hit ice that wouldn't have been an issue had I not needed to brake hard, and went down HARD. Big crash, slammed my head really bad, was out for around 30 seconds.

Next few hours were kinda a blur. Snowmobile ride down the mountain. ER for a few hours. Nurse saying I likely wouldn't be alive were it not for my fancy MIPS helmet (safety tech is good yo!) Extremely painful drive home. Lying on the couch for 48 hours.

Finally starting to resume normal life a few days later. Doctors visits. Tracers at night... which then went away! Being able to drive again. Finding out I can ride my bike again 4 weeks after the concussion, which was a big win.

Fast forward to now and I'm finally back at it! Definitely still have some lingering effects with paying attention and whatnot, but feeling a lot better and healing well.

Lessons learned here? I dunno. Probably will ski a little slower in the future but accidents happen and it was a genuine mistake on the part of the guy who caused me to crash so all good there. Very glad to have the right safety equipment and I'll never ski or ride without a helmet, that's for sure. But at the same time I'm mostly happy to have healed and be back at it!

Woke up really early to catch the lunar eclipse that was visible from the west coast today... Not bad!!

I wanted to write something creative but brain no worky. In short, we spent the better part of 3 days in the mountains with cool people and did car things and snowshoe things.

Highlights: @AestheticsInMotion's snowshoes with Merc badges, an amazing lodge w/ hot tub, mountains, cool people, cool food

Lowlights: I regret riding in the (1 of 1) R55 and the (not 1 of 1 but incredibly nice) defender because now I want both

that is all.

No? Not yet? Dang. Seems like a cool car.

@Photography ... with a lot of increased contrast I got a hint of northern lights last night here at 45 degrees latitude!

@Dr-Zoidberg HE BOUGHT THE THING

Here's some kittens in a potted plant.

So here are some DOTS!

Quality driveway, this.

I am normally meh about vanity plates but this one, plus the sticker had me amused. Yip Yip!

BRG + bike rack, at the trailhead. Much good.

Ferarri FF!

Base FK7 pretending to be a type R

Not DOTS but I went out to the coast to scout sites for the May Oppo MTB meet. It was really really nice!

finally I got my absurd drop bar MTB running again. This thing isn't exactly practical but it sure is fun...

No idea but here's a new build I did I am super stoked about:

This bike, full frame and build kit, rolled into my shop about two weeks back and I immediately pounced on it to make it into something fun. 1993 Specialized Crossroads. For those who don't know this is arguably one of the first 29ers, and shipped with 622-45 tires stock. Here it was:

Flipped seatpost, Suntour X-1, flat bars, cushy saddle... all of that has to go. And will be properly recycled onto period correct bikes, fret not.

Bye!

Looking better already. But what this bike REALLY needs is some form of integrated brake/shift levers with a lot of cross compatibility to run a wide range mountain drivetrain...

Boom, there we go. 3D printed shifter adapters mounted to V brake levers. These will shift basically any derailleurs under the sun in friction mode only. Pulled this off an old 26er that I needed to rebuild anyways...

Avid Single Digit brakes for about the maximum stopping power possible short of disk brakes.

Getting the fit dialed in using my roadie as a reference point. Goal for this bike was to have a relaxed all-day fit to go do super long rides. At some point a parts bin Specialized Phenom carbon saddle went on and it is oh so comfy.

Shimano workhorse groupset bits. LX new old stock FD, XT RD (fresh out of the ultrasonic cleaner cause I'd put two years of mud on it), and Sugino Impel cranks. 42/32/20t provides approximately ALL the gear range.

First build up with my other all-rounder bike. Love the color schemes on these two. And yes, the yellow top tube bag will be making its way over to the Crossroads.

First serious ride!

from the bay...

To the hills!

The cockpit on this bike is super comfy with some very lightly flared drop bars. The shifting setup is something I've run before and rather like. It's not nearly as fast as a modern brifter setup but locates the shifters in a very convenient place for shifting from the hoods. And being friction, it'll handle basically any number of gears from 5 to 11.

Right now the weak point of the bike is absolutely the wheelset. Very nice for the time Araya rims but they're absurdly heavy and laced to heavy, slow hubs with a 7 speed, 14-28 freewheel. And even with a true they're a bit wobbly. My plan is to find a nice set of 130/100mm spaced wheels from a cyclocross bike to replace them, and run an 8 or 9 speed cassette with more range. Tires are some spare WTB riddlers in 622x45 which are fantastic for a mix of road and singletrack on the local rides here.

Overall I love the bike--these frames are rather coveted for being a mix of comfy old school steel while basically having the geometry of a modern bike. This feels very similar to a modern gravel bike fit wise, and I love it for that. More rides to come, I'd like to do a century on it...

@VincentMalamute Yeah I'm running a 50/34 and 12-32 on my roadie and the crossroads obviously goes SUPER low-20x32 will be the bailout gear eventually. I dig that GRX will run a 40t too.

Also yeah black and Ti looks great. And the carbon wheels help

@VincentMalamute more bikes, got it! Also that seven looks AMAZING. Though the cassette is a bit big vs the bike I built up today to sell at the shop:

@dejock some mavic allroads with 21-22mm internal width rolled in today will see about those if I can claim them. If not time to build something.

@drVanTraveler said in "Ben why do you have so many bikes?":

@spacekraken said in "Ben why do you have so many bikes?":

um. too many. six.

