Guest Post: Winter Mud Fest by MTB DIY Shed

Following on from our preparing your bike for winter post, here is the MTB DIY Shed talking about the joys of winter riding:

With winter sticking its head out and all us mountain bikers getting long faces thinking about
our bikes being locked away for months, it’s about time we face the weather head on this winter.

That’s what I did for the first time in the winter of 2012. I enjoyed summer so much that the thought of packing it all up and being a couch potato for month’s just didn’t satisfy my conscience. So I called up a couple of my buddies in October and told them about my plan and asked if they’d like to join the adventure. Some said ‘but what if it rains’, to which I replied ‘so what! So I told them to get themselves some winter kit and lights and get ready. Our plan was to hit the forest early every Saturday morning, it’ll be quiet, dark and we can stop for packed breakfast once we maid it up Castle Coch just outside Cardiff, South Wales. What makes the trails so unique at Castle Coch is that it has it all from, technical, to jump, super muddy and rocky trails but as an extra it has beautiful scenery with the 19th century Castle on the mountain.

Fast forward a few months and we got hooked. This was almost as exciting as summer riding yet a different ball game all together. I realised very early that my tires couldn’t give me sufficient grip after a few nasty falls in muddy conditions so I had to get some super grippy ones, so I went for the Maxxis Wet Screams. It changed things tremendously and it brought control back into my arena. I noticed that the benefit of riding in winter improved my riding skills to a large extend as it is in my opinion the ‘boot camp’ of riding especially with the UK weather.

So winter can come, ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’ and it shouldn’t hold you down. Finally I can look forward to winter again without a long face. It’s winter fest time baby! Get ready, get kitted, get on the trail and have fun.

Why the long face?

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