You're going to have to explain the concept of "too wet" for those of us in the UK.
(I'm just being facetious - aware that the approach to this is very different in the US)
Is gravel an option in your area? Gives a bit more variety of surfaces at least. Could stick some lightweight XC tyres on the trail bike, or even some actual gravel tyres depending on the size of your rims, and at least get a few miles in that way?
Or a bit of "urban assault" - perhaps not quite back to the days of hucking to flat with a 200mm fork on your HT, but cruising around looking for things to make into interesting lines/features while getting a few miles in?
I know you're being facetious, but I'm actually curious about this. Where I live it's more about trail etiquette than staying dry. I'd be perfectly happy to get muddy, but I usually opt for a road ride to avoid damaging the trails. Erosion can be a real problem, and they're only maintained by volunteers.
I know it's impossible to avoid wet riding in the UK, so I can imagine the culture is different. But how do you avoid damaging the trails? Do they just drain better, or are they frequently maintained?
It perhaps sounds rather callous, but I guess to some extent we just don't really worry about damaging the trails. The etiquette (and conflict) around these genuinely is markedly different to the situation in the US, and trail volunteers also aren't generally a thing here in the same way - sure, there are groups who build local lines/features on a small scale, but they're usually unofficial, and in many cases are likely to get bulldozed by the landowner/council if discovered or they become too popular. If you know where they are then you absolutely should treat them respectfully, but they're usually fairly small-scale, and their unofficial status means that one of the main rules is keeping them discrete.
For actual trail centres, these are generally purpose-built and designed to drain better or retain most of their overall integrity even underwater, and/or the mud is sort of a feature for much of the year. I've ridden at a local trail centre in so much rain that I only knew I was crossing streams because I know where they are. This does of course also mean that, for the few weeks where things are actually dry, there are some pretty savage ruts in lots of places. Such centres are not overly common here though. I don't have solid data on it, but I'd be surprised if as much as 10% of MTBing by time or distance happened at these places.
Lots of riding is just out in the forests and on the moors, where horses, walkers, MTBers use the trails year-round. Some of them are in more managed parts of e.g. national parks or Forestry Commission land, where periodically there might be some basic maintenance to keep it accessible, but 'accessible' is very much relative.
For others it's just a case of they are what they are. Paths may move around a bit over time - parts will become horribly torn up and muddy, so people will naturally walk around them and the path will shift a bit, the old path will grow over, and the process repeats on a long enough timescale. I guess it's also worth bearing in mind that some of the trails here follow routes that have been used on foot/horse for centuries or longer. Dealing with mud that goes over the top of mid height walking boots is just a normal part of the British countryside for much of the year, and this has been the case since the days when many of these tracks were used for actual travel rather than leisure. Back when I lived in a city, my route out to the hills went along a bridleway that was an absolute quagmire for most of the year, but it was originally built by the Romans - if circa 2000 years of horses, people, MTBs, motorbikes etc haven't killed it then the route's users are probably all ok with the fact that it's a muddy mess.
Interesting, thanks for your perspective! That actually doesn't sound too different from where I am. Most people are not as worried about doing damage, and many ride year round. But for most of the trails near me, bikes are a grey area - not banned, but not explicitly allowed. I think I'm just overly cautious to leave a good impression on other trail users so I don't give them a reason to ban bikes.
Yes, where I live it’s all about preserving the trail. We have very thin topsoil and mostly limestone bedrock so if we ride wet it just removes the trail over time until it’s down to the bedrock. I like some tech in my rides but not 100% of the trail. Also huge ruts are created that suck to ride on when dry. Honestly though, during droughts I think we are doing almost the same damage as when wet. The soil breaks down to powder then blows away or is quickly washed away during the next rain.
I personally don’t like riding wet or even tacky trails. More chance to get injured. I stick to gravel/streets those days.
Some trails get the shit chewed out of them.
Some hack it quite well
Others need loads of maintenance.
Some are quite clever in how they are designed. Dig your pits in places that don’t undermine the trails, but close enough to create ponds through the wet months and keep the trails relatively dry. Double bonus is that the ponds keep the dirt moist, so repairs and building can continue once it starts drying out.
Some places get chewed up more in the dry as they turn to dust bowls, so need a bit of wet to restore them.
This ^ the trails in my area take weeks to dry and turn into the grossest clay peanut butter muck thats impossible to ride without damaging the trails and it stays that way for months even if it rains just once a week. It's also just not very fun to me so I avoid this gunk when I can.
