...and yearning for dry stuff? Sigh.
Surely there must be a cure for midwinter (by which I mean Jan '12 to September '13) blues....
you need a new road bike 🙂
OP Absolutely!
We need some frost - i'm thinking of flogging my hard tail and buying a road bike also.
even rides on the normally all-season Malvern Trail System® are getting a bit disappointing.
Roll on the first big freeze to firm it all back up again then it's back to business as usual.
Yup, road bike! The overhead associated with daily or frequent off-road rides in these conditions just isn't worth it imho.
Yup - worst I can remember.
Road bike might be a bridge too far but some hard frosts would be good.
Road bike for me at the minute, although did have a surprisingly nice ride with the wife down the canal tow path last Sunday.
Really enjoyed it.
Time to head of to one of those nicely surfaced trail centres; easy to bemoan the lack of so-called 'natural' trails in the summer months but imo they really come into their own this time of year.
Road bike? I may be fed up, but I'm not [i]that[/i] fed up 😉
As the moors are all but unridable, we've been exploring. Got the OS out and gone looking for stuff lower down that drains a bit better. So on a positive note we've found some new (very cheeky) trails. Its not all bad 😀
I find my winter riding becomes very selective and manage to still ride 3/4 times a week relativly mud free. Certainly no slogging about in mud.
I ride on top of the hills, not the valleys. I ride in sandy/pine tree places and choose trails that are not used by horses/walkers/tractors.
Having said all that I do miss some of my usual trails that only work in the dry - but that makes them better when you do get to ride them as your looking forward to them.
Dont forget, last winter it was quite dry in Feb/March. I can recall many a dry frosty and even dusty night ride in the Chilterns.
Yes indeedy. Suggestions for surviving winter:
* Make use of trail centre trails.
* Plan routes to climb roads and descend steeper trails.
* Put some 1.6" slicks on your XC bike and do some country road loops.
Oh, and dont forget, there are always trail centers. Or urban night rides with cheeky excitment.
Trail centres, road bikes, fatbikes. They all work and add a bit of variation.
WWW you naughty man. Fyi WWW know's I recently bought a new road bike.
... which I'm enjoying but I like the variety. I went out on the MTB yesterday and found 1 x 50 yard section that I was able to freewheel/let go of the brakes in a 15 mile ride. Jeez...
Not much chance of going trail-centering with 2 kids, 1 new and a busy work schedule.
Its not just the "winter" blues, its the sheer length of time not being able to whizz around trails with the adrenaline pumping thats getting to me.
Is anyone else REALLY fed up with plodding around muddy trails...
Not at all. I mean, why would you anyway?
FFS people buy some cross tyres
Yes. Absolutely. And every flipping bridleway has now been driven down by a car or other vehicle and chewed to bits (why do they do this!).
I would love to ride at more than 3 mph at some point in the next 9 months, but I doubt it will happen.
Don't plod around them then - embrace the mud, pedal like crazy, find the steep bits where you can gather speed and push the limits of grip! I was out on Tuesday night and not really in the mood for it and gave up after an hour - I really enjoy riding in the mud and wet but it does require complete commitment and focus, otherwise it turns into bumping and skittering on wet roots interspersed with almost falling over in deep mud. You can't just have an easy chilled ride cruising around the singletrack when it's like this - all or nothing!
Un-clogging your steed with a stick in the wet and knee deep in mud while the light fades is character building!
It would not bother me so much if we had a half decent summer . My local trails were dry for a couple of weeks in april and that was it ! +1 for trail centers , good option for the winter
Trail centres?-Grizedale North Face had puddles as deep as Thetford Forest when I went last week-let alone the faceplant into a vat of muddy porridge when I exited sideways off a section of the stepping stones. Local trails are the worst I have ever seen I think-claggy mud & standing water everywhere. Trouble is, I like to keep my road bike relatively cack free if possible!
There's a bit of my commute that's slightly downhill on the way home and I'm struggling to reach 3mph on it.
My local trails never completely dried out from last winter. What a load of arse. Bring on the frost I say!
No trail centres near me. It would take me 3 days (36 in the mud) to ride to one.
I've been enjoying it on a single speed, tis bit of a challenge but doable.
I just hate the claggy stuff that grips your wheel and doesn't let you push though.
Saw some deer running through the forest last Saturday - a fantastic sight.
Get to the bmx track and get ragging. Get the adrenaline up, do some intervals, get awesome. And if you're lucky, there's a floodlit one nearby and you can get out in the evening.
Not too bad here if you're selective, we are wearing a groove in our usual nightride loop tho, getting a bit samey. Went for something different this week, slithered about over a lot of mud, was fun but probably back to the better drained route next week.
last 2 days riding have been great, lovely and warm for the time of year 🙂
Trails are sopping and have been all summer. However, I'm feeling strangely enthusiastic at the moment. Loving sliding about in the glop 😀
There's still good riding to be had in the Surrey hills if you know where to look and where to avoid.
