[Closed] Current poll : What puts you off mountain biking more in winter the most?

It's not on Ski Sunday.

On the subject of cleaning I put my piglet away caked in gunk last week cleaned it today it's been nagging me for days. Dog poo in the dark is never a winner.

Mud, every time I ride through mud it manages to jam the piston on my front disc brake. So it's like riding through glue due to binding so your stopping every 10 mins to center the caliper, use a screw driver (kept in camelback) to push the piston Back. I'm hoping a upgrade to deore disc brakes will cure this as the standard cannondale brakes are shite.

The cold gives me horrendous ear ache and I hate having to scrape mud off, wash and lube the chain.

Road bike, dry with towel, lube the chain done.

Love winter riding, hate the kit cleaning considering the bikes live in my spare bedroom in a 3rd floor flat. Said bedroom is also the workshop and has beige carpet 🙁

Darkness. Am I the only one?

Wet puts me off, but I will go if it's my only time-slot available. Relentless minor bugs/illnesses stop me going out though, so they probably top the list.

Hate riding off road in the dark 🙁 Don't mind the cold and mud, but negotiations with MrsTaxi about cleaning gear is a pain. Did I mention the on off chest infection since November.

Dark nights don't bother me, the cold doesn't, mud doesn't. I have the cleaning process down pat, don't really mind it.

But.. It's the dark mornings. I really, really struggle to wake up in time to ride to work and end up driving far more than I would like. Really puts me in a bad mood!

scotroutes - Member
Cleaning? I find the bike strays pretty clean in winter. Get home, shake snow off, put in garage to drip dry.

TBH, I think the whole premise of the poll is wrong.

I agree.

Winter is the very best time to be out on a mountainbike IMO. No trail is the same from one day to the next. The scenery is always different too.

If you don't like muck or cleaning, mudguards.

I prefer winter riding but shoulder injuries and cold temps

meh 🙁

for me its the cold. dont mind the minimal cleaning of rigid ss, but i suffer from bad circulation, my hands and feet are always freezing, even after a 20yr constant quest to find the warmest gloves and boots.

hate hate hate being cold.

changing into clean clothes in pub car park to go in the pub after a ride, its always a faff and i am always last, other than that its all good
as the saying goes " there is no bad weather just bad clothes"

so i go out in all weathers dont care in the slightest, but i do have the right clothes,

wet shoes

A) the cleaning, the endless cleaning.

B) riding through mud is crap.

Colds have definitely been the kicker this year.

And the dark. I don't mind riding in the dark, but being organised enough to have fully charged light batteries at all times is an issue.

It's cleaning the bike after the rain and mud that puts me off, but I ride more road anyway nowadays.

This winter it has been a combination of back problems, family commitments and a general "can't be arsed-ness" that is bordering on a mental health condition

Dark. Just does nothing for me really when riding on my own, I've not done a single solo dark ride and in all honest don't expect to. I'm lucky with quite a bit of WFH time and weekends I can still get a bit of riding in the daylight.

I actually ride more in winter but thats more to do with the climate here, was back in the UK over Christmas and seeing MTBers going about their business dressed head to toe in cloths made me realize I don't miss the UK winter one iota.

cold, wet and dark

Happy to ride in any two of the above whatever the condition of the trails, all three is too much.

Another vote for being Wet after a really bad trip to Llandegla and the final mayhem at Eastnor one year, I've never really managed to get back the enthusasim to push though the rain knowing there'll be some good bits.

To be honest this also applies to summer I just know it will be worse in winter.

Ice. On a short road section between singletrack last Jan, a mate slipped in front on me and broke his pelvis in 5-6 places 🙁

Mud and the dark for me. It's not as much fun if you can't give it the full beans and all my riding is done between 6 and 8:30 in the morning.

I also just generally don't like getting filthy for some reason.

It's a matrix, but. . .

1. Cold at night. In summer I will happily put in a few night rides after work, have lights, will ride. In winter it is a different matter.

2. Things wearing out all the time - chains, bearings, everything seems to need more fettling. Seem to need to sort something at least once a month.

3. The rain. I can happily continue a ride in the wet for hours, but unless I'm meeting a buddy I won't tend to start a solo. Just haven't the will power.

Like most here, it's the amount of additional faff that goes with riding at this time of year. Living in the Chilterns / Ashridge area it gets really wet and muddy around here in the winter. A ride at this time of year is generally followed by having to clean/dry out a load of clothing and a bike to de-gunge and lube.

I generally ride rigid single speed in the winter but I'm not one of those people who can just put the bike away filthy and get it out again for the next ride still filthy. I like my bike to be clean, shiny, running smoothly and quietly at the beginning of each ride. It may not stay that way for long but that's the way I want it to start out.

For me it's the cold and the faff associated with keeping warm

Don't mind the actual weather or the conditions or the maintenance etc but I find battling against the cold a real chore

Is this sad?

At least during the week, I tend not to ride because I can get better results (fitness wise) by an hour and a half on the turbo. There's no cleaning, no extra kit to worry about and it is all over and done with once I have finished. For some reason, night rides have just lost their appeal atm.

At weekends, it is back out on the trails...or the road, seldom the turbo.

Only really 2 things for me- I hate the running noses/streamy eyes, really annoys me beyond all reason. And damage to trails, riding something you rode in the summer and discovering it's now a 3 metre wide swamp.