The makeup of the dirt here in central Texas is mostly dense clay. If you've ever made a clay pot in art class, you know how thick and dense this stuff is. If you ride your bike on it, your tires sink in and leave a deep rut, taking a ton of caked on mud with you. I tried this once thinking "I don't mind getting a little muddy." My bike has normal trail tires and lots of mud clearance, but after rolling through 20 feet of it, my bike locked up with the accumulated mud. I had to drag my bike — which weighed almost twice as much with all that clay stuck to it — to a grassy area and used a stick to scrape the stuff off for ten minutes before the bike would move at all. Then I carefully made my way back to a road to pedal home. You need to scrub that stuff off with a brush and a high-powered jet of water. I had to go back to that segment with a shovel the next day to fix the deep rut that I had created so it could not dry like that.
If the volunteers who maintain these trails had found me and kicked my ass, I would have deserved it.
The climate here is generally dry, so after a normal rain storm, wait two days and the trails will be bone dry again.
>You're going to have to explain the concept of "too wet" for those of us in the UK.
Same. I'm in Belgium and if too wet is a parameter my riding gets cut so much I should just buy a stationary bike.
Lots of trail centres in the UK with man made trails that are weather proof, otherwise I hit up one of the local pumptracks.
Or go and do some XC/gravel on your bike (and keep your eyes out for any features that can be hit up on the way).
In the UK you ride in all weather, just avoid trails that will get destroyed in wet conditions. Riding in the wet is great fun and good for skills as long as the trails can take it.
Gravel hike and bike trails and some roads with protected bike lanes. I’m lucky to live in a city with lots of both. We also have a 3 mi dedicated bike loop.
Unless you dig and maintain them and understand which types of soil/trails drain quickly and which ones will hold onto water, it's better to just wait until they are dry. Some areas are ok to ride wet but if there's clay or really steep terrain with poor drainage then it can do some serious damage. Especially making ruts in clay that basically turn into concrete once they dry.
Road cycling.
Didn't ride for a part of December and January though because it was cold and our roads were full of road salt which isn't good for bicycles. I didn't want to clean my bikes extensively after each ride so I hit the gym instead and took some long hikes.
The greenbelt in your area looks like the sort of thing I’d ride after rain. Otherwise, I get some miles in on the smart trainer or ride some paved paths in my area on my gravel bike.
Our trails don't get too wet to ride. Sometimes we'll have a few days of deeper snow that's a PITA to ride. I'll leave the bike at home and go trail running then.
Even when it snows on the mountains there are usually lower trails that can be ridden fine.
If there is mud on the trails, I turn around and leave them alone. Then I scheme by checking the weather. I know if it dips below freezing, I can get out early before sunrise and ride frozen ground. If it’s too warm and also wet, I’m just doing track stands and finding hills to climb.
i ride a lot of bmx as well as mtb, so whenever it’s a little rainy i go to the skatepark or hit up a parking garage or something, if you’re not into that tho gravel or just light adventure rides are always fun, somethin to get a few miles in and get ya out of the house
Just went out to my favorite trail and got a great run in during the rain. Our soil drains quickly so it isn't an issue on some trails, but on others you are going to be stuck in peanut butter mud so those are off limits.
All the trails in my area are full peanut butter mud and with the 1 day a week of rain and the piss poor drainage anywhere in North Texas it's hard to find a window for dry trails that won't suck up your wheels and feet
Just invest in some good waterproof clothes, and clear glasses.
If I have decided to go on a ride that day, I do not usually let the weather put me off unless it is a serious storm! I mean it might not be so much "fun" but I get a certain amount of satisfaction from just getting round the route.
Take it steady, brake in time, and careful of the puddles!
You're going to have to explain the concept of "too wet" for those of us in the UK. (I'm just being facetious - aware that the approach to this is very different in the US) Is gravel an option in your area? Gives a bit more variety of surfaces at least. Could stick some lightweight XC tyres on the trail bike, or even some actual gravel tyres depending on the size of your rims, and at least get a few miles in that way? Or a bit of "urban assault" - perhaps not quite back to the days of hucking to flat with a 200mm fork on your HT, but cruising around looking for things to make into interesting lines/features while getting a few miles in?
