when i was a kid the fastest way to get from point A to point B was bikes.we would ride basically straight to our destination whether road woods or yards.there was a patch of woods between my house and the only mall in town.had to go over RR tracks to get to them too then up a big hill then near the mall down a bigger hill.i had an orange scwinn road bike (the super heavy one they called sunset red)that bike finally melted when our garage caught on fire and burned to the ground thatwas the only way it could be killed.got a POS to replace it that lasted only couple of months and just borrowed for a while cuz i had discovered girls.got a pacific bike in 93 that weighed almost as much as the truck i hauled it in but i was hooked again on that offroad thing.in 96 i got an aluminum RALIEGH from Target and within a year the only original was the frame.i had discovered that i like working on them too.got a Vlink in 97 broke the frame in late00.they replaced it with an XTS3 and i broke it in 03 replaced it with an XR8500 and am building it piece by peice during the year.i love riding in any weather any terrain and that started as a kid.same as the rebuilding part.i do hate changing flats though,they seem like such a waste of time and they usually dont have COOL storys like components breaking do(dude you shoulda seen that BRIAR i ran over.it must a been 1/2" long!!) at least other parts of the country have cactus and BIG nasty briars.we have stealth ones.F/ing terrorist ones, little punks that hide then kill a poor unsuspecting tire for no reason( sorry got carried away) anyway offroad biking under any name is my favorite past time and kinda always has been