Not my bike but close enough. I've got black Marzocchi Bomber 4" suspension on the front, slightly different seat, but otherwise the same.

Bought it around the year 2000. Wanted something that could be used for some road but mostly casual mountain biking. Only issue I had was the handlebars. About 2 weeks after purchasing it, I jumped off the edge of the driveway onto the road, and the bars snapped. I didn't get all that much air either. Went over the bars and ate sh*t, I mean pavement. Had some pretty good scrapes on the right side of my face, right shoulder and arm. Got a new set of much stronger bars with my warranty claim and they've been rock solid ever since. Don't ride anywhere near as much as I used to and the bike see's the road much more now than it does the trails. The treks are also much shorter. Don't have the time or energy that I used to, but it is a great way to stay in shape.

Few more pics in the ad I took this from. Brantford by chance. Maybe SvennoJ has seen it around? lol

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-mountain-bike/brantford/oryx-freak-full-suspension-mountain-bike/1516123147

I've seen that model around, not that particular one though. I'm still waiting for my bike to be ready and still healing. My leg is much better already, I've been swimming every day though had to quit yesterday when my leg cramped up. Today went well, jumped in the pool at dusk with the light on. Not so warm outside anymore, water is still 82F. I scraped off quite a bit of skin so better to avoid the sun while healing up, then lots of sunscreen again. All pink new skin coming out lol.

I need to cut back a bit as well, stop worrying the wife so much when going out for 4 or 5 hours :/ Also not really that much point to push on to the limit so often and hardly be able to get up the stairs in the evening. Addicted to runners high I guess. Feels so good when you get in the rhythm and simply keep on going.

I'm getting to the itch stage from the road rash ugh. And it's still hard to sleep since the worst spots are on the left of my back and right hip and side. My wife send a picture of the damage on my back to her mom, and she thought it was a picture of a rotten potato.

I'm not a big fan of exhausting myself. I always pace myself with light power output. My motto is: "If my muscles burn I'm doing something wrong" contrary to what my dad once tried to teach me. Long live high cadence easy pedaling.

This graph is from my recent 190km tour. You can see my steady high cadence over all kinds of speeds. That's exactly what I want to achieve.

There's a red, black, and white version, maybe more. Swimming is good therapy as long as you don't overdo it. Sounds like you overdid it though. lol. When you get in a good groove it's hard to get out. It almost becomes a rut you're stuck in, just one you don't realize until you're buried too deep. While riding itself is good therapy to clear the mind at times, you gotta be able to clear it fairly quickly or be able to keep it out of your focus. Having your mind out in left field with potential traffic around is just asking for trouble. Itch stage really sucks. At least it sounds like your itches are somewhat hard to get at. It's tougher to ignore when it's oh so easy to scratch. The pool tends to help nicely with the itch problem, though too much time in the water and you overdo it or end up scratching off now loosened scabs. lol. It's a vicious cycle it is.

After doing 30km in 37 C and 85% humidity on Friday, I really hope this is the end of it, and I can enjoy my bike rides even more.

I got back on the bike today, all repaired, good as new. I'm getting there, leg is fine again, itchy scabs and a couple sore spots left. I went for a 2.5 hour ride, trail, dirt/gravel roads and some paved roads. It cooled down here, nice 22c for cycling, however the wind was going between 30 and 60 kph, not that great lol. There was a lot of debris on the trail and one precariously hanging tree.

Good to be out cycling again!

Good for you! Still sitting here with painkillers to treat my bursitis. Also still looking for inspiration as to what bike to get. Good gravelbikes seem so expensive.

I recently moved to a disc brake and clearance drop bar bike (Raleigh Tamland) with wider tires and rack and fender mounts. Compared to my old hybrid, he really enjoyed it. You can go in the drops in a headwind with its quicker, more hand positions. I had my rack installed on the back, so I could take all my things with me. There are truly limitless choices, but I would get a rack and panniers for 10 miles if you had to bring things. You want a comfortable bike, but you have to check some supercross and motocross difference but it will take a while to get used to the 20 m/day seat and bike, so don't give up immediately. Make sure your bike is geared properly if you have hills and want to bring things.

Nice! My bike is stored for winter. I don't enjoy cycling in winter clothes, plus the cold air hurts my throat. Not much jogging lately either, my knees are not co-operating and until there is snow, it's rather depressing on the trails with everything brown. Beat Saber and weightlifting it is for now until the real winter starts. Jogging in winter clothes isn't comfortable either but at least its better than cycling, and the snow is a lot easier on my knees. Today, overcast, drizzle, couple degrees above zero.

I like going on bike tours, but I don't care quite enough to buy expensive stuff for it.

I usually don't do more than like 4 hours, and I also don't take straight roads (I don't plan my destination, I like taking decisions at the moment). So I usually don't get very far and mostly just see my area. I've done only a couple of tours with a clear destination, mostly to Bruges (75km to there and back). The longest I've done so far is to Heuvelland at the French border (140km).

I'd like to start doing more though. For next spring/summer, I'm planning on going to Antwerp (140km there and back), Parc Scarpe-Escaut in France (190km) and a tour through the major towns of Zeeuws-Vlaanderen in the Netherlands (about 140km).