this weather sucks

lacking motivation to ride knowing everywhere is a underwater/ a bog!

Yep.

Get a road bike

Get a road bike Ride on dryer trails or ride your MTB on some lanes, HTH.

Get a road bike

then get sick of the consistent high winds we’ve had for months (and/or obsessively plan your rides so they’re headwind-out/tailwind-home) and discover how many of your nice back roads are underwater.

Perfect trail mantanence weather.

Utterly depressing! Had a nice ride planned in the purbecks, didn’t even bother bringing the bike and I was right, the place is sodden!

I know was meant to go for a ride today but it’s just been too hot, just dipping below 25c now and it’s gone 6pm….

Perfect kayaking weather…

As above get a road bike…I managed 500k over Xmas despite the weather with the right kit you can just get on with it, a squirt of wd40 on the front derailer is all the maintenance it needed. For the mountain bike I’ve built a new set of wheels to motivate me to ride it once there is a half decent day.

crashtestmonkey – Member
Get a road bike
then get sick of the consistent high winds we’ve had for months (and/or obsessively plan your rides so they’re headwind-out/tailwind-home) and discover how many of your nice back roads are underwater.

Get a Turbo Trainer

At least with a road bike you can grab the opportunity and shoot straight out from your front door for an hour or two of riding in between storms and then get back fairly clean with no attrition to the brakes and transmission from gritty mud.

It was the constant mud and the wear and tear, especially after years of night riding and having to undress in a freezing garage then clean all the kit the next day, that started my falling out of love with mountain biking.

A new river has formed in our back garden!

Dry and sunny today, and I have a day off!

Now, what and where to ride

Watsa matta? Fraid the water & mud will hurt your vagina? Get out there.

It’s gorgeous in Cheshire today

We’ve had what’s commonly known as autumn and some winter. Yes OK, it’s been wet (doesn’t seem to have been any worse than recent years either) but if you want to ride, dress appropriately and ride. My ride this morning was 20 ish miles of mud, mud and more mud but it was great to be out and my bike is now clean, ready for next time. If your bike cleaning kit and kettle/tea bags/milk are ready for your return, you can be supping the dregs of a brew with a clean bike in about 15 minutes. I’ve flogged both my road bikes this year as they were so under-used and now only ride MTBs. S’just good fun innit?

Faff of moving abroad Vs Constant naff weather

the age old question arises again….

A terrible-twos toddler and colicky newborn are taking up most of my spare time at the moment, so opportunities to ride are few and far between. Stop moaning and enjoy the ride! I managed a 3 hr XC on New Years Eve after 3 weeks without a ride. It was muddy as hell but I bl88dy enjoyed it. Took 5 mins max to hose the bike off after, kit straight in the washing machine, you’d never have known!

It does indeed – however, I have generally enjoyed the rides that I have forced myself out on over the last few weeks. It does seem to have taken its toll on my bike though – my front XT brake died because crud got into the lever so it wouldn’t return and my X9 shifter finally died too.

The bit I hate the most is cleaning up after a wet ride – after a ride in the Peaks on new years eve, my shoes still haven’t dried out! Stanage was very windy and all of the decents were like streams. Personally, I hate riding my road bike in the rain and would rather ride off road. If the roads are dry and the trails still minging, then the road bike wins for me.

Happy to resist trashing the trails and my bike for the moment. But need some runs before a mini event the weekend after next!!!

personally, i’d have said this weather blows.

Get a Turbo Trainer

the boredom from which will certainly make you say sod it, and just get out and ride in all conditions 😈

GlobalTi +1.
Kryton got one and some sufferfests for when its getting dangerous (got blown clean off a few months ago commuting, luckily on a quiet rural stretch).

Managed out between the worst of the showers. 20 hilly road miles on the CX bike, just about got blown off on the top of eaglesham moor though 🙂

Good to have been out tho !

Our Road last night

Riding today

I have a road bike, but I just don’t use it. Malverns do get muddy but always rideable and always a few good dry rocky descents. Keep thinking about a turbo, but know I wouldn’t use it. CX is always a good option.

