The Mud is Not Your Bud!
It’s raining here in Southern California. Usually that means people are going to cause hundreds of accidents. But the bad part about the rain for mountain bikers is the mud.
For the most part, people usually stay off the trails when its wet. The general rule of thumb is not to ride until 3 days after the last rain. That way the trail has some time to dry. But you’ll get a handful of idiots out there tryng have fun by playing in the mud.
But what most people dont’ understand is that you can really fudge up your bike when you ride through the mud. For one thing, all that grime is not good for your drivetrain. Plus if you have caked on mud building up on your derailleur, it just takes a certain amount for the mud to cause your chain to get stuck and whip your derailleur back and possibly breaking your hanger or causing it to go into the spokes…OR just simply snapping the thing in two. Trust me…I was one of those idiots that thought it would be fun to ride in the mud…that was until I heard the snapping of my derailleur and bent back my steele hanger…
Oh ya, something about riding your bike in wet conditions is bad for the trail.