What’s your technique for mudholes?
 

downshift & get ready to torque your way through it? go faster & blast through it hoping to glide over the top? anyone ever get their front wheel bogged down & go over the bars? :eek:

From what I have read and seen the recommend technique is to manual through if they are not too long. Personally I avoid mud.

ah interesting & yeah mud is evil ...

I can't tell you if it works because I can't manual for crap.

had to look that up myself. I can certainly get the front wheel load off for small obstacles. but haven't "popped a wheelie" since I was a kid

My technique is to stay off the trails when they are muddy because it wrecks them. Maybe you should employ that technique.

Besides continuous riding through the mud prematurely damages the drivetrain and brakes.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c4d001d05c.jpg

hmmm I've heard that, particularly in VT during mud season. I only asked cuz there are 2 trails that have singular mud holes, meaning the trail isn't muddy, there's just the one spot

this one is on a perimeter trail in a national wildlife refuge near me & bikes are allowed on this trail. they have a cpl "water crossings" nearby (with distinctive features to accommodate foot & bike traffic) but this is as-is. hoping management takes some corrective measures to protect the trail. but maybe the condition is so transient that it's not big issue for them

pic from last night

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c66b358e32.jpg

here's a bad pic of one of the water crossings I mentioned

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6555640d59.jpg

this next one is a single bad spot on a 22 mile trail. only rode it one time so I don't know if it ever dries up

pic from a cpl weeks ago

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1d2b878f10.jpg

Been dealing with mud on my trail rides a lot more this year and it depends on the size of the mud section for me. A smaller section I'll try and just blast threw it. The larger sections I'll spin and try and torque threw it. I also run into a lot of bigger puddles and those can be tricky because you don't know the what your rolling into. I had 2 on yesterdays ride that sucked my front wheel in to the point it stopped me dead in my track. If I was going fast into they I would have gone over the bars. I having been having a blast playing on the wet and muddy trails, and very seldom come out with dry feet.

yeah man, I've seen your stuff lately, what is going on out there?

The trails have been a sponge for a while now and everywhere I go water and mud await. I've been exploring in the Templeton Forrest area and it has some very rough trails that have been fun rolling on.

go East young man. a little drier but you still get some mud to play in

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...637859bcd8.jpg

Where's that and is it a region with trails or just on trail.

Mass Central Rail Trail Barre, MA. this was on a little spur parallel to the main trail​​​​​​ & there are others that need exploring near Route 122 / Worcester Rd

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3905.../data=!3m1!1e3

Thanks, I know the old rail trail that runs out of Winchendon center along route 202 headed west goes down into Barre, just wondering if there is a connecting trail somewhere into Ware. I'll have to put that on my list of trail explorations.

it's a full time job putting together rides that suit:

• time availability
• physical ability
• bike of choice
• weather
• distance from home

sometimes I bail on the research & just do a ride I know cuz I need to get out of the house quickly. but trying new combinations is time well spent. I remember, last year, I had to go to this one place three times before I got a decent ride in there

here's a tip. use 2 hands. was hand holding my sportcam when this mud sucked my front wheel to a stop sending me to the ground

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...2f7ccdcc4c.jpg

After growing up in an area that was filled with red-brick clay if you found a mud spot keep it wet or rinsed off. So far even on the east coast where the mud isn't all that sticky aiming for the center seems to work best. I don't go crazy but keep enough cadence to stay moving if a rock or stick is hiding. The worst thing seems to be edge around it or try to trace the wheel tracks of trucks gone before. The center 'between wheels' hump seems to be in most cases smoother. In my last XC race (Michaux Teaberry) it was many mud bogs, some almost a foot deep. Using that strategy kept the buildups down and ended up almost cleaner at the finish than in the first mile. Of course The worse thing for trail maintenance is to ride trails like that if they are not maintained afterwards, and the worse thing for single track is to skirt around it, making it wider.

Dang that looks like my kind of fun. I always have the camera mounted on my helmet or handlebars so I have both hands free. Do you have video footage to show us the fun you had ?

haha yeah it is! been torturing my cam & it developed a buzz when on the bars. so been using it on my helmet & hand holding it. advantages & disadvantages to both. then I put my mounting plate is a "safe place" just forgot where that was. found it this morning. but I have a new helmet so I have to decide what I want to do. got another cam (same type) en route for super cheap. so I'll be making my life even more complicated. btw ran across a flood zone that reminded me of you. nicknamed it the ZIPP Puddle. but I chickened out & turned around

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1460ff0d28.jpg

quit riding thru the mud? ruins the trail.
walk around it. ride around it. work with the trail group who maintains it to cover that part of the trail with some crushed stone or pavers.

really anything but riding thru it over and over would be good.

I alluded to that earlier but it fell on deaf ears.

This is why we can no longer have nice things.

You would need a wet suit to get thru there, an added camera just adds to the fun. Stay safe and stay dry.

This is actually the opposite of what you should do.

Do not ride around the mud - that leads to trail widening. Keep singletrack single. Ride through it.

In many areas mud is unavoidable (temperate rainforests like the PNW, higher latitudes, etc.) but is fine to ride through if the loam content is high. Again, the last thing you want to do is ride around it on singletrack.

There is no reason to worry about ruining the "trail" by riding through the mud in many of the previous photos. Those aren't trails, they are roads.

Post #7 is a trail.

Besides...riding through mud like that prematurely wears out the brake and drivetrain components.

This is the mountain biking forum. One can safely assume most of us are riding trails with our mountain bikes and not roads. Therefore if there is mud on the trail then stay off of it until it dries up!