Stoner – if you get diverted to East Midlands, give me a shout if you need anything

Don’t worry, I finally gave in and ordered mud tyres.. it’ll stop raining as so as the parcel arrives.

Nothing out of the ordinary weather wise today in south wales, 50-70mph at Mumbles head, gets like that most big winter storms.

Cheers all.

There’ll be some new creases in the easyjet Upholstery by the end of the day

Oh well, if it makes you lot any happier I’ll be spending my day up on scaffolding in an attempt to stop even more water pissing into our house. You can exercise your collective schadenfreude at my expense, be my guests.

I reckon this is the last winter I can put up with in the grim North – hopefully next year winter we can spend most of it in that Greece, where it’s still winter but it doesn’t rain and have gale force winds every sodding day like the Isle of Man does.

Off-road is almost impossible now with all the rain here in Hertfordshire. Deep gloopy mud that makes the wheels spin out going up the smallest incline & a quagmire on all of the tracks. Even mud tyres ore of little benefit – apart from being narrower. What would have been a 20+ mi outing is now 10ish in the same time. Av speed 8MPH ish!!!!!

Still getting out but increasingly using minor roads to connect up the very few gravelly or well compacted bridalways.

Yup. Bought a new bike Oct 21st

Have not ridden it in the dry during the daytime since then. I know it’s winter but give us a break PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE

Trying to remain positive,I reckon it usually balances out.
We had a great Autumn,dusty trails in October in Lancashire,never known that before,reservoirs really low.

I admire your positivity but when you say a great Autumn aren’t you referring to a period of 2, maybe 3 weeks at most where it was quite nice – in the last 6 months of pretty much solid misery?

Yup. Bought a new bike Oct 21st

Have not ridden it in the dry during the daytime since then. I know it’s winter but give us a break PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAS]MTB for xmas. Was very excited as had neglected MTB for years.

+1

MTB for Xmas, result – ecstatically optimistic!

Two outings since Dec 23rd. One that resulted in head to toe mud and an hour clean-up (enjoyed massively), other that resulted in a hard dismount on account of some soft algae on wet surface (does not want). Haven’t been inspired since on account of endless wind and rain. Am wholly convinced it is the incessant rain that has softened my resolve and I’m not actually a gigantic wuss who is simply ill-equipped via over-inflated Conti Barons and hyper-inflated confidence.

I’ve not been out on the bike since November.

I’ve taken up archery instead. In the warm and dry. More beards though.

Having spent Boxing Day digging ditches in the garden to divert water out of my next-door neighbour’s kitchen, now my other next-door neighbour has come round to have a chat about the water that’s getting a bit close to coming into her house. All very amicable at the moment but I imagine they’re going to get snotty if I don’t fix it soon.

I’ve just put a call into an agricultural drainage engineer, which is a bit bloody ridiculous frankly, but I’m not sure that I can physically dig big enough drains to deal with all this water by myself…

I admire your positivity but when you say a great Autumn aren’t you referring to a period of 2, maybe 3 weeks at most where it was quite nice – in the last 6 months of pretty much solid misery?

We had more better weather than that, long period in September and an even better spell in October.

Autumn aren’t you referring to a period of 2, maybe 3 weeks at most where it was quite nice – in the last 6 months of pretty much solid misery?

We had 5 weeks of awesome in the SW. Sneaky suspicion* that that’s it until next October 😉

*Being British.

Autumn aren’t you referring to a period of 2, maybe 3 weeks at most where it was quite nice – in the last 6 months of pretty much solid misery?

To get dusty trails in Lancashire in October & low levels in the reservoirs takes more than 2 or 3 weeks of dry weather!

To be fair, mate and I did a fairly dry night ride around Bonfire night and ended up sat out in his garden with a drink afterwards because it was so stupidly warm.

Think that this payback has gone on long enough now though.