That's not too many. That's just barely enough.
Quote seen on bike forum,
"If someone tells you that you have too many bikes, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life."

Compelling argument! I think as long as I have space I'm keeping most or all of em around.

@dejock said in "Ben why do you have so many bikes?":

@spacekraken this is r/xbiking gold my guy. for wheels, use your shop discount to build up some velocity dyad rims on some hubs of your choosing. speaking of rear spacing, are you sure its 130? what are the odds of sticking a 135mm hub out back? if you can squeeze a 135, get some xt level trekking hubs and lace em up to the aforementioned dyads for an absolutely bomber wheelset.

Thanks! I think I might try out wheelbuilding for this. Either those Dyads or Mavic Open Pros since I really want tubeless. It's definitely 130 spaced but it's also steel and I'm positive I could flex it enough to rig up a 135 hub, and might do just that.

@Nibby

@Just-Jeepin ITS PINK! I've named it pink lemonade haha. It shows up more red in some pictures but isn't far off Tuscadero.

@DipodomysDeserti those old Miyatas are sick. Can't wait to see it!

@Highlander yeah probably more hybrid than MTB. It clears 45s with a bit of room but not much. Honestly the head tube and seat tube angles and reach make it feel very much like the Kona gravel bike I had. It's SO much better as a drop bar convert than a 26er, having done both now.

@drVanTraveler I really need to get some yellow shift cables lol

@ST80MND um. too many. six.

No idea but here's a new build I did I am super stoked about:

This bike, full frame and build kit, rolled into my shop about two weeks back and I immediately pounced on it to make it into something fun. 1993 Specialized Crossroads. For those who don't know this is arguably one of the first 29ers, and shipped with 622-45 tires stock. Here it was:

Flipped seatpost, Suntour X-1, flat bars, cushy saddle... all of that has to go. And will be properly recycled onto period correct bikes, fret not.

Bye!

Looking better already. But what this bike REALLY needs is some form of integrated brake/shift levers with a lot of cross compatibility to run a wide range mountain drivetrain...

Boom, there we go. 3D printed shifter adapters mounted to V brake levers. These will shift basically any derailleurs under the sun in friction mode only. Pulled this off an old 26er that I needed to rebuild anyways...

Avid Single Digit brakes for about the maximum stopping power possible short of disk brakes.

Getting the fit dialed in using my roadie as a reference point. Goal for this bike was to have a relaxed all-day fit to go do super long rides. At some point a parts bin Specialized Phenom carbon saddle went on and it is oh so comfy.

Shimano workhorse groupset bits. LX new old stock FD, XT RD (fresh out of the ultrasonic cleaner cause I'd put two years of mud on it), and Sugino Impel cranks. 42/32/20t provides approximately ALL the gear range.

First build up with my other all-rounder bike. Love the color schemes on these two. And yes, the yellow top tube bag will be making its way over to the Crossroads.

First serious ride!

from the bay...

To the hills!

The cockpit on this bike is super comfy with some very lightly flared drop bars. The shifting setup is something I've run before and rather like. It's not nearly as fast as a modern brifter setup but locates the shifters in a very convenient place for shifting from the hoods. And being friction, it'll handle basically any number of gears from 5 to 11.

Right now the weak point of the bike is absolutely the wheelset. Very nice for the time Araya rims but they're absurdly heavy and laced to heavy, slow hubs with a 7 speed, 14-28 freewheel. And even with a true they're a bit wobbly. My plan is to find a nice set of 130/100mm spaced wheels from a cyclocross bike to replace them, and run an 8 or 9 speed cassette with more range. Tires are some spare WTB riddlers in 622x45 which are fantastic for a mix of road and singletrack on the local rides here.

Overall I love the bike--these frames are rather coveted for being a mix of comfy old school steel while basically having the geometry of a modern bike. This feels very similar to a modern gravel bike fit wise, and I love it for that. More rides to come, I'd like to do a century on it...

@Demon-Xanth Gotta go there next time!

@john-norris Amazing! What a legend

@Wrong-Wheel-Drive dual sport trip sounds so fun this summer. That was such a blast and I am so grateful for the guiding

I was gonna write more on this but the short summary is: Mountains are good, drove a ton, skiied with @Wrong-Wheel-Drive and friend, and had an amazing time for my first trip to the eastern sierras. I'll be back for sure!

I'll mostly let the photos speak for themselves. @Photography

Skis inside the car on the way out to try to get a tiny bit better mpg

Tehachapi

Somewhere in Mojave

Red Rock canyon is GORGEOUS

Nightmare Rock

Alabama Hills

Mt Whitney

Shark Fin Rock

Day two, following WWD's subie up to Mammoth

views from Mammoth were AMAZING

At our lodging. Two alltracks and an STI... fully turbo AWD meet.

Very clear skies at 7000' base elevation!

Second day at mammoth--there was SO much snow they had to dig out the lifts. Never seen anything like it.

This view never gets old.

Sunday was basically just the 7.5 hour drive home

Overall 11/10 fantastic trip. Thanks WWD for showing me around the mountain--I skiied some stuff that was genuinely really challenging to me and pushed my limits and had an amazing time! Covered most of the mountain too.

@CoolMinivan-Nobody I too can speed up videos in Windows Media Player

@CB Clean mud off of things.

@Wrong-Wheel-Drive it's gonna be RAD