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I've always been a fair weather rider until last year and this year, and last year I never seemed to encounter this problem, the only thing I've changed is the tyres from specialized ones to schwalbes. I'm a bigger bloke so run really high psi, would lowering it a bit help?
I did consider trying to pick it all out with a stick but feared I'd be marooned until dark doing so.
The only other thing I've noticed is the horse riders have been out in force and alot of the routes I usually ride are now a churned up quagmire.
So, tips? Is there something I can spray on the sidewalls? 😂
Is it pretty claggy where you are ?
what tyres are they ?
knobs look pretty closely-spaced - you might need more spacing
@scaredypants the back was just as bad as the front but didn't take a pic due to no dramatic slice of mud hanging off it like the front had, schwalbe magic Mary front and a big Betty rear
Full bore mud tyre and as much speed as possible to try and throw off the mud. Lower pressures can help too as the tyre flexes which can also dislodge mud
How many psi are you running?
@mashr thanks, I'll try dropping the psi a bit!
@chiefgrooveguru I'm usually running 37 in the front and 39 in the rear, I'll try dropping to 34 front and 36 rear
If it’s that muddy you can go really low for your weight. I’m only about 12.5 stone but I can be in the high teens psi when it’s like that and I think there’s a bit more chance of dumping the mud as the tyre flexes, plus more grip let’s you ride faster which is the key to clearing the mud. Whereabouts are you?
We had real problems crossing a 'field' last year in the Clwydian range (bridleway) as two of us really suffered clagged up tyres. Just no grip. Fine for the rest of the day.
Pretty standard for around here (Cambridge), sometimes the wheels won’t turn at all and you have to drag the bike along until you hit a drier patch to clear it off, love claggy soil☹️
Top tip is to ride through every puddle rather than round them to clean your tread.
I don't know your weight but the pressures seema little higher than most people I ride with. I am 13.5st and go with 20psi in the front and 23psi in the rear. Reducing it might help a bit as it will allow the tyre to flex more as CGG said. I have only had tyres clag up like that on a really muddy SDW ride, I feel your pain, I couldn't even keep the wheels spinning.
I once had the tyres clog up so bad that not only couldn’t I pedal, I couldn’t push the bike and had to try to carry it, whilst also having almost no grip for walking. And it was about half nine at night on my way home from a mid-winter group ride over the South Downs. Very depressing…
Ride faster? a decade or more ago at some race down south that I was at all the normal folk got clogged up tyres while the racing snakes could go fast enough that tyres cleared
Where I grew up that is totally normal for winter. It's clay and silty soils basically. I used to wonder why people talked about mud tires, when it was clearly gonna make no difference whatsoever. Regularly used to get completely jammed solid and it's hard to get off. Solution was to not ride the claggy clay based trails unfortunately, or at the very least run skinny tires so plenty of clearance
When I was about 13 I had to carry my bike home, 2 miles of misery it was so jammed up.
I’d say that it’s a matter of trail knowledge and avoiding the worst of it. As the winter mud builds up the distance people will drive to Woburn increases
Lower pressures will almost definitely help a bit- the tyre will deform more which helps squish some of the mud off. Not a perfect cure though.
I once had my tyres clag up so bad out in Les Deux Alpes that I had to cut off the mudguards in order to turn the wheels. Luckily, living in a gritstone area we don’t have any of that round here (just drivetrain destroying grit! )
Your bike must bounce down the street like a basketball with those tyre pressures.
I'd half those numbers. Take a pump out and experiment.
Also, it can just be the wrong kind of mud and best avoided.
To clarify regarding the high PSI stuff, I'm 20st 12lbs 😂
2 clem down mind, but just checked on schwalbes pressure professor site and it says I should be running the front at 33 and rear at 34, guess I didn't think a couple of psi would make that much of a difference, I distinctly remember it saying 40 rear and 39 front when I first put them on but I was as said 2 clem heavier then..
Regardless it's clear I'm running too high of a pressure so hopefully if I run them lower I'll be able to shed some mud off and in turn actually get more grip fingers crossed
I usually only find mud is that sticky if there's been a ground frost that has recently thawed. Even a light frost makes things much stickier.
One evening ride last winter I got part way down a short bridleway and both wheels blocked up. I was there in the dark trying to unblock the wheels for probably half hour. Every time I managed to ride a few feet they'd pack up again. Eventually had to forcibly drag a 50lb bike that usually weighed 28 to the nearest road to escape.
