One of the biggest challenges with learning to ride ’cross in the mud is ... finding ways to ride in the mud.
Although this season is been incredibly muddy in several parts of the country, the typical cyclocross season seems to only have a few mudders in any given scene. And those muddy race days can require significant post-race mitigation and working with locals to make sure surfaces return to their usual grassy state.
Given these challenges, heading out to the local part and ripping around when things get messy is just not an option. It is poor form and liable to fracture relationships between local communities and cyclists.
Fortunately, every year about this time, Mother Nature provides cyclocrossers in many northern locales with a more friendly way to get some practice slipping and sliding while keeping the bike upright.
Winter 'cross can be fun for the whole family. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine
Winter snow in cyclocross hotbeds such as Chicago, the Northeast and Upper Midwest provides a great opportunity to get out and practice riding in slick conditions. For those readers in warmer locations, perhaps I can recommend a winter wonderland vacation in the Upper Midwest with fat biking, cross-country skiing, poutine, cheese and some old-timey polka music?
Since to me, everything is training for cyclocross season, here are some ways to get out and enjoy the winter wonderland while also maybe picking up a skill or two to help with your bike handling next cyclocross season.
Click the next button to read each of the five sections.
Bike Commute this Winter
Bike commuting can be good for your health, wallet and the environment. Bike commuting in the winter can be all of those things, with a nice dose of feeling and looking like a badass while doing it.
In addition to the above benefits, commuting through the winter will give you the chance to ride in sketchy conditions for most of the winter. Unless you are a power commuter, you likely won’t be ripping your ride to work, but the repetitions and practice keeping your bike upright can add up over the course of the winter months.
If you are gearing up for an early mountain biking or gravel season, spending extra time on your bike while others are locked in on the trainer cannot hurt your handling when better weather rolls around.
Admittedly, bike commuting can be downright miserable without the right gear. I may or may not have learned this the hard way over almost a decade commuting year-round in my Upper Midwest city. It will likely require a bit of up-front investment before you are ready to bike around town during the winter months.
Cyclocross and gravel riders always seem to be interested in tinkering with bikes and coming up with the right bike, tires and other components. Winter commuting can be a great chance to do that, just in another season.
Setting up a DIY winter commuter can be a lot of fun. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine
Pretty much any bike can work for winter riding. An older cyclocross bike with good tire clearance, a gravel bike, a mountain bike, a monstercross bike, they can all fit the bill. Why, it might even be the perfect chance to build a cheap bike or DIY gravel winter commuter.
For tires, pretty much anything can work. Cyclocross tires, gravel tires, studded tires, mountain bike tires, they can all be the right fit depending on your conditions and personal preferences. In the past, I have ridden 40mm file treads, 40mm gravel tires and 33mm intermediate cyclocross tires and had no problems—well, save my 1.5 wipeouts* per winter.
Then pick up some good goggles, gloves, headgear and boots and you are good to ride to work and play all winter long.
For those who are interested, stay tuned for a more in-depth look at things I have learned** while winter commuting.
* Scientific number
** Not much, probably