Just plain fed up today...
Going to the Real Ale Wobble this weekend, biking in Wales and a beer festival, usually I would be excited, but actually not looking forward to it at all.
Hopefully it will be a good pick me up. Really need something to be fun.
I am spoilt where I live... chalk and clay with flint embedded... sticks like the perverbial.
There are some places about 30 minutes away that are better and I do njoy pushing hard in slippery conditions.
Still only 5 months to go.... i'm not a religious person but i pray for frost!!
Have just jioned Strava, just to log my riding but right now it makes me look very slow...
I know what you mean, Barton Hills can be a real slogfest this time of year. But, have been riding out to Chicksands/Maulden Woods from home which gives a 50/50 mix of lanes and off-road stuff which isn't too muddy - let me know if you fancy that one Sunday 🙂
I'd love the opportunity to regularly plod around muddy trails. Unfortunately at the moment life is getting in the way a bit!
I don't have the holiday allowance or cash for foreign climes at the mo and I'd rather be on mud than the road so I'll just have to wait for Spring.
I took my AM bike out the other week, figuring that soft compound Panaracer Rampages would be enough to cope with wet chalk and mud.
How wrong I was...my helmet cam footage just seems to show variations of the jacknifed bike theme. I nearly just cut out the middle man and randomly launched myself OTB into the mud.
Surely you just amend where you ride to somewhere less muddy? I hardly go near stanmer over winter as its popular and therefore a bog for many parts. Generally if its steep it'll be ok.
Get a bit of 'street' riding in. Sounds naff, but an hour riding round town finding things to drop off is fun. And the pub is never far away.....
Winter is for the road bike
To be quite honest - no! I'm ****ing loving it at the minute and I think it's in no small part down to riding this...
[img] 
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They're just massive bags of fun in the slop and with a deore drivetrain, cheap to keep going through a yucky winter.
Off out again tonight on it, rode the Long Mynd on it last Sunday, Yorkshire Dales next sunday.
Out last night round Claife Heights and it was a bit gloopy in places but generally the same wet rocky trails as always.
can't be arsed with mud anymore, it is trashes bikes and you just spend to much time fixing things.
with the Road bike go out the door for a few hours, come home dump the bike then do something else.
Had an excellent short ride in the Dales this morning. Beautiful, proper sunny crisp morning. Bit of gloop about, but mostly in excellent fast nick.
There are a few trails I won't be touching until they freeze solid, but there's still plenty out there to do.
(wondering if can jam 2.5" tyres in my bike frame)
Sorry to be repeating what I said on previous threads of this ilk, but I do not understand people who get into mountain biking, in this country, and then moan about mud.
It's Britain, it gets muddy!
Personally, I love it. I'm a slow useless bugger in the best of conditions so the main impact is less pain when I fall off and land in the squishy. Ride bike, wash bike, wash me, wash clothes, happy times. Repeat until "Spring"...
Embrace it. Get a cheap singlespeed, rigid and 29er if you can (or something like that fattie above), and just get stuck in. The mud's not going away any time soon.
Also it really helps if your rides include a couple of decent pints by a lovely fire in a warm pub.
did you have to get your race guard sawn in half and a widening strip added tim?
Sorry to be repeating what I said on previous threads of this ilk, but I do not understand people who get into mountain biking, in this country, and then moan about mud.
Because in the summer when dry it is fine, and if you go back a few years ago we actually had warm sunny dry summers. After 20 years of Cotswold winter dust i have nothing to prove, i would rather spend more time riding than cleaning which means road bike when the tracks are filthy. as fo driving to trail centres, why spend hours driving when you cn spend more time riding by using a road bike. I am in the position of being able to ride an MTB from the door so very rarely have i ever used the car to get anywhere.
See, I find all that "winter kills your bike" thing applies more to the roads than the mud, due to the salt...
Like the Elbonians, learn to love the mud.
Forget all this fair weather winter riding. In Britain the climate is not much different winter or summer anyway so mud is to be expected any time of the year 😛 . Only difference is where it's cold enough to snow. Then it's real fun 😀
And don't be afraid to get the big rig muddy. It's not going to fall apart because of it. Although it might if you're obsessed with your bikes looking sparklingly clean 😉
Fed up with muddy trails? That's because they have crap drainage.
Get out do some trail maintenance you lazy Fu*ks!
I enjoy the whole riding in mud thing (it is England after all...) over the winter, but it's spending hours washing my bike afterwards and trying not to get mud everywhere that I begrudge!
People get all excited with snow. I would rather ride mud than snow.
When it gets really bad I love it. Whack on my cx tyres and find the worst mud patch there is and see if I can clear it.
To paraphrase our local nazis...Mud Honour.
personally I can ride hard,well drained trails in the winter,unfortunately they're called roads.....
uk weather just sucks for biking...going back to the med as soon as i can..