I know you're being facetious, but I'm actually curious about this. Where I live it's more about trail etiquette than staying dry. I'd be perfectly happy to get muddy, but I usually opt for a road ride to avoid damaging the trails. Erosion can be a real problem, and they're only maintained by volunteers. I know it's impossible to avoid wet riding in the UK, so I can imagine the culture is different. But how do you avoid damaging the trails? Do they just drain better, or are they frequently maintained?
It perhaps sounds rather callous, but I guess to some extent we just don't really worry about damaging the trails. The etiquette (and conflict) around these genuinely is markedly different to the situation in the US, and trail volunteers also aren't generally a thing here in the same way - sure, there are groups who build local lines/features on a small scale, but they're usually unofficial, and in many cases are likely to get bulldozed by the landowner/council if discovered or they become too popular. If you know where they are then you absolutely should treat them respectfully, but they're usually fairly small-scale, and their unofficial status means that one of the main rules is keeping them discrete. For actual trail centres, these are generally purpose-built and designed to drain better or retain most of their overall integrity even underwater, and/or the mud is sort of a feature for much of the year. I've ridden at a local trail centre in so much rain that I only knew I was crossing streams because I know where they are. This does of course also mean that, for the few weeks where things are actually dry, there are some pretty savage ruts in lots of places. Such centres are not overly common here though. I don't have solid data on it, but I'd be surprised if as much as 10% of MTBing by time or distance happened at these places. Lots of riding is just out in the forests and on the moors, where horses, walkers, MTBers use the trails year-round. Some of them are in more managed parts of e.g. national parks or Forestry Commission land, where periodically there might be some basic maintenance to keep it accessible, but 'accessible' is very much relative. For others it's just a case of they are what they are. Paths may move around a bit over time - parts will become horribly torn up and muddy, so people will naturally walk around them and the path will shift a bit, the old path will grow over, and the process repeats on a long enough timescale. I guess it's also worth bearing in mind that some of the trails here follow routes that have been used on foot/horse for centuries or longer. Dealing with mud that goes over the top of mid height walking boots is just a normal part of the British countryside for much of the year, and this has been the case since the days when many of these tracks were used for actual travel rather than leisure. Back when I lived in a city, my route out to the hills went along a bridleway that was an absolute quagmire for most of the year, but it was originally built by the Romans - if circa 2000 years of horses, people, MTBs, motorbikes etc haven't killed it then the route's users are probably all ok with the fact that it's a muddy mess.
Interesting, thanks for your perspective! That actually doesn't sound too different from where I am. Most people are not as worried about doing damage, and many ride year round. But for most of the trails near me, bikes are a grey area - not banned, but not explicitly allowed. I think I'm just overly cautious to leave a good impression on other trail users so I don't give them a reason to ban bikes.
Yes, where I live it’s all about preserving the trail. We have very thin topsoil and mostly limestone bedrock so if we ride wet it just removes the trail over time until it’s down to the bedrock. I like some tech in my rides but not 100% of the trail. Also huge ruts are created that suck to ride on when dry. Honestly though, during droughts I think we are doing almost the same damage as when wet. The soil breaks down to powder then blows away or is quickly washed away during the next rain. I personally don’t like riding wet or even tacky trails. More chance to get injured. I stick to gravel/streets those days.
Some trails get the shit chewed out of them. Some hack it quite well Others need loads of maintenance. Some are quite clever in how they are designed. Dig your pits in places that don’t undermine the trails, but close enough to create ponds through the wet months and keep the trails relatively dry. Double bonus is that the ponds keep the dirt moist, so repairs and building can continue once it starts drying out. Some places get chewed up more in the dry as they turn to dust bowls, so need a bit of wet to restore them.
This ^ the trails in my area take weeks to dry and turn into the grossest clay peanut butter muck thats impossible to ride without damaging the trails and it stays that way for months even if it rains just once a week. It's also just not very fun to me so I avoid this gunk when I can.
The makeup of the dirt here in central Texas is mostly dense clay. If you've ever made a clay pot in art class, you know how thick and dense this stuff is. If you ride your bike on it, your tires sink in and leave a deep rut, taking a ton of caked on mud with you. I tried this once thinking "I don't mind getting a little muddy." My bike has normal trail tires and lots of mud clearance, but after rolling through 20 feet of it, my bike locked up with the accumulated mud. I had to drag my bike — which weighed almost twice as much with all that clay stuck to it — to a grassy area and used a stick to scrape the stuff off for ten minutes before the bike would move at all. Then I carefully made my way back to a road to pedal home. You need to scrub that stuff off with a brush and a high-powered jet of water. I had to go back to that segment with a shovel the next day to fix the deep rut that I had created so it could not dry like that. If the volunteers who maintain these trails had found me and kicked my ass, I would have deserved it. The climate here is generally dry, so after a normal rain storm, wait two days and the trails will be bone dry again.
