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The weather has been great here. I think my local trails are the best they have ever been. There are some rooty and rutty bits that I have struggled with in the past that I have really been enjoying without the risk of sliding off a root or getting bogged in a rut. Even the steeper gnaar is much more ride-able for a mincer like me (still taking it very easy, though). The only issue is that some of the armoured trail is now getting quite loose and marbled. I washed the front wheel out twice yesterday. Luckily I caught it both times but it was a bit of a wake up on sections I've been riding a lot recently. Its great how much stuff I am finding that I can ride, so I'll take the dustiness as a small price to pay. How are your local trails?
Same as yours!
Dried out so quickly the horse hoofprints didnt get eroded into the ground which is making my usual CX loops quite tough in places where normally jt'd be super quick!
Dry and dusty in the north cotswolds
They'll be perfect today, after yesterday rain. Last week they were like aerated compost, corners were blowing out all over the shop.
Dried out so quickly the horse hoofprints didnt get eroded into the ground which is making my usual CX loops quite tough in places where normally jt’d be super quick!
This.
Also, some of the fen loam is now so dry, it's like riding through sand...
Terrible.
Very muddy, lots of blockages, busy, no fun at all, you’d hate them
I wouldn’t bother, stay at home, I’ll let you know when they get better.
Beautiful here in fife, we’ve still had the odd shower, so not too dry, but even trails that are normally boggy are riding well.
Goldilocks trails.
The ridgeway is ridiculously dusty. I was overtaken the other night by a motorcross bike, and couldn't see anything for about 1 minute after he went past.
Still lovely though
We've gone from loam to dust to sand in about 3 weeks! After riding last night I came back like I'd been exhumed from the earth! Proper dusty.
In the spirit of treating this as an opportunity to fettle, I'm sticking a DHR back on the front of my Ripley. I hope this cleans up my rubbish technique when dealing with a scrabbling front wheel!
This time last year we were in Finale and it was cold and wet. All the trails were muddy!
Our local trails have the shortest window of hero dirt imaginable - so it’s now very crumbly and loose with random bits of chalk everywhere. Very fast running, anywhere between pretty good grip and very little depending on where your tyre lands.
Fun on the flatter trails but fairly dangerous if you’re trying to ride flat out (especially as the trees are so close so there isn’t much drifting room). Quite challenging on the steep stuff, but at least the tree roots aren’t murderous like they are in the wet!
There's no worries about social distancing, if I'd tried to get closer than 2m last night I'd not have seen the trail for the dust being kicked up off my mates wheel. My excuse and I'm sticking to it.
It's so dry I may even take the 2.6 Mary off the front!.
Bone dry on The Malverns..could do with some rain
Sand and loose rock has replaced mud and grit in the Peak District.
I have managed to fall off on both the rides I have did this week. Both on familiar downhills that I have done hundreds of times. I put it down to the dry loose and gravelly surface messing with my normal braking! Or I have got really crap during the layoff when I was riding road.
wonderfully dry on the Malverns but my poor cracked rib is preventing me from enjoying them (bike spill last week)
They were perfect this morning as we had a tiny amount of overnight rain to make it all super-grippy again, they were starting to get too dry and loose yesterday though. I haven't been out to the Beacons to check on the reservoir levels for ages but it does feel like we're in danger of a drought soon, streams and rivers are low and all the greenery is starting to look like it's yellowing.
A small shower or two would result in perfection, they are super dry and dusty right now, but it's the best time as the bracken isn't here yet & we have been doing a lot of building & maintaining so the next 6 weeks should be good (and not being torn to shreds!).
This time of year is my favourite.
A lot of the rocky Peak District trails are so dry that the top layer of rubbly gravelly shit that routinely gets dumped over them for "trail maintenance" is just causing washouts, there's a tiny window of braking opportunity before you're sliding.
Almost too dry.
We were supposed to have a thunderstorm at some point today, but not on forecast anymore.