I usually complain about the lack of hills etc round where I live (North London), but it hasn’t really been that wet

I cycled about 125 miles last week, about 100 miles of that was commuting. I got a bit damp on about 10 of those, and mildly moist on maybe 5. Didn’t wear a waterproof once

It often felt grey or miserable but was never too shocking

Its been raining here on South Coast England pretty consistantly since mid/late Nov. Early Nov was remarkably dry. Had a lovely dry June 2015 as well. But the rest was pretty wet. School holidays are what bug me – when we go camping. Please change hols to earlier!

Interesting stats:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/summaries/2015

2015 UK Summer months were much higher rainfall than average (av taken 1981-2010), although yearly average was slightly lower, suggesting drier outside of summer (spring was lovely and stats show that).

You just have to grin and bear it and try and adapt. Carry on regardless 🙂

I’m currently trying to grow a pair and just head out into the storm on the mtb. Walked around Rodborough Fort earlier and struggled to stand!

I’ve spent the last month rediscovering my love of climbing at the indoor wall. Riding a bike in this is just too much mental effort. I’ve tried 3 times now over this winter to MTFU and ignore the weather, and each time I’ve relapsed into a state of depression, frustration, and misery. I give up. If we have a wet summer after this I’m getting rid of my bikes.

dazh – Member

I’ve spent the last month rediscovering my love of climbing at the indoor wall. Riding a bike in this is just too much mental effort. I’ve tried 3 times now over this winter to MTFU and ignore the weather, and each time I’ve relapsed into a state of depression, frustration, and misery. I give up. If we have a wet summer after this I’m getting rid of my bikes. I’m hearing you.

A lot of pretty hardcore mtbers I know – not the ones who churn up and down firetrails, but the ones who like to ride at a decent pace, or down steep tech trails, or send a few jumps – are just staying off the bikes until it dries. Not only is it beyond any point of being able to attack a trail, or land a decent jump, it’s really wrecking the bikes and, perhaps even worse, it is wreaking havoc on the trails themselves.

It is nasty down here in Cornwall, getting 70mph winds and rain at the moment.
been rubbish since about October, Always raining and windy, trails are a muddy washed out mess.

A lot of pretty hardcore mtbers I know – not the ones who churn up and down firetrails, but the ones who like to ride at a decent pace, or down steep tech trails, or send a few jumps – are just staying off the bikes until it dries. Not only is it beyond any point of being able to attack a trail, or land a decent jump, it’s really wrecking the bikes and, perhaps even worse, it is wreaking havoc on the trails themselves.

As a comparison, my local trails (QECP), I’ve not noticed any more or less bikers in the carpark for our Wed night ride overall this winter, compared to other winters or even the summer! We still get the same bikers out pretty much whatever the weather. TBF its not often chucking it down at the start of the ride, which I suspect would be what most are put off by. Its just wet trails. The trails we ride day/night/wet/dry are same, makes no odds, just change your tyres, bike, style, pace.

10 mins from Brizzle airport and we’re being battered by strong winds and rain here, and the odd hail shower. Wind very gusty, I really wouldn’t fancy being out on the roads on a bike in this. Seems the planes are still landing up there on top of the hill though. Another offer here of kettle and wifi if needed, and a van to take a bike if it came to that.

it’s really wrecking the bikes and, perhaps even worse, it is wreaking havoc on the trails themselves.

I wish some of the riders round here would heed that advice. It’s almost as though whilst in their bubble at work during the week they miss what’s happening weather wise and still head out. Some of our local stuff will not recover any time soon…

it is wreaking havoc on the trails themselves

Still plenty to go at here in Calderdale, but it does require careful route choice. I have some sympathy though with people still riding. Conditions are so variable you’d need a pretty encyclopedic knowledge of the area to know where to avoid, and it changes very quick. Some of the trails you’d think were definite no-gos are actually ok and some others you’d think ok are completely washed away.