But nothing really puts me off other than really high wind or bad rain.

Ice, I was out Sunday for the first day since New Years Day - I'd been side-lined due to sickness and mechanical dramas - I bitched when I left the house and it was -2, I bitched some more when I met up with my Mate to truck-share, I moaned when we arrived and suggested the Café looked nice - but none of these things will actually stop me riding - there's a process to go through, moan, moan, moan - ride anyway, finish and be glad I did because I had a great time.

Ice changes all that, I'm a coward, I know I am - the last time I stacked it badly I didn't work for 9 months and ride for about a year - but it's no excuse, it was 5 years ago - I've built up my confidence in the dry, it took me 2 winters to go over Mud, honestly I love a muddy day now sliding the back out - but Ice, no, never going to happen I hate it - but worse still in inconsistent ice - Afan at the weekend from 95% clear (although I'm told there was Snow on the Glyncorrwg side) but the bits that weren't were lethal - around every blind corner were frozen solid puddles of bitterness ready to throw you at the scenery breaking every bone in your body on the way - bastard stuff.

I'll be back at it on Sunday though, moaning all the way down and all the way home - like I say, I like to moan and it's a process - 60 days till spring.

60 days till spring.

Anyway colds (also had the on-off chest infection since the beginning of Dec), starting in the rain and ice will mean I shall wander down to my man cave to sit on the turbo trainer and do some circuit training (which is why I built it last autumn). As the past 2 winters of rain and snow meant I lost so much fitness I never really got fit for summer.

HIGH WIND

I hate it

I do go out but tend to hide in the woods out the wind
Ice is not nice but it tests the sense of balance

When it is cold but crisp and sunny i will ride both road and MTB, in fact its beautiful.

However, when it is cold, wet, windy (is there anything worse than a persistent headwind?!), muddy, zero traction etc then i happily put the bikes away for weeks on end until the next run of nice dry winter days.

I hate cleaning the MTB and hate creating a load of washing when i have to chuck on loads of different layers and items to ride in....much easier to just go to the gym.

Like many on here, I can deal with the cold. In fact, I love the (rare) cold, crisp, frosty days. Sun makes them even better.

I hate the rain and the wet though. I can deal with train if it starts part way through a ride, but I struggle to get motivated to start in the rain. The wet bus me too. Mud I can deal with, but the gritty water that sits all over trail centres is awful. Cannock suffers pretty bad with lakes forming on all the good bits.

The constant cleaning is rubbish too. I do tend to keep my bikes clean - I cant out them away when the drivetrain is grinding. Then there's the cleaning of clothes and trying to dry Five Tens out.

I've not done too badly this winter given us having our first baby in September but I'm struggling to find motivation at the moment. Basically, I'm over winter by the time I get to January...so much so that the turbo is starting to look like a good alternative and I hate that thing.

i love riding in winter, it makes the dry summer days amazing 🙂

Rain.Even though I do ride I can't say I enjoy it.

Nothing.

Thicker socks etc and a good coat keeps the weather off me.
Good lights solve the problem of the dark.
There's often just as much mud in the winter as there is in the summer. The only difference is it turns the drive to an ice-rink when its hosed off the bike.

You can whinge about the problem, or find a solution. Obviously, the best solution would be to move to the Algarve, but the commute would be tricky.

Heavy rain, if riding from home, Don't like wearing waterproofs, at the best of times, so having to a) put them on b) constantly manage temperatures and c) be dripping wet after 200m, is not my idea of fun.
Wind and ice are close seconds but cleaning isn't an issue, it's a given.

Uncoiling the hose to clean the bike, only to find that the hose is frozen.
Drying my 5-10s
Having to shower the dog.

Don't mind doing full day rides in winter, as the riding:cleaning time is more favourable. But quick hour or 2 blasts are out as you get just as filthy as you would in a full day. Recently even the roadie has needed a wash after every ride.

Brake pads wearing out. Hate that feeling when you finish a descent and the brake lever suddenly goes back to the bars and you know that's another £15 down the drain. (Life is better now than it used to be - old Avid juicy pads used to last about 10 mins)

Getting changed into riding kit. My body has a dodgy thermostat. I can be lovely and warm, get changed (at home) into riding kit that's at ambient temp and I'll be shivering within seconds. It'll take half an hour of hard riding to get my core up to operating temp and a further half hour to get the feeling back in my fingers.

Ridng in the rain is never as bad as you expect it to be, but I still hate leaving the house if it's actually raining there and then. Once I'm out and going, it's fine.

Thinking about it - it's becoming an old git that's done me in...
in my 20's & 30's I rode in all weathers
grrrr 👿

Having to wash the bike and kit, still ride almost as much as the summer though, more road admittedly

Cleaning the bike and kit.

all of it really.
crap trails
mud - hard going/transmission and shock wear/cleaning
wind
rain
dark
cold - illness
cold - temperature.
Compared to summer time buff trails shorts and T weather and still light at 9:30pm it's all a bit shit really.

That's not to say I hibernate in winter, but as I do a a reasonable mileage just commuting I'm quite easily put off doing extra evening/weekend rides. Fitness-wise I cope but it just means I don't do a lot of "proper" mtbing in winter. I assume if I didn't commute so much I would try harder to get out.

Winter riding eh? It's all shit.

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the time it takes to get my boots and overshoes on

mud splats on my glasses