How to Thrive, not just Survive, this winter

Benji adopts the slithery path to zen in the darker months Acceptance. Acceptance and change. That, to me, is the key to getting through winter. If do …

By mark

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How to Thrive, not just Survive, this winter

I like winter too, it goes dark earlier so I stop work earlier, (I’m retired so work is a loose concept), I get snug and cosy in front of the fire then go to bed early. I sleep late sometimes as the birds and the sun don’t wake me up. Riding is better in some ways, ups and downs need more concentration and when I fall off (often) it doesn’t hurt as much as I’m not going too fast, and, the ground is softer. Winter is a chance to go full “hiker on wheels” with spare clothing, a flask of soup and sometimes coffee too – it’s lovely sitting with your back to a wall (on your insulated pad) sheltering from the weather and dipping a sandwich in tomato soup. This year I’m looking forward to using my new fat bike in the slop – once the antibiotics have worked on the “rattle” on my lung – one of the downsides of winter!

I agree with most of that and am actively looking forward to my winter riding, although I’ve broken the same rule at least twice and have accumulated a winter gravel bike (previously known as a ‘CX bike’ but I don’t race) a winter road bike and even a ‘deep winter’ singlespeed road bike.

I’m massively out of touch with MTB these days but I reckon any MTBer would enjoy a nippy CX bike in the mud, scoping out all the little dog walkers trails in the woods and gradually ending up further and further from home as you start linking stuff together. It never occurred to me to drive anywhere which is a bonus when muddy bikes and gear are involved!

Posting my favourite winter pic again just because I found it recently

I’m dealing with it by going to Málaga.

Gravel bike, road bike, running, weights

Frosty winter commutes are great !

Winter bike works for me. Cheap 10 speed Deore picked up in the CRC fire sale means I’ve got half a dozen £30 drivetrains waiting in the wings. Bit of Putoline on the chain and I can often just rinse the drivetrain with the hose and bung the bike in the shed. No faff winter biking means I get out more. Little time, effort or money

I’m OK with winter, when it’s winter… i’m less keen on the rain and slop.. but give me frosty hard packed trails and i’m way happy thank you.

I’m debating https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/226401871233  Scandal 29er… Just for the ease and abuse aspect over winter.

That mud looks awful scary to me. The good thing I’ve noticed with gravel roads is they have fantastic drainage qualities. When the single track is muddy and the tarmac roads are wet and sketchy the gravel roads are a great option. Luckily I can go for miles from the front door on gravel roads through the winter with a few little muddy bits which are usually churned up ground from logging activities.

When  the snow comes I get out the cross country skis. There are a few cross country skiing Strava loops set up in Glenmore forest I would like to try to set PBs on or even CR on.

Looking forward to a few Sunday sessions in the pub with friends, we are too busy over summer most of the time, van camping and riding.

Bikewise, out comes the hardtail and longer xc instead of steep tech (it gets too slick locally for me).

And regular strength training.

What has also helped this year  is that over the last month I’ve done the Tweed Valley twice with different groups, Win hill, Peak District with old friends  and October has been a whole lot drier than last year. Next years October Golfie trip is already booked 🙂

My favourite winter cycling photo

Am pretty certain that ^ qualifies as ‘hero conditions’, I can just imagine how much speed you could pedal up on the crunchy firm bits until you broke through to a soft bit! 😀

but I reckon any MTBer would enjoy a nippy CX bike in the mud,

No thank you, but whatever floats your boat. I’ve never seen the need to stop riding in the Winter, yeah you might have to do a bit more cleaning, but those day where the Gods align it for you so that its frozen hard (increasingly infrequent, granted) or you have the place to yourself because everyone else has given up and gone home…

Dry & cold? Not a problem. Cold & wet? Not so much.

The article is supportive rather than condescending – but it does come over a little naive. Or at the very least very centric to the author’s personal experience. Even on an island as small as the UK we are dealing with some very different concepts about what winter actually means.

I moved north 4 and a bit years ago so just about to start my 5th Highland winter riding season. What I’ve learnt is there is no such thing as a specific winter experience to love/overcome. Significantly colder and darker here but I’d take that over the previous 20 years in the south downs. Copious riding options, most of which stay ridable where my riding of them does little harm to the landscape or the machine. Down south I might not have had to concern myself with suspension that had slowed right up because the bike has been stored at <-5 for 2 weeks straight or the balls of snow and ice where my pedals used to be but South Downs clag is a murderous mistress.

@el_boufador

I would be happy as anything if we get a winner with a few rides like that

I’m determined that this year I’m sticking with the roadie club, too many of my riding mates over the last few years have seemingly stuck with regular riding and come out the other side in spring now riding with much faster groups.  It’s just a motivation thing usually, 90% of the time it’s not that bad out there once you’re dressed up and warm.

That and I’ve signed up for a training plan on Mywhoosh which will hopefully polish up my fitness more effectively than my usual high-Z3 clubrun riding.  It never gets easier and becomes Z2, you just spend more time at the front.

When the single track is muddy and the tarmac roads are wet and sketchy the gravel roads are a great option.

This for me too. I now have 2 gravel bikes, a road bike and an eMTB.  To ride the latter is a 30 min drive to trails, which is fine, though when adding in putting towbar rack on, loading bike, and repeat, plus washing it down when back home, does make poor weather mtb’ing a bit more of a faff for me.