That would have been nice, but I'll cope with dry & dusty for now 🙂
Quite clay-ey around here, so they are rock hard, not dusty at all yet and fast as hell. The footprint bumps have yet to wear out in a few places so it's a bit rough on a rigid bike but nothing a little suspension can't smooth out.
It did seem to dry out very quickly after the very wet weather earlier in the year though. I'm wondering if the ground is still drier than the recent average state as a lingering after effect of 2018?
it does feel like we’re in danger of a drought soon
I dunno we got through 2018 without a warning, but maybe cumulative effects, see above.
I tend to avoid armoured/trail centre type trails in the summer so pretty much perfect at the minute. A lad I work with has recently started riding again (over the winter) and had him out for a first 'proper' ride away from the trail centre stuff around Hamsterley Forest last weekend, he was loving it and although we did a warm up on the K Line trail first he said the unofficial/ off piste trails were way more fun in these conditions, can't beat a good old bit of loam
I made a promise to myself while riding through the Surrey Hills slop last winter: no matter how dry and dusty the trails got in the summer I would just be thankful. And I am.
PS The trails here are crap now - don't bother coming, you wouldn't like it.
I made a promise to myself while riding through the Surrey Hills slop last winter: no matter how dry and dusty the trails got in the summer I would just be thankful. And I am.
PS The trails here are crap now – don’t bother coming, you wouldn’t like it.
Pretty much this. However I'm going to be cheeky and ask for a drop of rain a few hours before my next ride.
Rock solid and rough as hell on the Mendips,since it dried so quickly.
I had vision blur from the thumping I was getting in some descents last weekend.
I made a promise to myself while riding through the Surrey Hills slop last winter: no matter how dry and dusty the trails got in the summer I would just be thankful. And I am.
+1
Afan could really do with some tree cover back when it's as dry as this!
it does feel like we’re in danger of a drought soon
Dunno, the Thames/Kennet through Reading still seems really high, it's barely dropped relative to the weir. Suppose that could be just a local change because the locks aren't being used so it's backing up through the town and making it look full, but the levels haven't dropped and it's still pouring over.
Same in the garden, the surface is baked solid but the water tables still quite high.
Local flooding today.
Lock down must be coming close to an end 🙂
Thames/Kennet through Reading still seems really high
we were kayaking on the Thames above Pangbourne over the last couple of days, and line of dead vegetation showing the peak flow over winter was about 2ft wide.
Fair bit of rain here last night, all seems to have soaked in fairly well though so hopefully it'll have damped the dust down nicely.
Got that lovely fresh smell in the air now. 🙂
It's rained overnight here,, so I expect my local is actually at peak, prime, uber hero dirt status.
Sods law, its also very, very windy 🙄
Beautiful here in fife
Not something you read often.
Trails around me are in top nick.
+1 for the 'fired pottery' hoof marks too. My normal ride is a mix of road, xc hacking and 'trails'. The 'xc hacking' (grinding slowly along field edges) is like riding across a ladder. A ladder that is several hundred metres long.
Bit of rain overnight here in Calderfornia. Hopefully get out later on (if allergies permits...yesterday was pretty grim)
A little bit of rain overnight. Nowhere near enough to to get rid of the marbles, but just enough to bring out the flies 🙂 I'm definitely not complaining though as I had a fabulous ride on some rooty climbs and drops. No way would it have been fun in the wet.
I think its rained here twice since mid March, trails are hard and dusty in even the worst mud attracting locations, thankfully the worst of the lockdown walkers have made for their cars and the trails are now rideable. I shall be out this evening for a little bit of cheeky action I think hoping this wind drops a bit though
I'd love a bit of rain now actually and been thinking about autumn already.
Local trails (Ross/FoD) are getting super, super dusty now. I thought they were about as slippy as they get when dry.
