it’s not the mud i hate, it’s the cleaning.

Woburn = sand so no mud 😀

I can honestly say that I’d never really even acknowledged it’s existence past laughing at the state of us after a particularly grubby ride..

..until I started reading this forum that is

Mud is good! I particularly love ankle to knee deep clarty stuff. Now wind on the other hand……….in your face on the way out; in your face on the way home……damn

No, but that’s mainly since I ditched gears and sus. Cleaning stuff that adds very little to the ride and gets trashed in the filth seems pretty pointless and I swear my rigid SS is as easy to ride in winter as any other bike, possibly easier over a long day.

Get the right tyres and guards, ditch anything not strictly necessary.

Mud is amazing fun. Some of the best riding I have done is at aston hill in the wet. And Woburn does have lots of mud. You just need to know where to look

I dont enjoy riding in the wet muddy trails during winters, after a ride, you have your bike to clean in freezing weathers, wash all your clothes and then clean the car, no fun at all. Road riding for me in winter, much cleaner.

Do you have any idea how whiney some of you sound? Embrace the conditions,you’ll be dead before you know it..

@vegasdave, nothing whiney at all, it’s a personal choice for everyone, if you are happy to be caked in mud, go for it chap! 😆

Rainbow – set your bike up for winter, don’t drive to ride.

I cannot believe this at all – too muddy to ride?

I gotta mix up my destinations or I get bored.
I drive to almost all my rides.
I’m still waiting for 10 rain free minutes to get my bike out from yesterday and clean it.
I’m not a bike cleaner but it wouldn’t be ridable the way it is now.

Ok i have nicked one of the niche whores images but it does illustrate cotswold dust quite well, and to be fair that is a better trail. If you want to actually ride a bike off road your going to have to spend a fair amount of time plugging through crap, why bother? trashes the bike, trashes the washing machine, and also trashes the trails so come summer they aren’t as much fun.

I got bored of cleaning, if you don’t then the bike gets trashed even quicker.

That trail looks terrible to ride, the sort of place I avoid in the Winter in favour of better drained trails. Wasn’t there a better trail option?

Rainbow,for most of the country it’s been the driest year since when ever and this lot is bleating about riding in mud. If that’s not whiney…

I loathe riding xc in the mud. I spend more time on my downhill bike riding steeper tracks in winter as mud is less of an issue, they drain better and you can still hold some speed for some fun.

jameso – Member
No, but that’s mainly since I ditched gears and sus….
…Get the right tyres and guards, ditch anything not strictly necessary.

He’s right.

Why drag gears and suspension through mud? Go rigid SS for winter and don’t bother cleaning the bike.

Then it’s all fun again.

NW Alps dust

summer, eh? by rOcKeTdOgUk, on Flickr

what’s not to like, embrace the filth!

Well, i don’t mind the mud, but after today covered in clagg i ruined my forks with a massive gouge on the fork uppers (about 2 inches long )from what must have been a stone in the mud around the seal. gutted. Can you buy replacement uppers for rockshox?

^^ clean stanchion. apply nail polish and leave to dry (pref somewhere warm indoors) and give another thin coat. use vrey fine wet’n’dry paper to remove the excess dried polish.

i’ve had to do this several times (from gouges to small grooves) on my Lyrik and the seals are fine.

i’ve not been riding in ages. a number of reasons: too much work; shitty weather (currently snowing, but not settling); and a lack of decent winter clothing. i need to buy myself a decent pair of winter/waterproof trousers, but resent spending >90€ on a pair of Gore (or similar) or 10€ on cheapo trousers from Aldi.

i don’t mind mud, but mud combined with cold and damp isn’t my thing. i love riding after a wet spell in summer when everything underfoot is wet, but the air is warm and dry.

Cheers Alpin, i’ll give it a go

In any given winter, I’ll start out by giving it a go. However, I’m generally one clag-clugged, mud-spattered chore of a ride away from locking my mountain bike in the shed and forgetting about it till Spring.

Especially since I moved to the Isle of Wight, you run into this particularly adhesive mud that sticks to you, the bike, and to the mud already sticking to you and the bike until you and the bike look like a statue of a cyclist, made out of mud. Try and scrape it off your wheels with a stick, and it sticks to the stick. Swipe it off the stick with your fingers, it sticks to your fingers. Sod that for a game of soldiers.

Riding on the road’s a more than acceptable alternative on a crisp, sunny winter’s day.

Having said all that, winter is really God’s way of telling you to park your arse on the couch for a bit and play the XBox.

Dirty Cove by chrisgiant, on Flickr

Love It ! 😛

Depends on the mud. Clay is just no fun, would rather go for a walk or a run, it tends to be faster. Other mud is ok.

Just accept it as another riding season. Yeah it’s tough but riding through the wet, mud and cold only makes you a better rider come the summer. It’s very rarely as bad as it looks out of the window.

…and you know what, sometimes it great fun.

Thin watery stuff is fun, sticky clay sucks (excuse the pun). Love to ride but having to deal with the latter every week would seriously test my commitment.

