…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 that 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 **** loving it at the minute and I think it’s in no small part down to riding this…

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.