Then I rode in the Malverns this afternoon. Blimey some of the steep trails are easier to ride in mid-winter. Two options go fast off the brakes, go fast with tyres locked up. Some comedy crashing ensued. To my mate, not me 🙂
We had one ‘weekend’ of rain about a month ago. It made the trails slick for a day. Then they were back to being fantastic. And now loooooooose.
Oh and is anyone getting that ‘Days of Thunder’ flashback if you’re following someone. I reckon a safe distance is 20 metres not 2. Peering through clouds of dust!
Woburn is never as fast in a dry summer. Drying in spring seems best.
It rained twice today before I got there. Still sandy in places but great
Surely on of the Joy's of local riding is trails changing with time and seasons.
Although we'll exempt deep winter gloop from that
“Blimey some of the steep trails are easier to ride in mid-winter. Two options go fast off the brakes, go fast with tyres locked up.”
This is why I’ve stopped changing tyres for the dry months - a cut spike thingy like a Magic Mary or Hillbilly is the only thing with half a chance of braking and steering on the steeps when it’s bone dry.
Definitely, our local trails dry out, go hard for a few days, then blow out, like 2 inch deep dry compost, big Mary needed as much as it is in winter.
I'm really enjoying the rooty trails now. I've found a few excellent new bits near me to add to my local loop. I'm a bit concerned that as soon as it rains I'll hit them with same gusto and end up on my backside but for now it is brilliant.
Also, I thought the schools were shut. It's half term here and everywhere is suddenly full of kids. Where were they before?
I'm still rocking a Minion DHF and it's alright, but I agree a Shorty would handle some bits better.
They were wet, then became dry for a day or two, right up until about an hour before I went out for a ride yesterday, then it rained lots and I came back looking like I had picked a fight with a muckspreader.
I really need to get round to changing out my back tyre for something with a bit more grip than the worn out Spec Butcher/Purgatory I have on there right now, but it rolls well in the dry so I am kind of reluctant to as things dry out. Makes me wonder if the Hans Dampf I have on the front is to much tyre.
Definitely not complaining here. Trails dry, roads dry, haven't washed a bike for weeks - in fact, I'm having to remove chains to degrease them as they are getting filthy from the dust and not getting washed much at the moment. If things are a bit too firm offroad (and I can definitely relate to the baked-in hoof prints!) I'll take that as a price worth paying. Wonderful.
February seems a long time ago in lockdown, but I still remember the endless rain and storms, with events cancelled left and right - never known a month like it! I remember at the time wishing that I could have a few weeks where I was literally only allowed to leave the house so I could ride my bike on dry, dusty trails in glorious, warm sunshine. I think I might have wished a bit too hard for this - sorry all.
No rain here and lets hope it stays that way. Trails are running dry, dusty and loose.
Last time I rode Wharncliffe like that was back in 2007 when I busted my shoulder on a boulder after washing out on a corner.
Was looking at thy tyre stash in the garage for the new Levo SL, put the Slaughter back on the shelf, you can guarantee if I fit it we will have the wettest Summer on record
Holy crap it's fast.
My local woods is a right blast at the best of times but last night was just ridiculous. Embraced the drift and ending up beating my PB on an often ridden 1 mile descent by quite a bit.
It's amazing
Had a day of constant rain nearly 2 weeks ago on the saturday, which the trails really needed, they're absolutely prime now, but a few days away from being dust again. It's a tough life. 🙂
Swapping my Thunderburts or Racekings out for 3C Ikon's gets rid of the sketch on high speed 'marble' gravel corners for me at 15-25 mph on the few high speed descents in the New Forest. Slightly heavier tyre though. Probably ovrerall marginally slower but the extra confidence is probably a better day out. And I'm still glad I've gone back to 'tubes'. Much easier, quicker, cleaner tyre changes for the conditions. I'd like to try those new tread Racing Ray/ Ralph combo in the dust and loose gravel to compare.
Having spent time biking in Yuma last summer - I'm not complaining about trails being 'too dry'!