Seems at this time of year every time you pic a mtb publication, you are hit with titles such as ” Your best winter ever ” or “riding in the mud improves your skills and is more fun than summer “

Bollocks.

Been to my local spot this morning, i am not a fair weather rider, i ride year round. It was axle deep in some places, slippery roots and rocks as far as the eye can see, and its just crap.

2hrs riding, 2 hrs cleaning the bike and the dog.

roll on the spring and dry trails.

rant over.

+1

I hate riding in mud. It’s rubbish

dislike the first 20 minutes whilst i find my groove.

LOVE the rest of the ride, back wheel sliding all over the place, puddles everywhere… great fun!

I’m doing it every day at the moment.It takes me 10-15 minutes longer to get to work and last nights ride home was fun, I’m sure my front wheel was going sideways a lot of the time.

Hub gears or single speed are the way to go in the mud.

Should have been at the first Welsh XC series race – it was mainly a run, then they lost the results!

Not a good start for the Welsh XC scene.

I’ll be at the next two races mind.

Went for a lap of the local forest route on saturday morning after we had quite a big storm on friday night, axle deep in mud made it almost impossible keep any speed up and then when you got to a section that had been “properly built” it had mostly gave way and washed away so it was like riding in the middle of a river

2 hours riding for a route that should take no more than 90mins and i think i shortened my drivetrain / brake life by several months! haha

FFS, MTFU or go play indoor bowls!

Mud lets you appreciate those lovely dry summer trails, mud improves your balancing skills & fitness.
Stop whining.

Mud’s fine by me but I am looking forward to some time on drier, faster trails. We had a taste of that a week or so back when the rain held off for nearly a fortnight.

I still enjoy it – it’s still bike riding, innit?

Road bikes and Turbo trainers FTW!

FTW maybe. Not for the fun 😉

Actually incorrect, turbo training (HIIT) is a real buzz IMO.

I went out on the MTB on Sunday, literally forced myself out in the rain whilst occasionally enjoyable overall it was **** shit.

Going over the bars into a hawthorn bush did not help.

I don’t like being bogged down by mud. I quite enjoy slipperiness on moderate downhills. But steep slippery trails frighten me.

I’d probably enjoy it more if I used proper off-season tyres.

Slogging through deep mud on XC routes is just unpleasant hard work but a muddy descent can be fantastic, the mini dh at innerleithen was like that at the weekend, some parts were pretty damn slimy (and the course constantly evolving too due to the wet) and it was great fun. Bit difficult, and a bit scary at times but getting used to being a wee bit out of control is definately a useful thing for riding.

Did HTN last weekend, Mud everywhere, Bike dead. Loved every minute of It.

Not into mud, also not into **** up the trails.

I also hate riding in mud. However it’s better than not riding at all 🙂

And you can mitigate it depending on where you live. In winter I choose certain areas that are more rocky and less gloopy, greasy or claggy.

To be honest, a lot of it is the way it messes up my bike. Perhaps a belt driven Rohloff hardtail is in order 🙂

grumm

Not into mud, also not into **** up the trails.

don’t ride at all then? surely any corrosion be it by foot, paw, hoof, tyre or weather is bad for the trails…

😕

aye, riding in the wet/cold/mud/winter/etc. is rubbish.

so for 3ish months over winter i mostly don’t really ride the mountain bike, and re-discover my love of road riding, swimming, running, bouldering, diy, reading a book, messing around with the gheetar, catching up with old friends, etc, etc.

if life offers you a cup of cold sick, say ‘no thanks’.

The level of enjoyment all depends on the sort of mud.

Had some great rides this week in loose and slippery mud – lots of sideways action and a few proper sphincter tightening moments on muddy descents.

Not so much fun though the week before. Had to carry the bike through 3 fields of sticky clay mud which locked both wheels solid and made riding impossible. Got to the other side seeing the funny side with both feet looking like the elephant hidden by huge balls of clay.

i dont mind the mud when im riding it is the clean up afterwards,

even the road bike at this time of year, needing to clean it after every ride to get rid of all the corrosive shite, bring on the spring and summer and the simple of joy of being able to put the bike in the garage straight after a ride!

