Mud

[legrandefromage]

Traveling west out of Cambridge you see this......



...... as it becomes hillier!

I've wanted to use that as a back drop for ages

 

[JamesM]

Its so flat, I can see the future.

But if you ride up to the top of a hill at night time you can see into space!!!

 

[legrandefromage]

to be left on the trail as a warning to others?

 

[Dr S]

Is that a screen shot from Time Team with the mad Wessex bloke on the right....

TR: 'What you got for us Phil?'
Wessex Bloke:' awroit Toneee, look a tharrrt, looks loik a couple of old bikes, probably Roman'
TR: 'Well F*** me, lets get them onto Retrobike and see if we can flog em. But remember we only have three days!'
Wessex Bloke: Har, har, yer roit Tonee, i moight be able to buy a new 'aat!'

 

[1988_Ben]

wow. practically doubled the weight of your bike.

One had to be disasembled and carried between two people it had gotten so heavy :shock:

I remember bikes with front and rear u-brakes, that seemed really cool at the time, until you went in the gloopy stuff. And everyone was saying "well, they're designed for Californian weather, not Britain" !

 

[jango]

it get's like that round here on a bad day, I wonder how a Cleland would cope.....they're meant to be good in the mud.

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

it get's like that round here on a bad day, I wonder how a Cleland would cope.....they're meant to be good in the mud.

Even Clelands can't cope with sticky heavy clay like that shown in the some of the previous photos. The main thing with a Cleland is that mechanically, mud will not cause problems with the brakes, gearing and bearings, even if you ride through it all day.

The Highpath built Clelands were the best. Not only did they have up to 2" of air between the tyres and the guards but the guards ran parallel with the tyre and with no narrowings or where the mud jam and lock the wheels. The sharp angled top of chaincase actually cleans the mud off the tyre sidewall whilst preventing it from getting onto the chain, derailleur and freewheel. The other mud feature of the Clelands is that above the knees, the rider is kept mostly clean and dry. The long front mud flap played an important role in keeping the chainset clean.

The Cleland "mud king" was the tractor like Dingbat. With its 3" 15psi rear tyre and elliptical chainset for improved traction, and narrow front tyre for cutting through and finding the bottom of the mud. The upright riding position helps in that less weight on the front wheel make it less likely to dig in. It had a 110mm wide bottom bracket shell for extra chain stay clearance and quick release stay-less mudguards to facilitate high speed mud scraping.

 

[GeoffApps]

I must admit that that muddy section looks pretty disgusting, especially as the track looks quite boring, so there wasn't the compensation of some interesting terrain.

For what it's worth, this is how my bike looks most of the time, life's too short for cleaning it.

 

[eastcoaststeve]

One of my favorite mud shots:

Steve

 

[sam_white]

One of mine recently: