I was told off by a ranger yesterday for being on a footpath that was made of gravel/loose stones etc, none of it was remotely muddy/grassy or cause any sort of wear by me on my bike….his idea that it would made me question the 10-15 ramblers I’d just seen walking 4 abreast so basically the two outside walkers were off the gravel onto the grass/mud causing erosion….he was having none of it insisting that my bike did more damage than the said 10-15 ramblers did….

The guy then told me to walk it down to the road where I was getting off anyways, I refused and stated its a gravel path how is walking down it ever going to do anymore damage than that of walking?!? His answer ‘it just will’……

Of course i carried on riding…..just use your brain with the wear even on footpaths etc and you’ll be fine, rangers often like to strut there apparent powers a bit like bouncers, but reality is they can’t do anything….

I didn’t ride any footpaths yesterday that would have caused any erosion, any more so than a walker anywyad…and was on my own not in a big group…point being just use your noggin and ride them at night to avoid jobs worth rangers

What chains/ drivetrain are you using? I’ll avoid it, must be made of cheese

SRAM’s finest cheese. Woburn’s sand mixed with water = bike grinding paste.

It’s snowing here.

Royally fed up with the weather. The off road round here is pretty much field edge, so it’s just not worth it, and driving to the chilterns (nearest nice riding) would be exersize in futility, and roadie in this weather…no thanks.

Cheesed off

Tbh the past few months have been the best conditions I can remember – I’ve never spent so much time on.the bike.

+1 for weather destroying trails – when have you ever seen horses/walkers rip a 3 ft gouge in the ground – I.e hayfield campsite dh.

I am in total agreement.

Rear mechanism snapped off at very nearly the farthest point of my ride this morning.

I bodged a singlespeed, but badly. Enough to get home, just.

Anyway, I turned for home in a bad mood when it started to rain. You bar steward I thought. Then it started snowing those big floaty wet snowflakes that are magnetically drawn towards the eyeballs.

I’ve ordered a heatwave this summer. If I don’t get it, emigration seems the only answer.

Everywhere I go, trails are being destroyed at an alarming rate because they just have not been allowed to dry out.

I’ve ordered a heatwave this summer

Can I have one too please?

Last couple of weeks have been quite dry round here, but I’ve worked through most of it, work will inevitably slacken off now that the rain is back.

when have you ever seen horses/walkers rip a 3 ft gouge in the ground

Never, but I have seen horses make bridleways virtually unusable for everyone else.

Here in west berkshire it rained all day yesterday and has now snowed all day today so far. Only 2ºc as well.

Very glad I’ve got a lovely singlespeed. My other bikes haven’t had much of a look-in for months. Mind you, just a week or two ago the trails here (Surrey hills) were drying out nicely and tempting us with dreams of thrumming loam and dust. Ah well, it was a brief summer but a good one…

@timraven

Do you reckon we should start an e-petition for a decent summer. Only 100,000 signatures and the powers that be will make it happen?

Just been out for a muddy few hours in the FoD. Didn’t rain. This was good. Did find a dry bit of trail. That was good too. The other 25k? Not so much, but still glad to be out. Cold tho, can’t remember a ride without the 3/4s coming out.

Ridden a lot this year, mainly in the Malverns where it’s busy but not generally that muddy. Getting pretty cheesed off looking at the weather forecast thinking, maybe, maybe, maybe, oh no, snow, smashing. Got to be the coldest March I can remember.

Off to France next week for some riding. Forecast is 12-15 degrees. Iv’e no idea what to pack!

Can’t change the weather. Can stand outside and shout at it tho. I found this can help 😉

Hardly ridden mtb this year, just not worth it. Been riding the road bike in the wet though so I’m still getting the miles in, though my front mech is now so bunged up with shit that you have to kick it to shift down to the granny now 😆

Loved it today. We did the small back lanes on our road ride this morning. P!ss wet through and covered in shite. It was a scene out of the the Paris Roubaix. The weather is wearing very thin though.