I love riding proper mud

“**** up the trails.”

Yeah I generally leave it to hikers to do that 🙁 They persist in going around puddles and boggy bits instead of going straight through or avoiding those trails completely. We could do with more rocky trails around here. I’m hoping this will help:

The Mendip Hills AONB Unit is taking positive action to manage Black Down and Burrington Ham to achieve a balance between protecting the site and ensuring people can continue to enjoy it.
In the last year the AONB Unit has consulted with a wide range of site users and organisations, completed a study on repair and restoration of paths on Black Down and Burrington Ham and produced an Archaeological Management Plan for the site. In November an application was submitted to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for a grant of £290,300 for a three-year project entitled “Conserving Black Down”.

The grant, if awarded, will fund:
• A programme of path repair and erosion works;
• Interpretation and information for visitors;
• Community involvement;
• A project officer for 3 years.

The AONB Partnership must contribute of £50,000 in cash support and coordinate £48,000 of in-kind support through volunteer time.
The HLF decision will be known in March 2011.

don’t ride at all then? surely any corrosion be it by foot, paw, hoof, tyre or weather is bad for the trails…

Yeah but normally the effect is pretty minimal. I’ve seen paths get messed up pretty badly very quickly when they’re muddy.

Plus dogs don’t drag their back brakes all the way down a muddy slope, cutting it up and making it worse with every passing dog. Not that all MTBers do that, but enough do. Well, the brakes and wheels thing, not using dogs to slow them down.

Prefer a sunny winters day on the beach 😮

083 by coastkid71, on Flickr

so its not normal to drag a dog down a trail as a back brake?

perhaps i do need that jedi training day sooner rather than i thought 😯

So in summary: It can be crap, but sometimes it’s fun.

And you can’t say it’s crap or you’re not a proper mountain biker.

What tyres for dragging a dog down a muddy slope?

lee – would that be thunton by any chance?

z1ppy – Member
FFS, MTFU or go play indoor bowls!

Mud lets you appreciate those lovely dry summer trails, mud improves your balancing skills & fitness.
Stop whining.

I’m guessing that you live in the SE of England, not somewhere with proper weather like Wales. 😆

The last time I saw a dry dusty trail was last May/early June, 8 or 9 months ago!

Most of us down here just get on with the riding through the year – if we waited for ‘lovely dry summer trails’ we’d never ride.

nope, W. Mids (just over the border really), so we get your left over weather… I’ve been to Wales plenty of times (it my favorite place to ride) and ridden on dusty track, so don’t give me that rubbish 😉

so we get your left over weather

Exactly – we get the rain, you get the ummmmmm, ‘not rain’! 😀

I’ve been to Wales plenty of times (it my favorite place to ride) and ridden on dusty track, so don’t give me that rubbish

I don’t think MTBs had got to Wales in 1976, the last occasion of a dusty trail.

well you do a might damned fine job of keep the rain off the midland then, we appreciate your efforts! 😆

Just for IdleJon a bit of sun in Wales isn’t it. 😉

2010_0627rhayadersunnyweekend0012 by singlespeedstu, on Flickr

2010_0627rhayadersunnyweekend0006 by singlespeedstu, on Flickr

‘Tis quite rare though.

Thank you singlespeedstu. I remember days like that from my childhood!

On a serious note, which route around Rhayader was that? I’ll be riding up there in a few weeks with a few friends and we are trying to find the best trails..

Love mud. Going out to look for some in half an hour.

The first pic is above Garreg Ddu and the second pic is climbing the golf links.

Some fantastic routes round there. 😀

If you follow the singletrack in the first pic you get to ride down this.

It’s **** steep at the top. 😯

Freemincinglite by sheldonattwood, on Flickr

carbon337 – yeah buddy. was that you reading the paper instead of riding your bike ? im gonna try rothbury tomorrow