And as someone said, it’s trail scouting/building season. MTBing isn’t a three season sport, sometimes you go out, get wet, get cold, knacker expensive bike parts and then do it all again. This is because we must earn our dust 🙂

protect your drivetrain .. go trail running 😉

Must admit, the lure of the local trails soaked and soggy is outweighed by the quiet back roads and the cross bike with comfy tyres 🙂

steve_b77 – Member
It’s gorgeous in Cheshire today

Indeed it has. Even though my kit’s not dry from yesterdays drenching I’m off out tonight on the Mtb to burn a few more Christmas calories off.

It’s a mountain bike designed for all kinds of conditions. Go ride. But I admit it’s hard to get out the door when it’s chucking it down 😀

Once you’re out, sliding about in the mud is great fun though.

I can understand fair weather riders, though they’re missing out ;), but what I don’t get is “winter bikes”, i.e. hard tails and the like to protect the delicate components on those big All Mountain full sus bikes… that are designed to take far more abuse than the hard tail. Hmm. 😕 😛

A road bike – can’t think of anything worse than being constantly sprayed by salty water by traffic and riding through deep pools of flood water probably covering big pot holes on a fragile rim.

can’t think of anything worse than being constantly sprayed by salty water by traffic and riding through deep pools of flood water probably covering big pot holes on a fragile rim

. Didn’t see any traffic and my CX rims are quite tough, although the only flood I went through was a Ford, where the road was shut and the water indicators showed a 6 inch deep torrent, which was fun 🙂

Brits, moaning about the weather… there’s a surprise! Just go for a ride:

i really feel for you….

sat listening to 6music and there is yet another weather warning from the Environment Agency about high winds and rain.

the weather has been genuinely brilliant here in Munich for the last month or so. a little snow at the end of November, but since then just one day of drizzle and plus °C during the day. they are predicting rain for Sunday, but 11°C from Monday till Wednesday. RIDE!

as much as i love the UK, i honestly cannot see myself wanting to return to the rainy and windy isle anytime soon….

but what I don’t get is “winter bikes”, i.e. hard tails and the like to protect the delicate components on those big All Mountain full sus bikes.. that are designed to take far more abuse than the hard tail

you really dont get it? Firstly, it justifies n+1 🙂 , secondly not sure which “all mountain” parts youre referring to that are designed to take more abuse, as winter crud eats drivetrains and bearings, neither of which are “all mountain” specific. I have a HT and a big FS because I like the variety, but yes when the conditions are crap and its a gloopy slog I’ll get no benefit from riding the FS so the HT makes more sense, and on that basis I have cheaper more durable kit on the HT (bottom-end cassette and chain, steel chain rings etc), and its easier to clean (less nooks and crannies).

A road bike – can’t think of anything worse than being constantly sprayed by salty water by traffic and riding through deep pools of flood water probably covering big pot holes on a fragile rim.

nice quiet scenic rural roads 5 mins from my door, wet boggy claggy off road routes a minimum of a 30 minute drive away. Depends where you are, what your access is like and how you are for time (eg squeezing rides in around shift work). AND I have a winter road bike, worth less than the drivetrain on my summer bike so again a no-brainer. N+1 means I am still shopping for a CX bike 😀

n+1 still applies anyway, just the weather doesn’t make a difference to which bike I ride 😀 . Drivetrain eating will occur on the HT or FS equally so I balance it out swapping between the two, and ensures I have one bike at least to ride, rather than keeping the FS locked away to keep it sparkling, blinging and to bring it out only when it’s dry enough to show it off. Screw that, get it muddy and enjoy 😀

To be fair, my components are roughly same value and quality on both bikes, and the full sus has a reasonable design that doesn’t trap the crud much more than the HT. Plus both are 1×10 so less crud catching around the front of the drivetrain also.

So already have the HT and FS so n+1 means maybe a single speed next, or a 650b of some sort, or god forbid a 29er xc-ish hard tail (I’m shocking myself at even having considered that!).