Juat back in from loop in surrey hills – started off nice c09.00 but then minging gloopy mud and cold rain 🙁

I went for a rainy, muddy ride in the Surrey Hills on Friday – I was pleasantly surprised how dry and rideable it was.
Conversely, I have spent today ankle deep in foul water, bailing it into a dustbin to stop my house from flooding. Thankfully it’s started raining so I’ll be out there again shortly…

Do you reckon we should start an e-petition for a decent summer. Only 100,000 signatures and the powers that be will make it happen?

Careful what you wish for. This time last year reservoirs were nearly empty and hosepipe bans were being introduced. People were doing rain dances… 😯

@dannyh the powers that be don’t bother with any other epetitions so I see no reason for them to do anything about that one 😀 even if they could.

I think we’d all put up with a hosepipe ban after last year.

Yesterday just grabbed my waterproofs and went anyway. Certainly not as nice as a sunny spring day but better than not being out at all.
I’ve taken to mainly road riding, at least you can still ride – Surrey Hills are getting trashed, even the fire roads, with the numbers of riders combined with rain…

We made it 20 miles into our 40 mile planned SDW route today.. mud not so much of a problem (for a change!), more the fairly constant rain/sleet/snow and large amounts of standing water. It didn’t feel too bad to start with but by the end it was the coldest ride I’ve been on for ages..

Sun’s out now though! 8)

i was over in the uk (Essex) mid february for a week. it didn’t rain once! but the river was high and the amount of water flowing off the fields onto the roads was crazy!

it’s one of the things that i don’t miss about the UK…. incessant rain.

saying that everyone here in Munich is complaining about this winter as we’ve only had ~100 hours of sunlight over the last three months. hasn’t really rained much, though. snowed quite a bit, mind…

This year I’ve found the secret to be cyclocross. I’ve done loads of miles in terrible weather but have aimed at sustrans type tracks. Some of them have been a real joy, for example the route through the Avon gorge. The advantage is you can nip onto the road when it all gets too horrible. Round our way we have lots of old railway tracks and canal paths. The bad weather has made me much more adventurous as I’ve been seeking out new CX routes. The main point is that I feel ace at the end of any ride regardless of how cack the weather was. There’s a world of difference between the weather you see through a window and the weather you actually immerse yourself in.

pissing down here, I was a wimp last year this year I decided would be different.

I went out, got soaking wet and thoroughly muddy. I actually enjoyed it.

I found the trails were safer than the roads, too mainy potholes obscured by flooding.

Me 1 Rain 0

Snuck out this afternoon between showers for an hours urban on the SS…EVEN saw the sun out for a while!

Forgot how much fun urban stuff can be, plus no muddy bike to deal with upon return….Nice 😀

[Quote: “rain doesn’t cause much damage, it is the walkers, horses, bikes etc churning up the wet soil that does the real damage, the going round puddles making them wider or through making them deeper, the creation of ruts which allow the water to wash away the soil etc”]

That may be true in some places, but where I ride, the trails are mostly rocky, stony and often quite steep. For months and months last year the rainfall transformed those trails, cutting out deep gouges as it runs downhill. That wasn’t done by mtbs.
I was out today and the one bit of forest we encountered was reduced to a complete quagmire of foot-deep mud – by tree felling work.

Snow on the hills. Sun in the sky. Awesome days riding in Wales today.

Late Feb/Early March was really nice, it hardly rained at all for about 3 weeks and even though it wasn’t warm, the trails all dried out nicely. Off-road route to and from work (canal towpath, old railway lines), it was lovely.

Now it’s reverted to type with days of rain, sleet, snow, hail and all the trails are back to their normal “quagmire” status. 🙁

Never, but I have seen horses make bridleways virtually unusable for everyone else.

Tell me about it. The local horse riders seem to delight in **** up the bridleways around Ipswich. If it’s wet hack around the road you in-bred halfwits!

The local horse riders seem to delight in **** up the bridleways around Ipswich

While I share your pain, BWs that horses have been along are awful, they clue is in the name here…It’s not their fault your chosen vehicle can’t cope with the conditions. We accept BW in an “as seen” state.