I was put off bothering with Pitch/Holmbury etc and just did a longer XC ride this weekend – even then blown off the bike on Hankley.

Mighty try QECP after superfi’s comments – with H’head tunnel, and easy trip but always assumed that it was not a place for wet weather riding due to chalk?

wrightyson – Member

it’s really wrecking the bikes and, perhaps even worse, it is wreaking havoc on the trails themselves.

I wish some of the riders round here would heed that advice. It’s almost as though whilst in their bubble at work during the week they miss what’s happening weather wise and still head out. Some of our local stuff will not recover any time soon…[/quote]I’ve lived on Cannock Chase for over ten years and never seen the place so utterly waterlogged. Even the deer look pissed off now.

Some great trails have been trashed. I’m sure new stuff will come and not all of them are beyond salvation, but a lot will never recover their previous glory.

There’s no speed out there at the moment. Quite a few guys even bought road bikes. Sod that.

On the bright side, I did have an amusing mud slide on Saturday. Coming off cheeky trail with muddy bank down on to BW. Error attempting to turn ( 😳 ) half way down led to a slow mo, muddy slide. Fortunately no one else saw and was quiet funny!

I’m pretty pleased to have Afan close at the moment, though the volume of rains washed away some of the surfaced bits. local natural trails are rocky and open moorland for the most part, but the rocky bits are now streams and the moorland parts are slogs.

Crowdfunding for an indoor trail centre anyone?

Boarding now. If it all goes tits up over Bridlington, tell my bikes I love them.

THM – Swinley stay dryer but its flatter.
The chalk is ok as Superfii was saying on saturday when we were at FoD – its as it starts to dry out it gets really, really lethal!
Think trying to ride on lard….

Looks like we’re on flood alert again in East Lancs. As the ground is already saturated its all running off, and the Irwell is about to go again. Its stopped raining for the time being. Please stay stopped, you bastard!!!! So bored with this weather now. Not half as bored as the people lower down who are still cleaning up the mess from the flooding at christmas 🙁

Cheers Hammy – lard was what was springing to mind! But must try QECP at some point.

I was surprised how dry things were on Sat morning compared with a year ago when I did a trailthingy event over much the same ground.

Still had some gloop, some perfect, some sand, some rocks, some slippy mud slopes, some roots – so lots to think about on top of the howling wind!

FoD was rammed and a bog fest yesterday – in hindsight QE would’ve been a lot less hassle and certainly more time to just ride rather than negotiate everyone else.
With the rain QE chalk is just moved out of the way by a decent tyre – Spesh GC or Chunky Monkey work best there.
Not going to be fun when if it starts to dry out though – back to lard again….

Was bitching discussing this at the weekend and realised I couldn’t remember having ridden in short sleeves at all last year. We had a wee dry spell for about 3 weeks in Sept/Oct but it was far from warm.

Should have come to Cambusbarron in December – shorts and t shirts all round..!

Sorry I missed weekend – still half a house dug up…

I’ve just no idea how much it’s actually rained since the Malvern weather website rainfall gadget stopped working last year… 🙁

It’s been very dry through most of the winter here in North Wilts, it’s really only in the last week that water levels have really risen. Actually, I’ll qualify that, there’s been damp, drizzly weather, enough to keep the ground rather soggy, but rivers like the Winterbourne that runs through Avebury was totally dry a month ago, now it’s up over its banks in places, as is the Avon running through Chippenham.
Walking home this afternoon the noise of the wind through trees alongside the paths and roads was almost deafening as well.
Didn’t hear any thunder, but the parish church in town got struck at dinner time.

I got out for 3hrs of sloptastic fun today, with the gusting wind it was a wet & dry ride all in one!

I use my bike recreationaly mainly, but i commute by train with the bike..only ten mins each side, so 40 mins a day..
I’m having to clean my chain up every weekend at the moment, lest I have an orange chain of shame, which is quite frankly ludicrous.

I wholly blame marget thatcher for this.