Currently doing gym work and awaiting a new road bike.

Saving the MTB for when the trails surface.

I have to admit as much as I’m the worst kind of winter-hater with an unhealthy dose of SAD mixed it, I’m not minding this winter too much so far, yes, very very wet – even though I’ve been sticking to the centres since BST ended I’m wearing the ‘drowned rat’ look every ride it’s not been too bad.

I’ve focused on the positives, yes I’ve got a huge sack of soaking knackered kit to deal with, but Bosch doesn’t seem to give a monkey’s if it’s soaking wet, full of dust or anything in between – Regina Blitz makes short work of drying my shoes – well, my Teva’s anyway, might need an extra day or two for 5:10s and because it’s so wet at the moment, however shitty the bike is when I’ve finished noting dries on so if I show it a hosepipe or jetwash thing in the centre it’s ‘clean enough’ in seconds.

What it’s not is cold, I’ve not seen anything below 5c yet this year and 12c seems to be the norm – in JANUARY!

MY only hope at this stage is that this very wet weather doesn’t last into spring and summer – I really don’t want another summer when it starts raining in May and doesn’t stop again till October.

It was the late-evening cleaning sessions, the filthy damp clothes and getting undressed in the freezing garage that finally killed my enthusiasm after 21 years as the world’s most obsessed mountain biker.

woodster – Member

I’m fed up of getting soaked by massive puddles and having o empty my pack and put it through the wash all the time.

Rain cover is good to prevent your bag getting caked in mud. Yes it gets muddy but easy to hang up in the garage & shake the mud off once dry – or hose down – or put in wash with clothes.

I’m alright with it at the moment, just happy to be out and about on the mountain bike!

kiwijohn – Member
I don’t even bother wiping the dust off anymore.

Occasional spray with the retic…

Surprised at how many people don’t bother going out, I’m out every chance I get regardless especially now I’ve bought a fat bike I bloody love it!
I just hose the bike off and kit lube chain then back in the garage!

Drying my shoes is the only annoying bit for me

kiwijohn – Member
I don’t even bother wiping the dust off anymore.

I was checking the Super rugby fixtures last night – February 26th, I think it starts? Every time I watch a NZ Super game it seems to be taking place in a torrential deluge, so if you are living in NZ as your name suggests, that gives you five weeks or so of dust. 😛

Rain cover is good to prevent your bag getting caked in mud.

Might invest in one of these yeah. Probably carrying an extra pound or two of mud on my rucksack ATM.

🙂

I clean the moving bits, and the lights. Each weekend it gets a proper inspections a strip down of anything that needs it. The rest of the bike is caked in mud, it’s kind of like a protection barrier, trying to get a bike immaculate in the dark is never going to happen. If it’s not a moving part, it can be muddy until I start riding in the light again!

I’ve ridden three times in the last 9 weeks. It’s just appalling. Part of this is the terrible state of my local trails, the other is that since moving into our new place 2 years ago, more priority work has prevented my setting up the garage so that everything is ready and streamlined to minimise the faff.

Just a question – how may of those who love to ride in shit weather spend a lot of their time working in it too? I’m guessing a minority.

Soft handed office boy here – don’t mind bad weather riding, but I did have a moan about the office only being 20c the other day.

Plenty of time between now and ardrock to get out and go training …. its manky as hell here in northumberland atm so no rush

The sad part is for me that I never really bothered cleaning my old bike apart from very basic chain maintenance. Now I’ve got a fancy new bike I know I’m going to want to clean it properly which puts me off going out!

Got a van full off wet kit and bike after last night’s ride in the torrential rain. Not going to deal with the bike until Sunday when it’s going to be cleaned and have new brake pads fitted, then put away until it’s dryer.

I might never ride it again…

My kit will be dealt with tonight. Slight blessing is that it was soooo wet last night the mud didn’t stick.

I do always find that cleaning bike/kit etc straight after the ride seems easier/less effort than coming back to it the following day. The only time I don’t clean the bike (assuming it’s not dry mud, in which case it gets left and brushed off, I don’t wash a dry bike !) is when it’s chucking down when I get home. I drive to trails and usually get back from a night ride around 1045/11 pm – the neighbours reckon I’m nuts bringing hose pipe round from back of house and washing bike down when the’re going to bed 🙂

Wanted: As many dirty mucky post ride cleans as possible.

Swap for: Hernia (groin), kidney stones, bladder + urethra infections (i.e. no cycling since early April last year 😥 )

Been out as much as I can over the holidays. I failed a climb on the Llangollen mountain that I’ve done in almost all conditions last week – it was simply too muddy to get up and I had to admit defeat which deeply hurt my pride. The way down wasn’t any better, front wheel slides everywhere. The mountain only needs a few hours to dry out to be rideable but it didn’t get that. Two days prior the same trails were still muddy but brilliant fun. I picked the wrong moment to go out!

Actually thinking of heading to Llandegla for a couple of laps instead this weekend. At least it’ll be rideable. Llandegla is brilliant in the winter too.

I also have to admit that my no hose near my bike rule has been utterly broken since mud fest started. It and me are so covered when I get home I just have to hose us both down. Single pivot will hopefully prove it’s worth this winter.

Get out there and remember summer bodies are built in the winter.

Winter riding is a chore but I try to stay positive and look forward to light nights and grippy trails.