Great road riding from the door, however largely on back roads which are now covered in slimy leaves and farm mud in parts, so increasingly treacherous.  I can get to Whitelee windfarm with a 5 mile ride on clearer roads, and then there are many many miles of clean, dryish gravel, normally pretty much empty too.  Lots of great routes to form loops of varying lengths, and if the road conditions to get there are poor/sketchy for riding, or more particularly sub 3 degrees, then gravel bike on car rack/or inside is easy, and it’s not as much of a clean up after as a muddy MTB.

Nice, thoughtful article. I strongly support the spare front wheel with a mud tyre (Hillbilly is fine IMO).

I haven’t found myself doing as much winter graveling as expected, mainly as I end up soaking wet from spray (even with guards).

Maybe I need to work on my route choice, or just carry on embracing the slop on MTB.

Got to probably my best ever mud-riding skills last winter (unsurprisingly).

Slightly sad to see STW using AI imagery on articles though.

We have a ban on it for all content at my workplace.

Slightly sad to see STW using AI imagery on articles though.

We have a ban on it for all content at my workplace.

Yeah, especially since it’s behind a paywall too. Surely there’s a plethora of great winter pics they could use from real people.

I reckon any MTBer would enjoy a nippy CX bike in the mud

Enjoy in a type 2 fun way?

I’ve had to re-frame my expectations of winter (specifically) and seasons (in general) since I moved to Sweden. Winter is both longer and more intense here, even in the “southern” part I live in, and I can expect snow to start maybe in November and to not really go properly until fifth fake spring some time in April. Despite it mostly being a dry cold with temps even here in Uppsala getting down to -25C at times, the pure length of the season takes it out of you.

In Stockholm, commuting on bike was brutal. You need spikes/studded bike tyres and even then the lack of daylight during normal commuting time makes it tough. Icy and snow melt during the day to form an icy, salty slush that leaves those marks on your shoes, but which freezes before you leave the office into tramlines that wander in and out of cycles lanes and makes using SPDs a challenge on the short, steep hill sections across town. I took to wearing a very strong Exposure beam on my helmet so that I could make my presence at junctions known with the sheer weight of photons; sometimes ‘normal’ lights and all the reflective tape in the world does not let you be seen.

Out in the country, winter means studded tyres on the van and skis easy to hand for lunchtime XC skiing. My bikes take a rest now because there is no happy medium tyre that allows floating on snow _and_ grippy on ice and, honestly, my usual route through the forest becomes ski tracks and I am not willing to mess that up for my neighbours. So, the Stumpy and my Malt2 stay under cover and my road bike wears its winter tyres as part of the Tacx turbo setup. With this I can pretend I am somewhere warmer and use the hate that builds inside me during training sessions as a means of looking forward to that first ride when I can legitimately go outside without needed grippers on my boots.

Last winter was tough. It seemed to go on for ever and I was very glad it ended when it did. This year I may need to break it at some point with a trip somewhere warmer; I did Iceland in March and it was cold/windy/wet instead of just cold/windy, but I’d really like sunny/warmer for a week.

Perhaps a change of username to well’ard?

I suggest anyone who’s struggling with motivation to ride this winter just pops back here and reads Willard’s post.

The article nails it – winter is about exceeding low expectations. Get a day like el_boufador’s there and you’ve won. But trails are still trails on a dank cold day, skills are there for the taking. I remember my first mud tyres – a cheat code indeed. I could actually ride through mud.

Bloody love winter.

@convert has it. I simply don’t see those sort of mud baths being described. The soil here tends to drain well and while yes there will be muddy patches it never gets like that. Last winter felt like an eternal autumn as we didn’t get it very cold for long. There’s not much choice of roads so it tends to be mostly gravel riding anyway – until we have some decent snow. Then it’s out with the fatbike. On the very good days I can get home, shake the snow off and the bike will actually be cleaner than when I set off. Paired with the right clothing and footwear choices (and pogies) it’s a fantastic time of year.

Another bonus for me last winter was buying studded running shoes. When the tracks become polished by too many users, these allow me to still get out and work some Z4/5 training in.

Then there’s the walking (or is it mountaineering) and the swimming.

Oh – and get a boot/shoe dryer. Especially if there’s more than one of you exercising outdoors.

Shoe dryer is an excellent shout.

As is moving to the Cairngorms, probabkly – if slightly less practical.

I’m starting my prep for winter riding by doing something I failed majestically at last year. Night rides – and this time on worn out Barzos!

Those easy trails suddenly take on a whole new character when lit up badly with a handlebar mounted sun while on tyres with inappropriate levels of grip. Last night I was thankful to make it down the trail in one piece that I normally warm up on! Riding up things was also similarly exciting and required far increased levels of concentration. Then there are just the fast bits of singletrack that take on a whole new character with the rear end just drifting around in a comedic manner. I could have slowed down, but where is the fun in that?

 

 

I found last winter really tough. Living in a Dales landscape area of Cumbria the constant strong winds and rain made cycling difficult.

My solution has been to move the caravan from 1st October to 31st March to a great site on a 7Stanes route. Hopefully I will be able to ride in the protection of a forest all winter, it’s going well so far.