And the forcast for next week is rainfall every day , in increasing amounts with next weekend looking particulaly damp.
Missed the dry 2 weekends being away , Now all my ‘indicators’ ( wet corners of feilds , bridleways I can see up from the car etc) tell me its gone back to a bogfest again.
Sat am the roads were all running like streams with huge amounts of run off on them ( hants )

i flew back from SA today, so the 30 degree swing in temperature was quite something, the journey back up the motorway consisted of light rain dullness, dark sleet, very dark large snow flakes, lightness with a smattering of blue….what a welcome back.

When we touched down i said to the SA guy who has come to work here,…welcome to darkness.

i was cycling this last week…

Don’t know what you’re complaining about. It’s been high twenties and blue skies here…

Unfortunately here isn’t where my bike is. 😐

But in fairness I haven’t noticed the winter weather affecting my rides back at home whatsoever. Makes it more of a workout in the mud and sometimes livens things up a bit. 😀

I finally got Mrs O out riding in the mud today. To my happy astonishment she enjoyed it hugely, giggling like a child and going through the deepest puddles. Happy afternoon!

But to bring it down a bit what is boithering me is that I just know the rest of the year is going to be like today – just like last year, just like next. And the nights start coming in in about 3 months time. Bah!

Here in west berkshire it rained all day yesterday and has now snowed all day today so far. Only 2ºc as well.

That’s the weird thing. I struck out from the West side of Reading today at about eleven and did 3 hours out through pangbourne up to goring heath and back via Caversham taking in various cheeky trails. It was cold and pissed it down the whole time but I only had one brief flurry of snow. Just saw the snow in West Berks /Oxfordshire on the news. Suprize snow fest out towards Newbury, 12 miles away barely any hint. The weather has gone bat shit crazy…

I too am done with the shite weather now. I’m actually at the point where I’m considering spending additional funds on my SS as it’s getting ridden far more than the other bikes, certainly more than I’d intended.

Friday evening the weather was lovely in the NE so I just grabed (the other halfs) bike and shot up and down the railway lines for 45 mins. Because it was sunny, it wasnt boring! Other half went to Hamsterley yeserday and said it was a bog so we just went out on the road bikes today and it was cold, but really enjoyable to actually spin the legs rather than plough through endless mud. However, 2 inches of snow now – road bikes wont be back out for a few days then. Back to the mtb with flat pedals! It is getting a bit much – happy to get on and ride, but lacking inspiration and its hard work!

Was great around Cannock over the weekend. Sacked off work on Thursday to go on a Trans-Chase epic it was just orsum no trail left unridden (some of them twice)

OK Fri wasn’t brilliant but Saturday was almost Spring-like in the sun apart from a bit of standing water and yesterday was even better. Plenty of people out enjoying the trails.

Sick of it. Pishing down again. Trails that had been drying out nicely reduced to slurry again. Flat roof of kitchen letting in water and needing fixed. 😥 Ah, well, new bike – there’s always next year.

Beautiful day today. Barely a cloud in the sky. No rain yesterday when I was out on the road bike either, but it was cold and damp (as my sore knee keeps telling me today). I’m desperately looking forward to some extended dry weather – and warmth wouldn’t go amiss – but I’ve not once regretted getting out and riding…yet.

why not give us a visit http://www.bikingandalucia.com at the Sierra Nevada Andalucia, Spain where we have 320 days of sunshine per year, and even if it does rain the trails drain and dry out very quickly as they are stoney not muddy.Many days over this winter the maximum afternoon temperature reached 20+ C. 🙂

I’m NEVER riding in the Sierra Nevada again*. Since my week there a few years ago, riding in the UK has fallen way short 🙁

*joke. I would love to ride there every day, but it’s true that it spoilt UK riding for me.

I guess it all depends on where you live. Up here in Glasgow, until the last few days, we had the best part of a month of settled cold weather. Last Wednesday, I rode up the Whangie on trails that even in the summer can be a bit spongy. Absolutely rock solid. The snow up north is a pest as it means that big rides in the mountains have to take a back seat for just now but all things considered, it’s been good. Besides, you can only get so wet! 😀