Mountain Bike Mud Runners

Why We Don't Like Muddy Tracks

From time to time a ride in the bush-land can turn into something more than you expected.

We have had some huge storms over the last few weeks in my part of the World (where I live) and so the riding conditions for different trails or tracks change dramatically. If your track is in a silty clayey sand environment then good luck on getting in a good ride on a track that was rained on over the previous 48 hours. In fact most will be closed by those awesome souls who look after them.

Of course we are talking about the sport of mountain biking here so it goes without saying that the water drains away from your ride trail in many situations ..... because your trail is in a hilly, mountain or other high area and water drains downhill! Make sense? But then you usually experience as many low spots or troughs as there are high spots, and that is where it takes time for the water to drain away.

Fortunately I live in an area where almost the whole capital city is built on (what is called in geological terminology), a sandstone shelf. And the mountain range we mostly ride in is an uplifted sandstone shelf that runs for thousands of kilometers in both directions about 50 kilometers in from the coast. Which means we have trails that are pretty much accessible within hours of the rain ceasing. We also have some tracks in that other geology where the mud is a BIG issue after rain.

So before we go riding we assess what trail / track will be traffic-able if there was a bit of rain over the preceding days. Some of our favorite tracks would be a mud bath for a few days after a downpour, while others will dry out reasonably well over a few hours.

A bit of mud can be fun; but if you get to your riding destination in the back seat of a mates ute you need to have a bit of respect for his "ride" and consider what sort of mess you are going to be in when you have finished your ride.

One cool little product you can use is a pair of mud-guards made specifically for mountain bikes; they are cheap enough to have no reason not to have a pair. Of course we don't want our bike to look nerdy 24/7, but just fixing these handy little guards on before you head out into the wet will save your clothes and your face, and other body parts, from being splattered with mud. It takes literally under one minute to fit them.

And even though your "ride" buddy might zip his mouth and say nothing if you have mud all over you; there isn't a single buddy in the World that would not rather have half clean mates in his ute rather than sweaty AND muddy grubby buds.
can turn into something more than you expected.