The last few weeks since Mayhem have seen a huge number of comments from people stating that they hate mud.

On a mountain bike forum?

In the British Isles?

So how do you view a muddy ride? Is it an ordeal to be avoided or a chance to exercise a different set of skills and have a bit of fun slipping and sliding around?

I know it’s not really that simple. The consistency of mud varies from one place to another and affects bikes differently and I can sympathise with anyone who’s spent big bucks on a sophisticated bike and doesn’t want to wreck it in a short space of time. However, £500 or less is plenty to put together a singlespeed or low specced ‘snot bike’ for when conditions are bad and mudguards may not be fashionable but they don’t cost a lot and they really do make a difference to how much of the trail ends up going home on your clothes and body.

Personally I thought the Mayhem with the mud was far more technical than it could ever have been in the dry and really enjoyed searching out the rideable lines (and most of it was rideable) but I feel I’m in a minority. Why is it that a set of rocky drops that slow you to a walking pace is described as ‘a technical challenge’ but a swampy trail that has you hunting the line of least resistance and moving around on the bike for best traction is seen as a ‘pain in the ar5e’?

Some of my local stuff is now so muddy that you have to pedal down the hills too. Properly a pita. The wet added to folk getting out anyway as it is ‘summer’ means that some of the bridle ways hereabouts are actually in worse nick than they would be in winter.

MM sounds exceptional I don’t think I would have enjoyed it.

But in general, it’s not going away so I say adapt and ride. Changing tyres for the season doesn’t work in our variable climate, I’m now looking at building an SS with Mud X on it and using that for wet days (year round). Tyres and gears are what make mud riding difficult.

Let’s not forget that prior to April we had 18 mostly dry months.

Mud has it’s place, it’s called the winter I’m sorry having it stretch from April to mid July is just not acceptable.

I think we need a change of government or religion – whatever.

Part of the fun, the downside is the extra faffing and cleaning up time involved.

I’d rather be riding dry trails but given the choice of mud or no riding I’ll be the one with a mud filled grin on my face.

Sometimes I’ll take a rigid SS out and go blast wet fireroads to avoid the worst of the mud (and prevent cutting up trails), but usually I just go with whatever I think is most suitable for where I want to ride that day.

Singlespeed with all round tyres and avoid the more natural trails and stick to the ‘paths’ that have either been built 000’s of years ago, or so well used over 000’s of years they’ve turned to bedrock. Riding soil based trail in this weather is pointless, it’d be quicker to walk them and just ruins them turning singletrack into a 8ft wide rut as each successive rider searches for a wider and wider dry line. So pick a bike that doesn’t wear out and trails likewise to avoid the mud for the benifit of bike and trail.

I’ve actualy got 3 bikes for verying levels of shitty weather, rigid sinlespeed for the utterly crap weather, ‘hardcore hardtail’ for days when it’s 50/50, and the FS for days when the trails are actualy running fast enough for it to be worth while!

This year I’ve also ridden more trail centers at weekends rather than suffering for 6 hours in the mud I’ll just do a 3 hour trail center ride folowed by a couple of hours on the road to get the hours in and keep a base of fitness. And taken up jogging during the week rather than evening rides.

I just ride the less muddier stuff and mix it up with cycle routes, country lanes etc to keep up the miles and fitness.

Riding is riding for me. no matter when, where or on what surface and it all gets done on the same bike.

I have even started to commute on longer distances. If its going to a full on wet summer I just hope that we get a dry autumn and winter!

I have picked up a nasty habit of looking through the window and seeing all the rain and then giving the ride a miss!

No problems with mud when going out on my own for a local ride, but like to get out with family one day per weekend: missus and kids (12 and 15) all keen bikers.

It’s just such a ballache getting home to have to clean up 4 bikes and 4 sets of kit, wash 4 lots of clothes then get it all dry. Then pull the bikes out again the next day to lube the chains a bit more for those bits that, irrespective of how careful I am, have been missed by lubejob 1.

Plus, if we’ve driven to ride rather than do local stuff, the car needs a bit of a wipe over so it doesn’t look like I’ve been keeping cattle in it.

When I was biking in Oz I was always complemented on my ability to ride the muddy bits.
Its what we are good at.
Ps buy some bloody cyclo cross tyres!

Im lucky to have the choice of 2 bikes, full sus, fuul rigid. Full rigid will be out tonight, esp as rain is forecast and im in the mood for getting soaked without getting hypothermia like you would in winter. 😀

I just get on with it… change of clothes and a van or external bike rack essential though.

So I’m looking at building an SS for the sloppy days … but I’m not totally sure about rigid forks vs sus. Am I going to get shaken to bits? I can see myself dropping a hundred quid on carbon then regretting it.

Our trails are forest: mostly rooty not rocky.

Whaddyareckon?

Make peace with the mud.. its going to be here for a long time. If the jet stream stays with us.. so will the mud. There s no answer to how long this could be. MTFU and be sensible about where you ride and get organised and efficient at your cleanup routine. Or just move further towards the equator.

A lot of the local trails are simply not rideable when wet, alot can be ridden but doing so causes so much damage it isn’t worth it.

So rapidly come to the point why bother riding off road. As for driving somewhere else? expensive and goes against most of the reasons why i actually ride a bike.

I don’t mind a bit of mud if the ground is wet, but our local spot is so waterlogged now it’s a pointless exercise. It’s worse now than it was all winter.

I tend to ride MTB a lot less in winter, because bikes live in the house so need to be clean. Therefore the post ride cleanup operation can be a little tedious week in, week out. I don’t really want to do it all summer as well, so the riding has suffered this year, which is annoying.

Thankfully i’ve been out on the road bike a fair bit so fitness hasn’t suffered, even if my sanity has.

