Is anyone missing driving out to their local riding spot and doing some laps? Lockdown feels like same old again, not much to do. Maybe I just need to sleep on it…

Not the local stuff for me, the bit I am really having an issue with is that I haven’t done an uplift since last November.
didn’t want to over the summer as the risk of spannering myself and ending up in hospital is tolerable in normal times but not covid.
properly miss it

Nope. It’s the weather and work that’s reducing my riding at the moment, lockdown just means I have to do it on my own.

Yeah, did a lot of miles last year, pretty much all local. Bit bored now. So much so I’ve been running!!

didn’t want to over the summer as the risk of spannering myself and ending up in hospital is tolerable in normal times but not covid

Last summer was a great time to end up in hospital in between the waves. 🙄

Yes. I do consider myself very lucky to have riding straight out the door, but its the same old muddy forest tracks. Struggling to motivate. Even started going running just for something different – desperation!

Oh for hills and coast, dry trails and sunshine!

I tend to ride mainly from home anyway so no.

Nah, still decided to pass. Between the waves or not didn’t appeal. Plus sitting in a van with a bunch of randoms didn’t appeal either

A little bit, but its more the weather and the state of the trails rather than lockdown per se …

Yeah. It was fine in the summer as there was plenty of off piste and stuff to explore. That is all a muddy mess now and it’s hardly inspiring out there. Really missing a big day out in the hills as well. Would love to be in the back and beyond of Wales or better still the Alps. Maybe this summer, but not confident

Yes. I do consider myself very lucky to have riding straight out the door, but its the same old muddy forest tracks. Struggling to motivate

A bit of this for me. But countered with a fairly constant appreciation that at least some version of what I want to do is available to me from the door, and it allows me to maintain some fitness and be outdoors, when for so many folks this isn’t the case. Anyway, wherever we are now, here’s hoping we’ll soon be on the way to something better, even if that’s not going to be fast.

There’s so many trails and so much variation here that I rarely travel anywhere else to ride (I actually see this as a fault as I’ve become so lazy). The restrictions have maybe made me more keen to set off and do some exploring again. Even a couple of decent bikepacking trips that get more than 50km away from home would be a real treat.

It ain’t like the last lockdown, purely down to the mserable weather.. yes, the blues. Massively.

If it wasn’t so horrible and muddy round home then I might but, as it is its a blessing. Had some fun while it was frozen last weekend though.

I’ve broken out the kettelbells, resistance bands and yoga instead, when I’m not home schooling my 10 yr old. That, and I love building trails/features and maintaining them, so this weather is a good excuse. Truthfully I just like to be out in the woods, riding, building, walking, drainage or trimming back foliage

Thinking about it, I just love being outside 🙂

Absolutely. It’s properly demoralising.

Usually at this time of year I’m riding as much as I can to give me an early fitness boost, taking in all the local trail centres and the other routes that work well in the wet (thankfully I have a few) but this year I’m stuck on doing Zwift and the local, muddy trails that are churned to crap with everyone else stuck on them too. Doesn’t help that I’m unemployed but have savings to keep me going for a while so in any other year I’d be out there doing a bit of a winter road trip or three. Instead it’s Zwift and trying to resist snacking on crap. I live 20 mins from Cwmcarn, a place I love to ride FFS!

Think everyone is now, weather is bad, trails are trashed, local means limited, lack of riding buddies, meet ups and so on, no uplift stuff, so big days/weekends out are gone, idiots seem to be churning up local stuff as well through boredom, so some weird kids style jumps appearing here and there.

Hopefully April will bring some good news, we need it after nearly a year, personally i think the entire nations mindset has changed for the worse, not just in this type of thing, but the longer this whole pandemic goes on, the more i just see a lot of differences causing more and more friction in all walks of life.

I normally ride straight from home to the trails but the pandemic and lockdown is leaving us with two kids to home school, a toddling baby who wants to be in the middle of everything causing chaos, and a business that is needing a stupid amount of work to keep alive.

