Ever wondered why Europeans can’t ride in the mud? It’s because they don’t want to.

OK, so next week’s weather is less than prefect with thunderstorms predicted at some point each day, but you can always shelter from the rain, right?

No. No point in going because the trails will always be wet, not getting a chance to dry out.

Annoying…. If the van hadn’t spat its drive shaft then I’d still be down there riding. As it is, the guy who has the hut doesn’t want to ride so no one is going. Sigh.

It’s mostly because they don’t have to.

Why ride today when you know tomorrow will be dry.

Here in the UK we ride in rain as it will be raining tomorrow and the next day almost certainly

No, but people have made arrangements to have the week off.

Matey boy with the hut is a friend of a friend. He doesn’t want to go, so no one goes. Kinda sucks.

The weather recently has been pants north of the alps. One or two almost summer days (today was 31°C,but last week was on-off rain each day) followed by rainy grey days. Was 19°C on Thursday!

I just need a holiday!

It is daft isn’t it. We were trying to hire mountain bikes in Mallorca during some seriously shitty weather. The shopkeep kept bleating about the gale force winds and horizontal rain….

Yes we know FFS, that’s why we’re here. If it wasn’t raining then we’d be rock climbing, now get us some bloody bikes.

Sigh

Can’t you just go and stay elsewhere?

I can concur that they hate the rain though…we did a guided week in Austria and the last day was torrential. The guides though we were nuts as we all wanted to go out. One of the guides was a super-fit XC race dude (he would race up the mountain fire roads whilst we took the gondola/chairlift!) and he absolutely hated the mud, we stole his bike and dropped his tyres about 30psi to give him a chance in the mud whilst we hollered out way down with shrieking brakes and aiming for all the puddles 🙂

Don’t let him or the weather forecast spoil it. Leave him at home and rent when you all get where ever it is.
Rub it in when you get back on how good it was. 😎

I like to avoid the mud.

When the trails are dry I try to ride every day

I find November to early March a struggle because the English trails are guaranteed to be wet at least 90% of the time.

Can you not just book somewhere instead of freeloading? 😆

but you can always shelter from the rain, right?

No you can’t. High up in Swaledale for instance.

esselgruntfuttock

Member
but you can always shelter from the rain, right?

No you can’t. High up in Swaledale for instance.

Take a brolly! 😆

At such short notice we can’t get a place…. The cheapest place we could find was 115€ a night. Most are upwards of 200€. A fair bit more than the 15€/night out would have cost us.

Will speak to my mechanic tomorrow. Hopefully the van will be back running by the end of the week…. That’ll give us at least ten days before having to return to the grind.

To be fair, when we’re in the van we’ll generally choose not to ride if it’s raining because showering and getting everything dry is a pain. In a hut with mod cons it’s not such a problem.

I really sad part of all of this is the guy that owns the hut won’t just let the rest of you guys that DO want to go use the hut in his absence.

That’s pretty s*** to do to people that have booked time off etc.

Go further south and camp.

I would love to, but we’ve only got the GF’s mx5. Picked up a Saris Bones.

Tried fitting two bikes on the back of it. It looks comical and barely legal.

No way we’re going to get camping gear on there, too. Besides, campsites aren’t much cheaper than Airbnb options.

Hopefully my mechanic can get the van rolling again by mid week….

We were trying to hire mountain bikes in Mallorca during some seriously shitty weather.

I was there cycling a week ago today … gotta say the rain in the mountains was welcome… though it was just drizzle

Perhaps they have more respect for the land so won’t ride if wet. We don’t really have the choice so end up riding in the mud and making it worse.
Being an island we don’t have the luxury of always riding dry trails, so our respect is different.
Old-skool bikers appear to have more thought for the ground conditions than the newer bikers, so perhaps your mate is thinking like that.
Or he may just be very soft…

I was there cycling a week ago today … gotta say the rain in the mountains was welcome… though it was just drizzle

Until you realise why Mallorcan’s don’t ride in the rain, it’s because the roads turn into Teflon coated ice.

Take a brolly!

Ahh, funny you should say that cos when I ride to the top of Gunnerside Gill when the Scott Trial’s on, I do indeed strap a brolly to my Dakine bag. It’s usually chucking down!

Until you realise why Mallorcan’s don’t ride in the rain, it’s because the roads turn into Teflon coated ice.

Yep, I would expect that … and we were on single track with a lot paved in cobbles and rock gardens but TBH the 2xOTB were more about having continental brakes … retrospectively should have switched before riding.