Thanks for all the good perspectives 🙂
I do want to be able to take on bigger drops and harder trails. I also want to ride the Mohican 100 at some point. Maybe not on this bike, but we’ll see… If I can actually train enough to make a 100 miler sound doable, then I can probably justify an XC bike.
Unfortunately I’m only at around 600 offroad miles for the year. I will probably hit 1,000 miles if I count the trainer and road rides, but I have 2 kids under 4 at home, so that’s a big part of the self-imposed budget, as well as a realistic consideration for the amount of time I spend riding, and the level of risk I take.
With that said, I have crashed a lot more times making mistakes on “routine” obstacles than I have by attempting to ride something I should have hiked.