Fortunately I have had a vile chest infection that has lingered for a fortnight so I have forgotten how fed up with bike cleaning I had become. Am now desperate to be able to breathe properly so I can actually ride even if it is raining. What really spoiled me was doing the Trans Cambrian in early October when not only did we not see our waterproofs but were actually stripping off jerseys and riding in base layers. Seems a distant memory now.

Whilst I agree with some of the groans on here – and I’m in the same boat – I think you got to have your tactics about you – the bad weather won’t last forever.

I clean my bike and GF’s after most rides, it’s very trying but it’s about keeping on top of it.

I have set up a mountain-bike trainer which is okay for spin a week. We occasionally try to get on the back-lanes for mtb rides on the road which can still be mucky but less so. I also try and choose my days and times where possible – it’s easier to ride following/before a day of heavy rain.

We still commit to a big Sunday ride but try to do an easy path concentrating on miles rather than the interesting tracks.

With equipment I don’t take a pack – just put stuff in pockets. I Have two pairs of winter shoes so one set can be drying. Also have multiple coats and gloves so you’re not relying on things be dry.

This has got me through 23 Winters. Or you can pack up.

I failed a climb on the Llangollen mountain that I’ve done in almost all conditions last week – it was simply too muddy to get up and I had to admit defeat which deeply hurt my pride.

Yes, it’s the climbing in the slop that’s doing my head in, don’t mind the descending so much – wanted more practice at that anyway.

on the plus side I’m still riding in a short sleeve jersey and bib shorts, not tights, base layers and balclavas!

Euro – Member

Wanted: As many dirty mucky post ride cleans as possible.

Swap for: Hernia (groin), kidney stones, bladder + urethra infections (i.e. no cycling since early April last year )

+1

Wanted: As many dirty mucky post ride cleans as possible.

Swap for: New Baby Girl
(i.e. no cycling since early October last year )

God knows how tragically unfit I currently am!!

PS – not serious about swapping for the Bubba. She can stay….

On the wet boots/shoes front: I’ve just invested in this; great piece of kit

http:/www.coopersofstortford.co.uk/mobile/product.asp?pf_id=st09930i

View post on imgur.com

My gear was shittier than my bike after Saturday’s Borrowdale Bash.
PITA when hosing clothing takes longer to sort than the thing you rode.
Mind you I did forget my spoddy mudguards so my own fault.

Oooh I’m excited frost forecast for the weekend, I know it’ll still mean bike and kit need cleaning but hourly trails might be mostly solid if I can get out early on Sunday !

It`s real wet!, but just the usual sand to wash off here in East Lothian 🙂
The mud is a sandy loam here so even though saturated ground away from the coast it washes off without bike cleaner and just the usual blast with the garden hose, still using Squirt Dry Lube ok here 😮

My commuter bike is more of a mess with country roads caked in clag dragged out fields!
[url=https://flic.kr/p/CTXTzk]10th Jan; Sunday Cycle 004[/url] by Bruce, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/Cz83Vu]10th Jan; Sunday Cycle 042[/url] by Bruce, on Flickr

[/url]10th Jan; Sunday Cycle 060 by Bruce, on Flickr[/img]

I like the Durapipe bike stand.

Dibbs – Member
I like the Durapipe bike stand.

Golf Course Irrigation pipe, all that blue bendy water pipe these days so this stuff obsolete and was to be binned 🙂

Here is how i made it;
http://coastkid.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/diy-fatbike-pvc-pipe-washstand.html

Having a shed and direct access to the garden has made my life so much easier. Got plastered yesterday so a quick hose of bike and myself then hang stuff up in shed. Job done.
I have horrible memories of chaining my bike to a lamp post and up and down steps with buckets of water when I lived in a flat.

Spray with fenwicks or Muc off, quick going over with a brush. Rinse off with mobi washer. Takes 10 minutes. Dry with a towel, leave for 15 minutes then lube chain.
Do that after every ride. Do a full clean once a month wheels off etc and use a bucket of soapy water and break out some autoglym wax

Road or run til Easter.

You should see how much mess you can get into with a muddy ride on a Fatbike with inadequate guards……………….even at the end of a tow path ride I had to sit outside the pub and the staff took turns to come out and see the mud monster………..

No cleaning this weekend other than chipping the ice off

About fricken time too 😀

My shoes are currently drying from the weekend still. Wet kit is now dry but hasn’t been cleaned yet. Bike hasn’t been cleaned, is in the garage.

That was a big weekend away though

My local rides are even muddier, muckier, and happen more regularly. I often brush off the mud from my outer wear and stick it back on, baselayer gets a wash though. My rides are usually only a couple of hours long max if its local

My local rides are on a rigid SS, so no maintenance or clean up needed. I picked off enough dried mud to fill 2 chinese takeaway containers the other night, didn’t seem to affect anything though. Front and rear mudguards help with keeping my clothes OK though, can’t see the point in riding around without them

Degla was fine on Sunday, christened my new Capra (a month after it arriving).
Just a few puddles here and there. Top of the first climb was colder than a penguin’s ballbag but some kind chap lent me a pair of Winter gloves, some good people out there.
Bike got a quick rinse, blow dry with compressor, WD40 on the chain and forgotten about.

Local trails are currently bogs. I was still going to head out but the heavy rain from the moment I got home put an end to that

Road or run til Easter.

You think it’ll be any dryer then?! 😐

Yes.

Velodrome tomorrow evening 😀