I’ll keep riding the same bike but I will use it a lot less. Not because of the extra wear but because I don’t enjoy going out in 6 inch deep slop night after night.

I plan to use the road bike for fitness and travel to trail centers or places that drain a bit better than my local trails.

There was an MBUK article in the 90s where they stripped an old bike and made it extremely mud proof! Sand blast and powder coated frame, holes sealed up and other stuff I forget. Might be worth going down this avenue and making things a bit more carefree if it does get entirely caked in mud?

The kit all wears out at some point so riding in mud (a UK factor) isn’t really going to save the wallet as all the bits will need replaced at some point – most at the same point.
Having more bikes just adds to this cost.

Just in case you go to other places I the world they also have mud, even saw muddy bikes in utah, plenty here in Oz and in NZ. It seems to just be the UK is the place where people insist on riding through axle deep slop….
My points as above are not that it doesn’t happen but if you are trashing bikes over a winter then may your doing it wrong.

Bikes get trashed in summer as well…for many, the idea of a summer bike to be used during summer would be a very short-lived affair on this isle of ours (in Scotland, Summer this year was a Wednesday but it started late Tuesday evening and finally stopped just before lunch on the Thursday). It doesn’t really make any odds what the conditions are…bike bits wear out – irrespective of conditions.

There was an MBUK article in the 90s where they stripped an old bike and made it extremely mud proof! Sand blast and powder coated frame, holes sealed up and other stuff I forget. Might be worth going down this avenue and making things a bit more carefree if it does get entirely caked in mud?

That was a Brant article. The bike was christened “BUM UK”, using some cut up mbuk stickers.

I always put my bike away in it’s hermetically sealed and optimally heated storage locker whenever there’s a chance of it coming into contact with mud and/or rain. Heavens forbid if I actually got he thing dirty through use.

Tom KP

mikewsmith – Member

Just in case you go to other places I the world they also have mud, even saw muddy bikes in utah, plenty here in Oz and in NZ. It seems to just be the UK is the place where people insist on riding through axle deep slop….

I think it was a Rockshox dude that said the UK has the worst weather that any sane person would consider riding a bike all year round in. Not quite enough winter to have a winter sports season, not enough summer to have a summer season, just nuclear winter and atomic mud.

Just built up a rigid hard tail single speed to use through the winter down here the sub soil is mainly clay so water doesn’t drain just more and more mud used a bunch of 2nd hand parts from my old 26er did this cause of the above and cause I can afford to also really NOT fussed what anyone on here thinks 👿

Not bothered but posted anyway…;-)

FWIW, In a single race I’ve managed to kill a brand new (as in fitted the day before) Shimano UN72 BB, and lower bearing in headset (Cane Creek), and bearings in rear hub (White Industries, standard sealed cartridge and extra grease sealing) which were only ~3 months old. Also put significant wear on the drivetrain too, and had to junk the cables (standard Shimano SP41 inner and outer).

May I suggest you engage the services of a professional mechanic going forwards.

Db you need to turn your sarcasm radar up a little 😀

Agreed…I’m falling foul to my own thoughts…now addicted to responding for no reason. I’ll stop now…