Riding muddy trails at night after a couple of pints is a hoot 🙂
All the modern biking films show t-shirted riders making dust-roosts and doing desert cliff drops. We're aspiring to conditions that are rare to impossible here. Watch Danny at Champery last year and see what mud riding's all about 😀
Yeah, tbh if I had a chairlift and Danny Hart's skill and testicles, I'd probably like riding in the mud more too 
I'm always a bit of a trailcentrist but this year more than usual... Final straw was going out to do my "wet weather local loop", which is usually pretty weatherproof, and discovering that part of it is now permanently a bloomin stream.
Just in from Glentress- yes I got a little wet but the trails are riding lovely.
[quote=Northwind ]part of it is now permanently a bloomin stream.
😆
I'm guessing you mean the wee bit in Green Cleugh opposite the waterfall?
I prefer Woburn when its been a bit wet. It's sandy so actually rides better after a day or two of rain. Went today and it was perfect, tacky and awesome 🙂
I used to hate getting muddy (I'd always ride around the thick mud and puddles!), having not done any mountain biking since last July (and only having a couple of months for limited road riding in between) I have to say I rather miss it now! Just want to get back on the trails... [/whinge]
Jcl for for the win. More digging required
5 words...
Rigid singlespeed and mud tyres. 🙂
Was at Woburn today too, it rides really well i'm the wet apart from the massive swamps over the main road. I like riding in the mud but do prefer dry trails
druidh - MemberI'm guessing you mean the wee bit in Green Cleugh opposite the waterfall?
Aye. It's quite good fun, mind.
Oh aye and Maidens' is on my "weatherproof route" as well. Though I suppose it's still true, those 2 sections will be completely unaffected by weather.
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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/58162507@N07/8189247374/ ]Fullscreen capture 15112012 202012[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/58162507@N07/ ]SGMTB[/url], on Flickr
Rigid SS is what you all need it loves mud!
Just happen to have one for sale £420 posted its lurvely just I need a ss with Suspension and putting boingy forks on this would be a crime!
Comes with mud tyres are you man enough!
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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/nzrich/6046490737/ ]P8153891[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/nzrich/ ]Richard Munro[/url], on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nzrich/sets/72157627441537490/
Try sitting around for five weeks with three left to go nursing a broken arm.
yes got that pissed of with getting coverd in mud,sold me bike lights etc,going to buy a sspeed urban fixie or sthing to play round the streets 😀
I booked 4 days riding with Lavatrax in Dec 🙂 As Stoner says ^^^ a bit, Malverns are as muddy as I've seen them. And have been for ages. Might try the Yat this weekend, just for a different kind of mud. I've not ridden my road bike for a year. It's not that bad. Yet.
+1 for cx bike tho. That's surprisingly amusing in the mud.
Stuck in the middle of London. Would love to go on a muddy ride.
oddly, the malverns were a teensy bit better tonight, but only because they'd got so bad by the end of the weekend last.
v jealous Alex. Have a good outing.
My computer said my front wheel had done 17 miles last Saturday, I reckon the back one did 25.
funny how a little mud separates the men from the boys (and weekend warriors/trail mincers)
never seen the issue with it, always ridden in all conditions and tbh i prefer wet/winter rides as it really tests your skills much more than in the dry. saying that nothing sucks more than riding to a jump trail/bmx track and finding the bombholes full of water 🙁
Well my average speeds have dropped significantly recently due in no part to the MudFest that is now the lower South Downs, to the point that a 4 hr ride equates to dead legs and an afternoon on the sofa.
And the washing machines getting killed to death...
Just back from Delamere. Loads of off piste, slop slip and slide - keep it short and sharp and a proper muddy ride is ace. Pint in the pub to follow and it's all gravy.
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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocketdog/6620567223/ ]mud[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/rocketdog/ ]rOcKeTdOgUk[/url], on Flickr
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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocketdog/6796183875/ ]the sorbet mud ride[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/rocketdog/ ]rOcKeTdOgUk[/url], on Flickr
I've just got some mud tyres and love it, bike and me are filthy after every ride, no chance of shying away from it, it's a vpp too so hardly the most resilient of frames, no mud guards either although Santa mighty be bringing me one. They're mountain bikes, are supposed to be muddy, used, worn out and maintained.
I agree that riding in the slop makes you a better rider too, every muddy ride is a chance to see how your bike control really is, getting loose down a step decent or trying to ride over off camber roots is hilarious fun.
Never tire of riding in the wet and muddy winter. It makes you faster and better at handling. And besides, that's what mud tyres are for, they may roll slower but when it gets really bad I'll be hitting up the XC loops on a pair of 2.2 Wet Screams.
A severe case of MTFU needed
have to disagree, i do not enjoy getting covered in mud, it does not improve my skill much if at all and just makes the ride slooowwww, landings sketchy and destroys really nice trails.