So much as I’d like to go MTBing, it’s pretty much on hold for now…

Definitely. Can’t wait until I can head out to the hills with some riding buddies have a laugh and forget the troubles of the world, if only for a few hours.

Same as others. When it was dry and the evenings light I was enjoying finding new tracks. Now they are all boggy it’s not so great. Coupled with the winter bike and slippy roads that side isn’t as much fun either.

Normally as this is not racing season there’s people to ride with and a spring holiday to look forward too.

I’ve been zwifting a lot. My motivation at this time of year always comes from being fit so at the first sign of good weather I’m able to make the most of it.

I’m enjoying building locally more than riding at the moment, feels like a better use of my time than just ploughing about the muck.

Yeah, really struggling to motivate myself on the local stuff.
Warwickshire is pretty lacking in excitement at the best of times but it’s been a slog of a mud hell hole seemingly for months now.
Dreadful.
I really want some rocks.

It’s pretty weather dependent for me, we’ve been thrown enough snow this year to deliver some brilliantly different and awesome rides (and one hilarious death-ice ride). But there isn’t a force in the world that can get me out in the pentlands if the weather’s not decent and that’s going to be a lot of the time til March or so. (not just because I don’t enjoy it; though that’s the main difference. Also I have a great wee loop from my door where literally half of it will be soaking wet for the next few months unless it freezes, and I don’t want to tear it up)

I’ve found a new appreciation for local trails and riding from the door I’ve not really felt like adding a car journey to the experience. That is until the most recent lockdown meant I have little choice and now I wish I had gone further afield when I could…

Seems to be a lot less cyclists on and off road this lockdown so I prefer it.

Seems to be a lot less cyclists on and off road this lockdown so I prefer it.

That’s certainly true here at the moment but that’s mostly down to the weather, plus a lot of the locals are climbing, ski-touring, split-boarding, XC skiing etc.

I haven’t driven anywhere to ride since July 2017 so not really.

Weather and trails are horrible locally. Even picking lunch routes to stay slightly cleaner. So bad I’m refurbishing a rather nice Ribble 653 I have. I stopped road riding after a bad, really bad accident just over 5 years ago on the way to work – as bad as it can be – I could move my legs but my spine was in bits… 6.5 weeks in hospital, 7 months off work at a desk job..

Anyway, 5 years later, the really expensive custom built ‘vintage’ road bike had been used in Wales at our caravan in September this year only, on the road..then we were chucked out. I’ve just finished respraying my old Ribble 653 road bike. Looks mint. It will be used on local quiet roads as I’ve trashed my FS’s drive chain this year, meaning a whole replacement on basic training rides. Will be cheaper on chain rings on my road bike…. just got to hope not getting mashed by a car driver again.

All my crashes over the years have been commuting and stupid drivers.

Massively, although maybe not as much for myself as for my children. Although I’m still cheesed off.

I can road ride if I have to but it’s no good for them really, wrong bikes, wrong location.

We have the added complication that bikes don’t pedal well in the sea and we are in the over populated bit along the Hampshire coast so our range of options is 50% of that of someone 10 miles inland.

Wider, everything in amateur sport and youth activity is shut down. Regulations and guidance are driving the outdoor activity and changes of scenery that people need for their physical and mental well-being into a relatively small number of overcrowded (and often unsuitable for children) (sub)urban areas and smaller green spaces. I am fearful that this funnelling of activity is going to be counterproductive in terms of R and that the only lever that will get pulled is more restrictions instead of smarter restrictions. That’s bringing me down a lot…

This time of year is usually a bit of a battle because of the weather. But add on the lack of group rides and anywhere even slightly drier meaning driving and yeah it’s getting a bit tedious. Plus the hoards of people out in the middle of nowhere that would usually be doing something else if not for the lockdown.