As zippykona said...don't mince around the edges of the trail where the mud is sticky, just go full bore and aim for all the puddles!
What compound are they?
I think soft might hold onto mud more, from limited experience. I had an open pattern soft tyre up front and a more closed one on the rear in a hard compound, only the front was clogged up.
I don't think there's a solution for that kind of mud other than to avoid it though.
Your tyres are decent ones for winter tbh - there are more extreme mud tyres but for general riding and in claggy stuff I’m not sure they will clear significantly better for you. <br /><br />
That looks like the type of mud in parts of the Mendips - did a ride last winter and there was one particular Bridleway climb where a mate and I both got to the point the wheels wouldn’t turn properly on our bikes.
I had a Hillbilly on the front (slightly better than a Mary in gloopy mud, but not much in it) and a Dhr2 on the back (similar ish to your Betty - but a little bit less burly). Didn’t clear until we found a downhill ish part of said bridleway and went through a deep puddle that looked suspiciously cow urine coloured (field above had cows on it). <br /><br />
On the pressures you’re a lot heavier then me so hard to compare - but if schwalbe are suggesting low 30’s then have an experiment. Pump based pressure gauges aren’t often that accurate so worth picking up something like an sks air checker for accuracy. I assume you’re running tubeless.
It’s the back where you’re more likely to puncture the tyre if running too low a pressure. If you’re on super gravity casing then you’ll probably fine - even super trail is about 1.2kg though so it’s not a fragile tyre by any means.
"Folks, how do I prevent this? Mud content"
Ride somewhere else!
Maybe ride a different trail or area in that kind of weather. Trail centres are excellent for this over winter. Or get mud tyres.
Move somewhere dry. Colorado, Arizona, Utah are all good.
They actually close the trails around Boulder when it's muddy, which made me laugh when I saw what they were talking about - it would basically be average summer conditions round here, not bone dry but completely normal moisture.
I feel your pain
Pfft, call that mud!?
If it's chalky clay mud like we get around here (N.Hampshire) I'm not sure there's much you can do bar fitting as narrow a tyre as possible (Bonty Mud-X 1.8 for the win!) for maximum clearance before it gets clogged up.
This should have a trigger warning, I'm getting flashbacks to most of the Eastnor Mayhems but particularly 2012.
OP, either embrace the mud or retreat to Zwift. Or move somewhere warmer and drier
Last year, somebody put this up on our CX league facebook page:
(tyres are clean, mind !)
When there is really claggy mud round here I take the gravel bike. Narrower tyres limit how much can cling on and easier to get it sped up and fling it all off when it firms up!
Bonty Mud-X 1.8 for the win!)
If you know of a source I'd be interested to see it
Can we start a petition to get Bontrager to reinstate the mud?
Perfect for gravel riders as well.
There’s a few good technique pointers above which are a good 50% of the solution.
I’ve been watching this thread but holding back on tyre advice cos I’m well out of touch, but actually as everything I’m thinking is coming up I’ve finally reached the conclusion I’m not out of touch, I’m old and wise and my wisdom has been lost to modern mtb’ers.
You need two things in a tyre to clear mud:
Wide spaced nobs
Narrow width
On the wide spaced nobs, yes you can go for a deeply nobbed “mud” tyre, or if you’re just bumbling about like me you’ll get on well with a rocket ron (plenty will tell you I’m mad for riding a ron in winter, but see your OP)
Back in the day we’d switch to narrower tyres in winter, not wider. I’m sure people will be along to dispute this. 2.4” tyres are all well and good, but I used to swap down to <2” tyres to get through the slop.
What’s a gravel bike? (Joke)
Skinny mud tyres are great until you go into the woods and get taken out by all the sniper roots, or if you come across any spiky rocks to knock you off line or hole them.
Top tip - if the trails are really muddy, wait until it’s raining and then go out in the rain or as soon as possible afterwards.
If you know of a source I’d be interested to see it
Alas, no.. I sold my last, lightly-used one on eBay last year.
you need a cx bike. far more fun in mud than a mtb.
Skinny mud tyres are great until you go into the woods and get taken out by all the sniper roots
True, but wide knobbly tyres are all good until you go into the slop and get caked up. Pick one. Unfortunately there’s not really a solution. Technique can really help though with either tyre choice (aka compromise) - rinse and spin.
26 inch Bonty MudX 2" FTW
@frogstomp that picture is ridiculous 🤣 okay you win, not sure how you kept pedalling with that must have made the bike weigh more than double