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The stats aren't everything. January to March might have had low rainfall but in those months it is so cold that it takes about 3 weeks of no rain to even get close to drying out trails, while in late March and April where it is warm enough for the trails to dry out relatively quickly, it has rained so hard that they haven't had a chance.
This thread is making me very sad ☹️
I could easily be wrong but I'm sure I checked last week and we were only at average rainfall for a few months.
Don't believe it.
Perception, it seems like it's constantly raining because you only remember the bad stuff.
Looking back on Strava and photos I've had quite a few nice rides this year. Peaks for example at the weekend was surprisingly good around ladybower.
Whoever said above muddy rides are fun. No they're not! When you have to pedal downhill...
Weirdly just over the border in Calderdale, it's been drier than normal, I'd say, It's wet on the tops fp'shure, but I've down so pretty dry rides recently, and now the trees are getting going it's drying out pretty well.
I'm with scotroutes - nothing unusual here in Edinburgh ( he is much further north). I commute by bike and only been rained on once so far this year.
Keep / put mudguards on and just ride.
Luckily I live in an area that is mostly pebblebed heath and sandy earth. After 3 days of dry weather last week it was almost dusty in places 😉
But you're right it does feel like it never stops raining. We normally get a nice dry spell in Feb/March, but not so this year. I'm praying for a dry May/June, as I'm away camping once or twice.
Mudguards on the bike (fork crown, down-tube and rear) became my norm a few years ago. It may look silly to some, but I don't look like I've shat my guts after a ride unlike some of my more 'on trend' friends.
I wear full mudguards, problem is I take them off when I go to Spain then have to put them back on when I come back to England. Similarly if we get a good month of dry riding in the UK I'm always tempted to take them off only to soon put them back on again. Its a lot of faff.
Whoever says muddy rides are fun. Cleaning is not fun. The more mud, the more cleaning there is afterwards. Servicing the bike is not fun. More mud means more servicing.
As for the actual riding in mud ?Pedalling really hard just to move at 6mph on the flat is not fun. Having to get off and walk uphill due to lack of rear wheel traction is not fun. Walking into a pub mid ride covered in shit is not fun. Everything about mud is not fun, it only spoils things.
I was just about the comment on 2007 (I don’t think 2008 was much better?)
I remember summer 2006 being blazing, we we’re heading out at 5am to beat the heat, but ‘07 was horrific, I remember we had a nice Spring but sometime in May is started to rain and it didn’t stop till Oct, every single day the best you could hope for was drizzle. Even Afan where riders used to head to escape the mud had problems with lumps of trail falling away from the hillside.
im not sure winter was especially bad this year, it’s just gone on forever, this time last year the trees were green and it was warm-ish and sunny, this year and it’s only just starting to Spring.
OP - you seem a bit of a glass half empty guy, if you don't mind me saying. Right now I'm looking out of the window and the forecast and getting excited about the prospect of good weather 'just around the corner', you're still thinking about how rainy it was last year.
It's felt like a longish winter mainly because it dragged on through March with some proper winter weather, whereas last year it was dusty by mid-March.
Leaves are appearing now, which means transpiration is starting properly, and the ground will dry out fast once that happens, and dry out faster in between rainy days.
Enjoy!
West of Scotland natural stuff has been pretty normal last 9 months. As said earlier, forecast here is settling and some dry trails beckon.
Off to Cairngorm this weekend too 🙂
Is there a good site for looking up monthly averages compared with historical data for an area. I tried to look up Aberdeenshire but had to use various sites and all I could really ascertain was that February was a bit colder than average this year. No surprise there then 🙂
Isn't this the new normal now. As the planet warms up we will get wetter winters as the warm air holds more moisture.
So generally its going to get worse.
Bit of a problem with "9 months mud": if you bike more than 8 months in mud you will get sick as soon the first good weather pops up.
So if we reached the 8 month (is this the case?) .... - better stay with the mud then...
I wear full mudguards, problem is I take them off when I go to Spain then have to put them back on when I come back to England. Similarly if we get a good month of dry riding in the UK I’m always tempted to take them off only to soon put them back on again. Its a lot of faff.
Any mudguard that takes more than 1min to install on an mtb can gtf.
