riding getting colder

I ride all year, mtb & road but hate winter, it’s the darkness that I hate most! The cold doesn’t bother me that much but not a fan of rain and mud either.

You need steeper downhills

I do but steeper hills would not solve this issue. You need to experience clay mud to see how your wheels will not rotate no matter how steep!

Roadie clothing works very well on the MTB with the following exceptions

– might be more fragile so won’t like being crashed in

– sometimes won’t like getting caught in brambles etc

– will get caked in rubbish

I tend to wear roadie stuff for commuting (on the road) in and for MTB it’s outdoorsy clothes on my top half (base layers, softshells, waterproofs), sometimes with a cycling jersey and then cycling clothes on my bottom half

<span style=”display: inline !important; float: none; background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: ‘Open Sans’; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.4px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;”>I’d say that April, early May is the best</span>

April was not a good month this year. It was muddy. May was definitely good.

There have only been 3 good months this year where bike cleaning after every ride has not been required: May, June and July

On average there seems to be 3 to 4 months where it’s trails are very dry, it is not always the same months every year, can be any from April to October.

I am okay with winter for the first 2 months but after that start to get fed up with putting on all the clothes to keep warm (plus whatever I do I can’t stop my toes getting cold)

April was not a good month this year. It was muddy. May was definitely good.

True. But this year has been a little unusual. 😀

(plus whatever I do I can’t stop my toes getting cold)

Flat pedals, VXI Fivetens a half size too big, merino socks under kneehigh sealkinz, tucked into bottom of kneepads.

None of that big brass heatsink on the bottom of my shoes, thank you very much… :-)

Flat Pedals on a fixed gear with no brakes – no thanks.

After so many years hating Winter I decided to embrace it last year, my thoughts being that the cycling life is finite and anything is better than nothing even if I’m just bimbling.  This simple change of mindset has rid me of all foreboding – long live just popping out for a bit.