Mountain Biking - Fun fun in the mud

I set up a ride for tomorrow with my club not expecting the rain. It has been raining non stop now for the last 24hrs and will continue untill tomorrow night with tomorrow being the most serious part of the storm.
It looks as though there are going to be about 12 to 15 of us going and we are bringing the video camera. Should be a blast. This is looking to be the best ride of the year yet.
We should get some good fotage of riders with their face burried in the mud and some of the new drops we found.

Slainte:beer:

Sweet, wish I could see that stuff. Mud riding is some of the best. Really doesn't hurt too much to fall, and it really shows who the better riders are

Over here in the UK we have had some heavy storms and the river near where I ride has flooded and receded back again leaving everywhere completly sodden, even a decent bit of grass turns out too be just sloshy mud underneath.

I didnt manage too come off in all this mud but got my inside foot down for some slides supermoto style for balance, I absolutley love getting my moutainbike sidewardsm even if I dont need too I ussually do it anyway, no better feeling than even on a straight bit of muddy downhill touching the rear brake slightly, weighting oneside of the bike and going down sidewards only leaning too balance it.

I like riding on gravel tracks for the same reasons but that is abit more painful when it does go wrong, but like the girl in the local chemist said too me when I went too buy a support for my hand, its not mountainbiking if you dont crash with style.

Heres a pic of me after only popping too the shops on my bike, I went out of my way too keep off road even though I got odd looks walking in shop in this state.

Mud Mud Glorious Mud,I love it,the way it makes your arse end slide that little bit more,that extra slippery tree root,that huge puddle you spray all over that rider who loves to stay high and dry,the feeling that you`ve actually gone for a ride and come back filthy.I don`t mind the extra wear and tear on components,it`s well worth the extra fun and riding under cloudy skies,I ALWAYS do my best riding with overcast conditions.Over here at the moment we are in the middle of a serious drought so most of our trails are like a powdery dust,boggy and sand traps,so I hope for rain and lots of it.

I prefer the dry stuff. I use to live out West, where it was pretty dry. Out there, rain does nothing more than make rocks slippery and temporarily pat down the dust.

I did have the priveledge of riding after a hard rain once. The mud didn't bother me. What bothered me were the cow patties I rode through. :cry:

They were pretty watered down from the rain, but nothing like watered down, fresh cow sh!# to brighten up your ride. It didn't smell that bad, but knowing what it was made me gag. That was probably the only time I ever ended a mountain ride early.:mad:

Total bust!!!:irritated
10 of us met at the lower parking lot, loaded up the trucks and headed out to the begining of the run. When we arrived it was raining, not could and every one was ready to go.
7 riders started out then the last 3 of us went. I noticed the first 7 stopped about 50' up the trail. They started saying, "Don't even try."
I figured it was extreamly slippery so I went for it. 5' up the trail my tires had picked up so much mud that it jammed between the fork legs and tire, also between the chainstays and tire causing both the front and rear tire to lock up. It also compleatly covered my entire drive train and I did not even lay the bike down.
This mud was pure clay. It was up to 6" deep in some parts and stuck (actually took hold) of every thing it touched.
Well the ride was a bust. We loaded the bikes back up drove to our place, hosed the bikes off and decided to do a ride up the creak next to our house.
Needles to say, 1.5 miles up and the land owners had locked the gate and put up stern warnings about tespassing.
Although nothing worked out most of the riders had a good time ridding through the creak since it is rare to find one around here that actually has water flowing.