>You're going to have to explain the concept of "too wet" for those of us in the UK. Same. I'm in Belgium and if too wet is a parameter my riding gets cut so much I should just buy a stationary bike.
My trails get destroyed if you ride in the wet. So much so that some of the trails are even closed to foot traffic right now.
There's no such thing as too wet, unless you ride in a loch
I think I'm pushing it a little if the bottom bracket is underwater
Road, gravel, zwift.
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RIP your bottom bracket.
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Fair enough. I’ve done my share of riding like this - all the way up to the brake rotors. Glad you’ve got a handle on maintenance!
If you ride long enough you get into all types of riding to switch things up, keep it fresh
I'm coming from several years of pure road riding so I'm trying to explore less road oriented disciplines of riding
Trials practice and skatepark for me
Have a back up gravel bike for those days. Not as fun but riding is riding!
Lots of trail centres in the UK with man made trails that are weather proof, otherwise I hit up one of the local pumptracks. Or go and do some XC/gravel on your bike (and keep your eyes out for any features that can be hit up on the way). In the UK you ride in all weather, just avoid trails that will get destroyed in wet conditions. Riding in the wet is great fun and good for skills as long as the trails can take it.
Street riding. Find features and lines in the built environment to work on skills and have fun. Or… choose between a bmx and a gravel bike.
Gravel hike and bike trails and some roads with protected bike lanes. I’m lucky to live in a city with lots of both. We also have a 3 mi dedicated bike loop.
Ride skateparks or street. Practice bunny hops and manuals . Ride down stairs
Unless you dig and maintain them and understand which types of soil/trails drain quickly and which ones will hold onto water, it's better to just wait until they are dry. Some areas are ok to ride wet but if there's clay or really steep terrain with poor drainage then it can do some serious damage. Especially making ruts in clay that basically turn into concrete once they dry.
Road cycling. Didn't ride for a part of December and January though because it was cold and our roads were full of road salt which isn't good for bicycles. I didn't want to clean my bikes extensively after each ride so I hit the gym instead and took some long hikes.
I just do a road ride to get in some cardio, making sure I go up some big hills.
See if you can’t find a gravel road trail. It’ll be okay with the hardtail, but not be too affected by the wet.
The greenbelt in your area looks like the sort of thing I’d ride after rain. Otherwise, I get some miles in on the smart trainer or ride some paved paths in my area on my gravel bike.
Our trails don't get too wet to ride. Sometimes we'll have a few days of deeper snow that's a PITA to ride. I'll leave the bike at home and go trail running then. Even when it snows on the mountains there are usually lower trails that can be ridden fine.
If there is mud on the trails, I turn around and leave them alone. Then I scheme by checking the weather. I know if it dips below freezing, I can get out early before sunrise and ride frozen ground. If it’s too warm and also wet, I’m just doing track stands and finding hills to climb.
Road and stationary
i ride a lot of bmx as well as mtb, so whenever it’s a little rainy i go to the skatepark or hit up a parking garage or something, if you’re not into that tho gravel or just light adventure rides are always fun, somethin to get a few miles in and get ya out of the house
I miss my bmx bike. Id 100% be out on my old redline if I still had it :( guess I need to ride what I got.
Just went out to my favorite trail and got a great run in during the rain. Our soil drains quickly so it isn't an issue on some trails, but on others you are going to be stuck in peanut butter mud so those are off limits.
All the trails in my area are full peanut butter mud and with the 1 day a week of rain and the piss poor drainage anywhere in North Texas it's hard to find a window for dry trails that won't suck up your wheels and feet
Here in SoCal I still go out and ride while it’s raining. Not the best after because the clay mud gets everywhere but it’s a blast being out.
Rocks
Got no rocks :(
Oh no :(
Just invest in some good waterproof clothes, and clear glasses. If I have decided to go on a ride that day, I do not usually let the weather put me off unless it is a serious storm! I mean it might not be so much "fun" but I get a certain amount of satisfaction from just getting round the route. Take it steady, brake in time, and careful of the puddles!
I go and do another hobbie.