LowCel 

I went out and pre-rode Mountwood again today. Mountwood is an awesome 17 mile race course with about 1,975 feet of climbing. It has a lot of tight high speed turns as well as rocks, roots and tree crossings. There are also a lot of short steep climbs. You can absolutely fly when it is dry, when it is muddy is another story. Choose the wrong tires and you are all over the place, trust me on this one I know.

Here is a picture of my bike after pre-riding the course this past Saturday.


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Here it is after today's pre-ride and about 90 minutes of cleaning which included replacing the chain, removing the cassette and cleaning it as well as tightening the bottom bracket. It looks much better without those nasty arse fenders.

mtnbiker66

Too sweeeeeeeeeet.

wearyourtruth

sweet. here's a question though... i seem to hear from everyone "oh you shouldn't ride the trails when it's muddy because it tears them up blah blah blah" which understand, but how the hell do you learn how to ride mud if you are never "allowed" to ride them other than a rainy race day?

Specializerider

nice bike!

LowCel 

There is a difference between muddy spots on the trail and trails that are saturated. If the trails are bad then I won't get on them unless it is race day. These trails weren't terrible, just a couple of deep spots, the rest was kind of just "surface mud" if that makes sense. However I wouldn't have even gotten on these trails if there wasn't a race on them this coming weekend. Normally I hate riding in the mud, it's bad for the trails and bad for the bike.

Specializerider and mtnbiker66, thanks!

gmoneyhobbit

theres a difference between the mud you sink 6 inches into and leave the slop with 20lbs extra on your bike
compared to bud that is 1inch deep or w/e and just flicks up at you.

typically you want to stay outta the mud that you notice you are destroying the trail

common sense people common sense

Eatadonut

Hahah, brings back the days of offroading in my buddy's jeep. Took us 30 minutes with a powerwasher some days.

MattP.

Good point. It really depends on the trail's drainage. Some trails have awesome drainage and you can ride them day after a storm, others will be a friggin swamp all week.

Hopper

That pic brings back fond memories of muddy Fox Creek races So funny when you see an F/S DH bike but it is so muddy it looks like a hardtail, all the Giant DH's had so much mud in the linkage. Would have been fun racing in those conditions, lucky bugga.

[bEn]

Wow 90 mintues of cleaning! Sure did do a good job of cleaning it up. Nice bike

erhan

awesome...

Did you weigh the bike with all the mud on it?

LowCel 

Sorry erhan, my scale doesn't go quite that high.

Well Murphy's Law is alive and well. I went out for some 3x20 minute threshold work on Thursday. I made it through one interval and the bottom bracket started making so much racket I had to end the ride early. Apparently the bearings are shot. Unfortunately I don't have time to get new bearings before tomorrow's race.

I ended up having to switch the crankset out, I had to put the FSA Carbon Mega EXO crankset back on. Not only is it heavier but it also has standard 22/32/44 chainrings on it. This means that I also now have to run a standard 11-34 XT cassette but I also had to put a longer chain on the bike. I'm lucky to have the parts laying around though. Since this is going to be a pretty muddy race the extra weight won't make any difference. I am going to miss the close gear ratios of the 12-27 Ultegra cassette.

Anyway, here is a picture of it now, it's already to go tomorrow. I haven't decided on a which wheelset and tires I am going to be going with yet.

apclassic9

Go with the mud tires - Mountwood is full of slick red clay mud (what we call "slow mud" in WV). Look on the bright side, though - the prologue in on the road, and the stream will be running quickly for a quick bike wash afterwards!

RE riding on muddy trails - LowCel is right about the extent of muddiness, but one also has to keep in mind that WV race directors fully expect riders to pre-ride for weeks before a race, and they're out there grooming the trails every few days anyway..... as are a lot of the racers who pre-ride. Just another one of the things that make racing in WV so cool.

apclassic9

Just a thought, LowCel - grab the Clydesdale's weigh-in scale right after the race for a bike weigh-in - we could actually ask Greg to hold a contest for the most weight gained!!