[Closed] Riding in mud - How?

Loosen up, don’t hold the bars so firmly and look up & ahead, not at the front wheel.

Get a MTB.

^ 😁

I’m just as bad on an MTB

With mud you sometimes just have to let the bike go with it and steer by leaning, not turning and it takes times to get a feel for how to handle a bike in those conditions - if you're tense it can work against you. Also 35psi is pretty firm for any tyre in soft conditions - lower pressure enables the tyre to flatted out and will give you more grip. Find yourself a relatively tame piece of soft ground to practise on to get a feel for how your bike handles and in time you'll develop confidence.

Get a MTB.

He's got a point, I've a gravel bike and it stays in the shed when it gets wet and muddy - it's bloody lethal trying to push on in wet, muddy conditions, I've taken way more big slams on that thing than on my dh/enduro bikes this winter!

practise, relaxed and confidence that the ground is soft when you crash

Learn some balance skills. Track stand. Riding skinnies. These skills transfer across to weighting the bike for grip.

The ride I was doing was an 80km ‘gravelcross’ (Wildwood CX - really recommend it) so, in this instance, a gravel bike was probably overall better as there were quite a few road sections.

I do understand why an MTB would be better and really appreciate the other advice given

Looking ahead is the best advice. I’d read somewhere that if you look ahead your subconscious part of the brain reacts to changes in balance instead of your conscious part and is much quicker at processing what your body needs to do. Also you need to use a slightly bigger gear than you normally would for flat and uphill muddy sections and pedal a slower cadence. Also a tip from cross racing, always look for green parts of the trail as green equals grip, although it’s possibly not the most ecological thing to do.

Your tyres are too big, and pressure too massive, to be good in mud.

But it's not as simple as just dropping the pressure. Most gravel rides will be mixed terrain so riding around at 18 psi will just mean the bike will be on the rim and feel rubbish on other parts of the ride. But definitely lower it a bit, sub 30 at least.

Anything flattish through the mud demands power. Relaxed is always good, but don't take that to mean you just tiptoe your way along, you need to put out some controlled effort. Uphill in the mud is just really hard, end of, so don't worry about that.

Expect the bike to move underneath you, and let it.

Also, being able to get off without crashing is a good skill. I managed a full running dismount from clipped in when I hit some very soft mud on a night ride on my gravel bike, the bike went left faaaar more than I expected, and somehow I managed to eject myself and stayed on 2 feet, and held onto the bike. Of course there was no-one around to witness my amazing feat, bar the odd owl or badger, perhaps.

I set two downhill PB's recently in the mud. How, I dunno, but couldn't see a thing on the second descent.

I don't think Resolutes are that great in mud. Get some decent mud tyres for a start.

Narrower CX style tyres like the X One Bites tubeless will help the tread find something for the tyre to grip on.

The good advice such as relax, let bike move about below you is difficult in your situation re the blood thing, understandable.

It's a whole lot easier to relax and let a MTB move around IME.

I have a muddy section on my commute through some woods, on a steel racer with 30mm semi-slicks. Advice I would give echoes a lot of what is above

Firstly, relax. It's okay to let the bike move around beneath you and keep your head up and focused a few seconds down the track

Secondly, keep your weight central, whilst ensuring you are weighting the front wheel through your arms. Whilst it is okay for the rear wheel to be sliding around, you need to keep the front more planted. A front wheel washout is what causes most crashes. A lot of people will naturally shift backwards in loose/muddy terrain, but that unweights the front wheel which is bad

Thirdly, keep in a slightly higher gear than normal. Too low a gear and you risk the back wheel spinning out

Finally, get some decent mud tyres. Counterintuitively thinner tyres are often better in mud as they cut through to find grip beneath. They should also have wide treads. This may not be compatible with the rest of your riding.

And last but not least, enjoy it. Once you get used to the feeling of the bike sliding around underneath you it's fun and you can pull some good skids!

STW comes up trumps again. Thanks all.

Counterintuitively thinner tyres are often better in mud as they cut through to find grip beneath.

Cutting through the woods on my way home my Fatty is all over the place in the mud. My commuter with CX tyres just cuts straight through it.

Be smooth, especially with your pedaling but also steering & brakes

Muck about a bit, shifting your weight and see what it does (to all of the above)

Feel free to put a foot out on the off camber bits

Don't go any more than a little bit faster than you actually enjoy - what's the point in scaring yourself shitless on a long xc ride ?

Whilst I remember, in the mud either brake or steer, but never at the same time..

with 700×42 WTB Resolutes, tubeless at 35psi

Therein lies your problem

I run Resolutes all the time, but they are hopelessly imprecise, vague and floaty in mud. If next winter is anything like this, I'll be using something more suitable.

Two types of mud rider:
1 Those who think they are going to crash and therefore ride trying not to, badly. Probably me.
2 Those who know they are going to crash and just relax. They rarely crash.

Keep pedaling, ride like you are on ice easy on the turns, keep central.

Close eyes

Go faster 👍

Get some proper slop tyres, with some proper tread...? I've got some Conti Terra Trail and they're shite in the mud. The front wheel wanders where ever it wants, while the rear loose traction in a heart beat. Other than that, find some slop, ride it repeatedly, gain confidence.

The ride I was doing was an 80km ‘gravelcross’ (Wildwood CX – really recommend it)

That's my local area, it's ace riding on a CX bike

As above:

Mud tyres, I've got a 40mm Vittoria Terrano Wet on the front, it's ace. I'd have the same on the back but it didn't quite fit so put a Smart Sam on there which is acceptable as a rear tyre.

~25PSI, I find that 20 and the tyres start to roll around on the road so 25 is a good compromise. More pressure has negligible rolling resistance benefits.

CX bikes aren't long low and slack, do't try and weight the front wheel it's already weighted if you're in a racy position on the hoods or drops.

Look where you want to be and relax, focus on planning ahead and being smooth with nice arc's through the corners avoiding chopping and changing lines. A rigid CX bike with 40mm tyres at 25psi has far less margin for error than an MTB with suspension and 2.4" tyres at the same pressure, so the key thing is to ride conservatively and smoothly enough that you don't make those errors.

Find some sections of smooth level singletrack you can practice on. Try riding them smoothly, off the brakes, pedaling out of the corners. Finding the limit of the tyres is just a case of practice (and having tyres with a usable limit, at this time of year with the weather we've had that certainly isn't a semi slick!)

The advice I'm continually trying to give myself - Try and stay off the brakes, especially the front one.

Ride conservatively. Leave the heroics to others.

I suspect a lot of the advice you have been given here hasn't taken into account the consequences of banging your head.

Stay loose and enjoy the slither. On anticoagulants I’d walk. There’s no medals being handed out.

My advice? ride like an orang-utang, all loose and limby, do little swerves to stop yourself tensing upand feel what grip you have; let it surf through thick bits, keep pedalling fast in a nice low gear, keep your gaze fixed on your exit point. Gorilla through the really gloopy bits and enjoy it it's mud!