Ok being that the weather has been like up north, where it rains 24/7; I was wondering how MTBkers deal with it, because I don't think they stop riding right?.
I mean, I read comments here, riders saying, Oh CP was muddy here an there, WT, OR was sloppy muddy, Oh my bike was so muddy; well it seems that we have been riding muddy trails already. I think we need to get over the weather barrier, and ride our bikes in wet/ muddy trails, they will adapt, and we will become faster in slipery muddy conditions, the only bad will be our clothes and bikes muddy, they are washable tho. well there it is.

opininios?

i am with you brother. no more whining and making excuses. if you gotta ride then go and ride.you can find somewhere to ride and you can dress for the weather. i am heading out to horse pen creek right now. cheers!

I would recommend riding in muddy conditions only if you are willing to be part of the volunteer team that goes out and repairs that damage.

Here are some tidbits on this subject from a quick Google search:

"Riding a wet trail wrecks it, and if a trail's wrecked, a couple of things happen. First, other groups look negatively on mountain bikers, which is the last thing we need in our quest as legitimate trail users. Second, it destroys the trail to the point where it's no longer ridable. Once a trail is damaged, it deteriorates even if nobody rides it anymore, with ruts acting like channels that send water down the trail, making it worse and worse. In almost all cases you shouldn't ride on a trail when it is muddy. A mountain biker should always make a conscious effort to preserve the environment they are riding in. This includes an honest evaluation of the trail condition and an effort to minimize damage to it."

Together we can protect and preserve our local trails, especially in light of the sweat equity that's been expended to build them in the first place.

WT is going to need so much work.
last time i rode it it was frozen solid. the amount of rutts from the marina to the second climb were unbelievable.
we even had a really bad crash due to the rutts.

reserverockhopper wrote:
I would recommend riding in muddy conditions only if you are willing to be part of the volunteer team that goes out and repairs that damage.

so all we need is to go out and fix trails after the mess; sweet I'm in. do I need to be a IMBA certified to help?

gsomtbiker wrote:
"Riding a wet trail wrecks it, and if a trail's wrecked, a couple of things happen. First, other groups look negatively on mountain bikers, which is the last thing we need in our quest as legitimate trail users. Second, it destroys the trail to the point where it's no longer ridable. Once a trail is damaged, it deteriorates even if nobody rides it anymore, with ruts acting like channels that send water down the trail, making it worse and worse. In almost all cases you shouldn't ride on a trail when it is muddy. A mountain biker should always make a conscious effort to preserve the environment they are riding in. This includes an honest evaluation of the trail condition and an effort to minimize damage to it."

Together we can protect and preserve our local trails, especially in light of the sweat equity that's been expended to build them in the first place.

I know, but people up north don't ride then? what about maintaining the trail like reserverockhopper said.
I know people that go out of town to ride other people's trails even in muddy conditions.

we should start building trails that can be riding in wet?

Being new to much of this, does the soil makeup differ from region to region, thus allowing better riding in wet conditions? Could there be a location locally where a trail could be built/used for wet conditions and preserve the others?

I personally don't enjoy riding in slick mud and I enjoy riding in deep ruts even less. Others seem to get great pleasure out of riding in these conditions and even greater pleasure in trying to get a rise out of others

I did 20 miles on Gibson Park greenway yesterday. It wasn't as much fun as singletrack, but it was still fun. I also have an old road bike for variety. I think some urban riding would offer some alternatives as well.

I have thought about this a great deal and I hope you all don't mind if I chime in. I hope it doesn't stir up any bad feelings, but my take on it is pretty simple: A publicly maintained trail is a long narrow section of the woods that someone has gotten permission to trample to some degree. Of course, that's a better situation than if we all decide to hack separate paths through the woods every time we feel like exploring them. As with any agreement it's important that some terms be agreed to. I don't know what the specific terms of the agreement are that allow us to have bike trails through the woods on both public AND private properties, but I DO know that I've been told repeatedly to not ride on wet trails. Common sense dictates that that must be one of the terms. If the terms of an agreement are not upheld, someone usually gets mad and pulls out of the deal. The simple fact is that hundreds of other people enjoy this resource and it's reckless to disregard that just because we don't understand all of the reasoning behind it. I'm not looking to make any enemies, just explaining my point of view.

RRH "I would recommend riding in muddy conditions only if you are willing to be part of the volunteer team that goes out and repairs that damage."

Yes we all may love riding the trails but you know what- riding the greenway can be just as peaceful and/or challenging as you make it. You just have to be creative, push yourself to do intervals, ride X distance and then stop to work on bunny hops etc.

Diesel wrote:
Others seem to get great pleasure out of riding in these conditions and even greater pleasure in trying to get a rise out of others

That is probably the most accurate assessment of posts made here. I doubt that Stinky and the other guy are serious about tearing up our trails and more about just trying to gain a response on the forum or a "rise out of others". I think I know both of these guys and I think they both care about our sport and really just are talking junk to get a rise. One works at Recycles and I know that a caring bike store would not condone an employee speaking down against out sport!!!! Right Merritt?