Winter Mountain Biking-Great Way to Slow Down

I love mountain biking in winter. I have since I started riding MTB years ago. In the early days I was living in and around Chicago. Winter can be hell there, and you have to find ways to get outside to keep your sanity.

Colorado winter biking on the Front Range is a lot different. This part of Colorado gets a lot more sun, and is warmer in the winters than sweet home Chicago. Snow melts here, back there, it snows and stays on the ground until March. Trails here can melt out fast, making them a sloppy mess of clay soil that you can’t ride in even if the trail isn’t closed.

Back in the Midwest, you just ride on the snow and ice. I remember studded tires and at one point I even had bike tire chains. (No joke they worked, but the weight!) In some sense, it was more fun biking on snow in the Midwest than here.

But I still love to get out in winter. But I’ve learned a few things since I’ve moved here.

Winter biking is the perfect reason to slow down and just enjoy being out. You’re not going fast. deal with it. But biking in winter can make you faster for the spring.

First thing that I would say is think flatter. Trails that you would never think of taking in during summer become the perfect fun reason just to get out. Especially if they are covered in ice and snow.

Second, take the simple, but fun, bike; or get one. There’s no reason to take a high-end mtn bike out to get trashed in the snow and grit. My personal fav in the winter is to take out the single speed hardtail. One gear keeps the speed down, and makes for a much harder workout on any uphill. I’m always surprised how exhausted I get going back to one gear. Choose wisely. Sometimes it takes a ride or two to get the gearing right.

I love flat pedals. I ride them year-round. But they really start to make a lot of sense in winter when you might need to get off the bike fast, or the bike desides to slide out and leave you behind. When you go down on snow and ice, you go down fast.

A simple bike is also easier to keep clean. It is a most harder to keep all those gears and suspension clean and maintained when it’s cold out. I have an unheated garage and the partner might not be too keen on a bike wash in the shower.

Enjoy an outside ride when you can. There are some days it’s just better to stay home, chill, and rest. If you are thinking about training for racing, this is the wrong place for you. Just enjoy the ride, it you did when you were a kid (hopefully).