Am I going to get shaken to bits? I can see myself dropping a hundred quid on carbon then regretting it.

Buy a 2nd hand steel fork for £30 then…

You will get more shaken about than on a suspension fork, but you won’t have to stop and clear the mud from the fork brace just to get the wheel to turn.

Sometimes you just have to embrace the mud, and to be honest, it’s usually how much damage I will do to my kit that limits my desire to ride than how wet and dirty I will get myself. I now have proper mud tyres and a rigid fork for my hardtail which are easily swapped on (and are left on right now!) for riding nasty mud, and it makes a difference to my desire to ride in it knowing I’m not destroying my expensive suspension forks.

Oh, and as proved again at 24/12 this weekend, Singlespeed (or at least 1×9/10/Alfine/Rohloff) is vastly superior to having any kind of front mech and multiple chainrings.

So how do you view a muddy ride?

I buy biscuits and count the days.

mattjg – Member
So I’m looking at building an SS for the sloppy days … but I’m not totally sure about rigid forks vs sus. Am I going to get shaken to bits? I can see myself dropping a hundred quid on carbon then regretting it.

Our trails are forest: mostly rooty not rocky.

Whaddyareckon?

Get a steel fork like a Salsa or Surly. In my experience both of these will have more give than carbon and cost a lot less. If you’re building a bike for snotty conditions then a little extra weight is hardly a major issue. A biggish front tyre will help.

mud? – i hate it.

i’ve got thousands of other things to do*, i’ll ride when it’s dried out a bit…

i’m old, i’ve served my time out in the filth.

(*road riding for example, and tarmac only needs a few hours and a little wind/sun to dry out nicely)

Around here we seem to have a lot of stables, and all the horse riders seem determined to turn every bridleway in the area into a recreation of the Somme. Unfortunately because of the clay soil the churned up bits are unbelievably claggy, and even when everywhere else has dried up, you end up walking about half your ride because it is impossible to pedal through for more than a few yards. Then if they do eventually dry out you find yourself shaken to pieces over hundreds of rock solid, foot deep, hoof prints.

The bits where the horses don’t go are fine, and the mud and puddles are quite enjoyable, occasionally. Would be nice to see some dry trails at some point this summer though.

Steel forks more flexy than carbon? Hadn’t realised that. (The extra weight isn’t an issue for me.)

I love it , it changes a trail like nothing else and I enjoy the challenge of it .

It’s crap. Local trails are beyond winter conditions and are a proper mess. Long loops are now 2x the ride-time. But the upside is I’ve found more dirt track / bridleways that drain better and may be able to piece together a 4-5 hour off-road-roadie loop soon.

Getting the road bike out again after a long MTB-only phase too.

I really, deeply, badly miss fast, dry singletrack though (

Or just move further towards the equator.

This.

This is my plan.. 8)

On the upside, you can now use the hosepipe to wash your bike down.

All of you just MTFU….this is Britain…

amen teamslug

if we want to live in a “green and pleasant land”, it’s gotta rain

All of you just MTFU….this is Britain…

or

just move further towards the equator.

decisions, decisions…

Ride a simple bike. Lower tyre pressures. Set up to slide a bit in corners. Avoid bridle ways. Garden hose to Wash the bike down.That’s it.

It’s OK.. but there are limits to how many days running.

I now can’t ride as both my pairs of footwear are currently drowned and showing no inclination to dry out anytime soon

the 5-10’s are still riidculously wet from Saturday !!!

Light the fire to put your shoes in front of or buy a shoe drying cabinet

Ride on road more, I find very little mud there.
Ok, not as much fun as the mountain bike, but at least I’m still getting out & not destroying kit as quickly.

We went over the Wyre Forest on Sunday, . . it was horrific . . . but fun all the same!

It was made easier by my 29er, no specific mud tyres either . . . but i wouldn’t like to do it every week. Its the cleaning and wear and tear on the bike that puts me off more than anything . . . .

It certainly sharpens the skills!!

I don’t normally mind mud and ride all year normally but I am getting bored of the stuff now, I am starting to skip rides as I cba to clean the bike and my gear for the umpteenth time partly because living in a flat makes it an absolute pain to wash the bike on return.

I’m also a little concerned about the state of some of the local routes as a good percentage of the ‘mtfu’ brigade seem to be taking ever larger diversions around puddles while the horsey lot seem keen to recreate scenes from the first world war.

Tend to use trail centres when its muddy, they tend to have good all weather surfaces. Wet but not too muddy.

Cant see the point in wearing out large amounts of expensive bike for little pleasure.

I’m not a fan of the mud. It’s slow, it’s a bike killer, it’s hours of tidying and cleaning, it’s not fun.

I just find other things to do. The bikes can take the summer off if this is it for a while.

Cant see the point in wearing out large amounts of expensive bike for little pleasure.

This +1,

Swinley – gets trashed and ruins bikes
Chilterns – remains rideable, kind on bikes
Peaks – remainds rideable, ruins bikes
Trail Centers – remain rideable and kind on bikes

I just don’t bother so much with night/evening rides when it’s this crap and save it for days out. I’d easily ruin £40+ of stuff riding a local loop, so use it as an excuse to go somewhere new and burn that money in petrol rather than bike parts.

Rigid ss for the filth this will be perfect £450

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nzrich/sets/72157630270177164/

I tend to avoid mud.

But I’d never criticise those who ride in mud FOR riding in mud cos of some “ruining the trail” nonsense. They’re so into MTB-ing they’ll ride in horizontal rain up to the spindles in goo, and I won’t. I can live with it.

(And they’re obviously perverts.)

S’funny I ride all year regardless of what the weather’s doing with gears,suspension,for several hours at a time & it hasn’t worn out every component on my bike & doesn’t take hours to clean either…Seems like some people are just looking for excuses not to get dirty to me……..