Yep I remember 2007-2008 when winter lasted forever. Round here (just over the tops from Calderdale) it's been just as bad for months, dries out sometimes, sure but not really for long - and the water plus fine sandstone is a bike killer. ANd the lack of sunshine is doing my head in too.
But.. inspired by Rachel Sokal's piece a couple of weeks ago https://singletrackworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/spring-forth-and-leave-the-doldrums-of-winter-behind/ I've decide to get out the old trailrakers and embrace the mud and crap while it's still here, taking a few shorter rides and exploring the odd track I've been meaning to for ages
weather forecast for next week looks fantastic!
Well Monday was ok in the Yorkshire Dales.
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I need to get some better mud tyres - haven't really had any since going tubeless and finding Trailrakers were warned against. Although now I have Hans Dampfs on the Patriot I am feeling better about mud.
Problem is that a key trail on my local loops is now so soft it's barely passable, that needs working around.
Which way did you go up/down Weets, Pennine? Ground conditions?
I need to get some better mud tyres
Try Bontrager XR4 Teams. They seem to offer a decent compromise.
Last night in The South Downs was the worst mud I’ve experienced in 12 years. However, it’s not entirely weather related. When I first moved here it was mostly arable and the ‘shared’ tracks saw little farm traffic during winter and spring. A change of ownership has seen the entire area barbed wired and it’s now all livestock. The subsequent increase in huge tractor movements and rainfall run off from cut up fields has destroyed the tracks. The moment you pass through onto a no vehicle bridleway it becomes hard pack again.
it really boils my piss that farmers who have exclusive use of hundreds of square miles of fields choose to drive on the tiny tiny proportion that everyone else has access too and effectively destroy it without consequence. Farmers round here are miserable a holes with zero thought for anyone else they’re forced to share ‘their’ land with.
aaaaand done.
MH: I came down from Weets. My thinking being it would be a wet grind going up! The grassy lower half was wet but managed to ride over all those cross channels albeit never quite knowing if the front wheel would dig in. The gravel track surface has been repaired too (easier climb from reservoir). Having said that it's been raining since then!!
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im not sure winter was especially bad this year, it’s just gone on forever, this time last year the trees were green and it was warm-ish and sunny, this year and it’s only just starting to Spring.
^^ This is where i am at, sure there have been some nice crisp frosty ride swhere the trials where firm...but this was swiftly followed by more snow than we've seen for years. Below is a picture from last weeks ride, landscape still looks locked into winter,,. it was very wet and not very spring like. Give us some sun ya bastard.
it really boils my piss that farmers who have exclusive use of hundreds of square miles of fields choose to drive on the tiny tiny proportion that everyone else has access too and effectively destroy it without consequence. Farmers round here are miserable a holes with zero thought for anyone else they’re forced to share ‘their’ land with.
back in my late teens used to work on a farm and we were encouraged to "chew up" any public access paths as to quote my boss "keeps the riffraff out"
My thinking being it would be a wet grind going up!
I've ground up it a few times this winter out of necessity, expecting it to be drying out by now is perhaps a bit optimistic.
I think partly its just this time of year, isn't it? Couple of nice days reminds us that spring and summer are coming, and we forget too soon that we'll still get rainy days and overcast. Plus everyone's had enough of winter, the clocks have gone forward, just seems unfair when the rain still comes down.
I just want some sun and warmth. As others have said now the trees etc are coming into leaf a bit of sun and a breeze will dry things out quickly. Water shortages by end of May 😉
Far too much rain, months and months of the damn stuff. The odd good day here and there, and I have had some fun muddy rides but on the whole its been grim and way too long.
Have been trying to avoid the local trails to preserve them (Ambergate, around & about), and the only trail centre within an hours drive is Cannock which I enjoy riding but I don't have much motivation to make the journey again and again.
Commuting in to Derby there are now many new lakes appearing in fields. The swans and ducks that have taken up residence seem to be enjoying themselves at least!
Last night's ride was so wet and muddy it actually became amusing. The week-in, week-out routine of slogging and cleaning is starting to get a bit wearing.
On the point of farmers, there is one on my local Saturday ride who has fenced a right of way into, effectively, a stream. The field that people were previous able to cut out the stream by crossing about ten metres up the hill is not used for anything.