2nd hand banger bike,good mud tyres ,happy days.

I ride all year round in west Yorkshire. No doubt it’s been said already but here goes.

Neoguard & decent Tyres (I like swampthings). Plus some cheapo tights so you can peel them off and leave the mud behind.

And for the first time ever, due to being a new parent/less time, I stopped my obsession with always washing my bike! And I leave the FS in the cellar for winter and service it ready for spring 🙂

I don’t mind the mud too much when I’m out but as others have said the cleaning is quite frankly tedious and miserable.

Saturday morning- was pissing down, cold and windy. I could have spent 20mins sorting my bike and kit out, 4 hours riding through muddy, wet cold tracks and then another god knows how long cleaning all the sh*t off my bike with frozen fingers in the car-park at the back of my flat.

Sod that, put on my shorts and top and went for a run and was back in my flat sat down with a coffee and the paper within an hour and a half.

dirty bike by TandemJeremy, on Flickr

Ben, haven’t you signed up for Hit the North?

You’ll LOVE that, no mud at all, no siree, guaranteed 😀

When I rode in N Wales I’d ride MTB through the winter no problem. Always some rocky trails around and the mud although thick wasn’t that sticky.

Now my local riding is on chalk downland and the chalky mud is incredibly sticky. It doesn’t need to be thick to stop you as it builds and builds on the wheels until there’s no clearance for them to turn. Now in winter, unless it freezes, I leave the MTB in the garage and road ride. Not getting back clarty is a bonus too.

MTFU

@buzz lightyear, to answer your question, that is the typical cotswold winter bridleway, the alternative is tarmac.

@1kcove and TJ i see no mud just dirty water and a few sticks. Water isn;t a problem to ride through, mud is what causes the bike to stop moving, the bike to go from 25lb to 50lb, to make the bike a pain to shoulder let alone ride or push.

I’d love to get out and get dirty! I’m longing to ride thru Rempstone Forest and then to climb the long grinding hill from Corfe Castle towards Nine Barrow Down, saying “Good morning” to the red socks that dont answer back or look at you as if you had just farted. Shooting off down by Kingswood copse to the main road, bowling along then teararseing down by the side of the golf coarse towards Studland before the boring ride back to the ferry. At this moment in time I dont give a shit whether its shitty, cold or bloody raining I’d love to get out and get dirty.

I recently had a heart attack so I cant…..thank yourselves f*cking lucky you have the choice.

Roll on 2012 when I can start riding again and boy will I get dirty.

P.S and I wont bleat about it, never have done. Its all part of mountain biking. Sorry if this sound like a tart ranting or a tosser feeling sorry for themselves.

1kcove……where did you get that bike stand from? I’ve been looking high and low (obviously not high enough or low enough)for one without success. Cheers.

k

Riding west Yorkshire yesterday miss timed a jump, landed in a flop in biggest muddy puddle total right hand side immersion. Lay there for a moment feeling the cold gloopy mush soak in. Felt great! Got home to find note door from wife saying do not bring dirt into house as she had just cleaned floor! She was shopping , I texted her the words “naive darling, get real!” top day… Cleaned bike, cleaned me, loads of dirt in kitchen, Bonza!

Hey Ben you big jesse I take it you’ll be riding on Wednesday for some more winter chuckles 🙂 ?

The key is in picking the right trails. There’s a hell of a lot of local variation round here in Leeds – even withing a few 100m of eachother the trails are different beasts. E.g. some bits of the MVT hold up OK all year, some turn to crap as soon as it drizzle .
But generally heading west is best – Airedale is your friend. Also take in other non-trail features like those steps in town know you adore…

It’s a shame but most of the best woodsy singletrack is out at this time of year though.

Neil

I’m amazed there are so many people who hate mud/won’t ride in it.

I’d prefer fast dry trails but some of the best rides I’ve had have been in the wet and mud.

The hardest part is getting out of the door, once I’m riding it’s all good. I try and make sure I wash the bike and my boots as soon as I get back – when I do it’s a doddle, when I don’t, it’s a pain. The knowledge that my bike is sat in the garage covered in mud is not nice, knowing it’s clean and waiting for the next ride is far better.

I wear leggings to catch most of the mud, let it dry outside when I get back, rub off most of it and then throw all my kit in the machine.

It’s not really much more effort than most rides and while the riding can be a lot harder, you gain much more strength, endurance and bike handling skills than in the dry. Come the dry days you can tell the difference after a month or 2 of mud.

For me it’s one of the joys of living in the UK, we get such a mixture of weather and if I wanted a hobby where I didn’t get wet,cold, or muddy I’d take up knitting 🙂

I quite like riding in filth, not as much as I used to though.

The days where cleaning the bike takes longer than the ride duration are my least favourite.

Had a belting ride in Calverley/Esholt yesterday, got some brilliant slides happening.
good thing about the current conditions is the mud isnt claggy.
We were wet and muddy but no build up on the bikes, so a brilliant laugh all day.

Embrace the winter, its going to be like this for the next six months, and it makes you a better rider anyway.