Mud, sweat and gears How to ride through mud If you can’t avoid it

BY DOMINIQUE LAROCQUE

RESPONSIBLE MOUNTAIN BIKERS always try to preserve their riding environment. This means evaluating the trail condition and avoiding damage as much as possible. So I cringe every time someone asks how to ride muddy trails on a mountain bike. The answer involves two responses.

First, in a perfect world no one would ride a bike on muddy trails. This activity contributes to trail erosion and closure. Not good. Second, because I know that some people will ride muddy trails, I offer this advice: Don’t get dirty if you don’t have to. If you’re not racing, stay off mud. It’s that simple.

If you have to ride what looks like a large surface of deep muck, charge straight through it. Why? Riding around it only damages and widens the trail further. Although blasting straight

through isn’t ideal, it will contain the damage and prevent the mud bath from getting wider.

Sure, riding mud is fun but try a spa mud bath instead. Not only will soaking at a mud spa save the cycling trail, but it will protect your bike from grinding abuse. However, if you’re racing you may not have the luxury of choice, as Rocky Mountain pro-riders show on these pictures.

What follows are tips from Ned Overend’s book, Mountain Bike Like a Champion, as well as from Mountain Bike, and Bicycling magazines. 1. Keep your weight centred between the wheels, keeping your bike as perpendicular as possible to whatever muddy slippery goop you are riding over. The same principle applies when going around a muddy offcamber turn. Keep your weight changes subtle, and have the selfdiscipline to stay off the brakes. 2. “Ride light.” Be balanced, centred and gentle, especially when braking, descending, turning, and accelerating. Riding in mud is like driving a car on an icy road. Be gradual when steering. Don’t exaggerate anything. Be aware that once a wheel breaks loose, the bike can get away from you really fast. Stop slips before they start by riding one gear higher than you would in dry conditions. This reduces torque to the back wheel, reducing the slip. 3. When climbing a muddy trail, stay seated so you can keep pedal pressure as even as possible. This means “pedal in circles,” creating a circular motion with your downstroke, as well as your bottom, upstroke, top. The rounder and smoother the pedal stroke, the more efficient it is. Use a slightly higher gear. Fight for traction and momentum. 4. If descending a very gooey trail (even with gravity’s help), pedal hard to keep your speed. 5. Stay cool. As mud coats your drive train, you’ll get poor (or no) shifting. Often this will cause you to lose the use of the small chain ring and the smaller cogs. Your chain can skip because the rear derailleur is too fouled up to provide enough tension. At that point, just use the middle or large chain ring, and hope for sufficient gears with the available cogs. 6. Lube liberally. Wet lube will serve you better in mud since it goes on wet and stays wet. The most basic

wet lube, with excellent results, is motor oil. The more high-tech versions of wet lubes are synthetic oils and Teflon. 7. Get a rear tire (1.8- or 2.2-inch) that won’t plug up and become a de facto slick. Some tires are designed to provide top self-cleaning and traction (see the Barro Mud tire by Geax at www.geax.com/prodgeax/ mtboffroad/barro.htm). 8. For the front tire, plugging is less of a concern. Use low pressure; not so low that you get a pinch flat, but almost that low. 9. Maintain brakes and cables and wash your bike with a low-pressure hose or soapy brush, and keep the water stream well away from seals and bearings. Next time you absolutely must go through mud you’ll know how to do it safely and quickly. ≈ Dominique Larocque is owner and director of LaRocca XC Mountain Bike School and Creative Wheel Consulting. She represented Canada on a Rocky Mountain Blizzard at the 1991 World Championships in Lucca, Italy. Visit www. mountainbikeschool.ca to read about all upcoming 2006 camps for kids, teens and adults.