Luckily some of the more militant users have 'adapted' the shiny new barbed wire fence with judicious use of wire cutters, pipe lagging and insulation tape.
Oh, and amusingly on last night's ride......
Just as we were doing the last little bit in the woods before dropping into the pub our path was blocked by a lone Canada Goose. Clearly disorientated, it seemed to be mistaking deciduous woodland for wetland habitat!
If I head out on my local loop, will the boggy bit be rideable?
The regularity of the rain rather than the total amount does seem to be the issue. Here in soggy Cardiff I think there was one dry-ish spell some time in the Autumn when the trails got reasonable, then it was back to rain every week, normally just enough to top things up. There are places to ride, but it is getting a bit of a drag.
Perception, it seems like it’s constantly raining because you only remember the bad stuff.
If you mean it’s all in my head, then no! I can assure you it’s all in my shoes. And socks. Lots of water, every ride. 😁
On the plus side, it's dry today, it likely to be dry until Sunday, Sunday's only got a bit of light rain and by Wednesday it's going to be 18c and Sunny!
We'll all be moaning about blown out dusty trails by next week, maybe 😉
It's been peeing down and foggy on and off all week here 🙁 Everywhere's bloody soaking. Meh.
Last three years I’ve photos of these trails. Bone dry under warm skies. Today 7.5 degrees, raining, epic mud worse than mid winter and not a lot of grip
[url= https://farm1.staticflickr.com/886/26541818537_9d69060de0_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm1.staticflickr.com/886/26541818537_9d69060de0_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/GrpKWZ ]Spring trails[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/alexleigh/ ]Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://farm1.staticflickr.com/873/40698850284_3aec2e9c00_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm1.staticflickr.com/873/40698850284_3aec2e9c00_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/251qfgf ]Spring trails[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/alexleigh/ ]Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://farm1.staticflickr.com/871/26542061727_c2099feb3b_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm1.staticflickr.com/871/26542061727_c2099feb3b_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/Grr1eV ]Spring Trails[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/alexleigh/ ]Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr
Good to get back out on the hardtail. Ankle after three months recovery seems to be okay with that. Rest of me a bit grumpy!
Second pic up ^^ there. Same trail a year ago. Nearly to the day:
[url= https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5691/33218682083_c5d66a97e4_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5691/33218682083_c5d66a97e4_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/SBqqRZ ]A tale of two chubbies! Penyard MTB[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/alexleigh/ ]Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr
Yeah - it's pretty shit out there....
[url= https://farm1.staticflickr.com/890/39604200070_7fa89cd24f_h.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm1.staticflickr.com/890/39604200070_7fa89cd24f_h.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/23kFSTG ]P1050036[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/druidh2000/ ]Colin Cadden[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://farm1.staticflickr.com/887/39604206930_f1473d1c3c_h.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm1.staticflickr.com/887/39604206930_f1473d1c3c_h.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/23kFUVY ]P1050025[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/druidh2000/ ]Colin Cadden[/url], on Flickr
Stay away in case you get a bit muddy
great landscape in those pics, that's a bit better than whats on my doorstep (Rivington)
I have 3 bikes I can commute on. Part of my commute is through some muddy woods.
Bike 1. Fat bike. Only bike that can get up the slippery slope. Goes sideways through mud patches at speed.
Bike 2. Full sus 26 with Bonty Muds. Won’t get up the slope and goes slightly sideways.
Bike 3. Rigid 26 with cyclo cross tyres. Won’t get up the slope but cuts through mud like you won’t believe and no sliding.
I urge everyone to get some cross tyres. They are amazing. Crap on roots and rocks.
I've been up Rivington this evening, it was drying out quite well.
Get on it!
I hope next weeks weather forecast is right
It must have been a boom time for the sales of Mudhuggers (other mud guards are available...). I've managed to ride all through it once or twice per week. Mixing up the trail centres and local rockier trails is always fun (especially when it would have been possible to descend those rockier trails in a kayak!).
Even my GX 12spd has coped!
The snow was great for a laugh, the frozen days on top the Beacons/Black Mountains were incredible.
The drainage in the lower field needs sorting.
But I still can't wait for that feeling where you get back from a ride, chuck the bike in the shed, take a seat on garden furniture that hasn't been blown 400m across a field and crack open a nice cool cider.
Nearly there boys and girls, nearly there...