In summer I actually prefer it locally and there’s plenty of places to ride from home. Now it’s a swamp. Each year it seems to get wetter. No sign of a dry period, or snow, or much frost. All of which were fairly regular a few years ago. Last year we had 6 months of rain, exactly to the day. Not quite that bad so far. One thing that has gradually improved is local bridleways getting surfaced so there’s more winter route options now, albeit usually with no consideration for drainage so they don’t last. Suppose it could be worse.

Well, its very claggy on the South Downs and we can’t escape it so easy to lose motivation.
On the other hand I’m feeling rather grateful to have such a fulfilling hobby (/obsession), to own a nice bike and be able to have fun in the woods despite the clag. And there’s always a bit of armchair riding.
I find its always fun once you’re actually out on the bike, very, very rarely does one regret going out.
Each to their own, but I can’t bear the idea of pedalling in the garage / front room whilst there’s still some outdoors there. I know you Zwifters will be fitter, for sure, but I thrive on fun.
As long as we get a smile in, eh?

Very much missing big days out in the Lakes/Dales or long road rides around the North York Moors from my sister’s house.

Local riding is generally good – it’d be pretty selfish to moan too much about it given that it could easily be far far worse but it’s getting dull now.

The weather is not helping at all, it’s truly miserable at the moment. First 10 days of the year was tiny bits of nice snow interspersed with lots of slush and ice. Now it’s all just a quagmire.

We moved int he summer from somewhere with virtually no local riding to an area with absolutely loads, so no – not an issue in that respect.

I am missing the dry & riding with friends though.

I have ridden from home for my whole life and have live where I do now for 20 years so getting bored of routes is not an issue for me. Lockdown has been great for me as working from home means I can go out for a quick ride during the week rather than just every Saturday and Sunday so more days riding in 2020 than any year before.
The first lockdown was even better because there were no cars around but that is not the same now due to all the people driving around.

What’s making it worse for me is that nearly everyone I know is continuing to drive to the forest and ride in groups, both of which are against Welsh rules.

Warwickshire is pretty lacking in excitement at the best of times but it’s been a slog of a mud hell hole

It also seems to me that the mud is made worse by the massively increased footfall since the pandemic began. I’ve ridden the local bridleways for more than 30 years, and I don’t think they’ve ever been like this. Trails that used to be a metre wide with a few tyre tracks are now 3 metres wide and the tyre tracks are obliterated by the footprints. Routes where I might have expected to meet a handful of people on a sunny Bank Holiday I now meet 30 or 40 people when it’s freezing fog and -2. It’s great that more people are getting out there, but it’s not without consequences.

Echo most of the comments. Yup, its starting to get a bit frustrating now. Biggest thing i miss is riding with buddies. Doesnt matter how wild or tame the location, if its with my riding pals, its always a good time.

The weather isnt helping. Zwift and road riding is helping keep me sane, but its definitely not what i long for. (plus i just broke my mtb, so limited options at present)

Hold tight tho folks, lets hope it will all be over soon enough (wishful thinking i know!)

My local trails also seem wider and muddier. What’s frustrating me is not being able to drive 30 minutes for a nightride at Glentress. Went out last night but it was pretty attritional, snow melt and rain meant the better surfaced paths were like rivers. Cold, slushy rivers.

It’s the cleaning that’s driving me mad. Because my local loops are so claggy , even a modest tenmiler requires a major wash. It is really demotivating, I don’t feel I have had sufficient fun to justify the work and I have bought two chains in the last two months due to lazily putting bike away without cleaning.

I have lost all motivation and interest in riding off road. I have some half decent stuff on the doorstep but I just can’t be arsed with the clag and cleanups.

I started running a few months back and I’ve lost the motivation for that as well.

Just finishing building a nice road bike and more likely to be wacking it on the turbo with this shit weather. Which i’m not too concerned about as just need to get the legs spinning and fitness up 1st.

I miss riding with mates but also have so much more time to ride and much more flexibility with he times i can ride. Though with the rain at the moment i’ll be going back on the turbo.