Mountain biking is a ton of fun and it is something that a large group of people love doing any chance they can get. However, the weather is one of the things that can’t be helped which is why many mountain bikers have simply gotten used to riding in all weathers even when it is stifling hot, below freezing, and when it is pouring rain.

Mountain biking in the rain is in a few ways much more dangerous than mountain biking in clear and sunny weather. This being the case, in order to avoid certain mountain biking injuries that you can get from biking in the rain, you should carefully read all 7 of the tips below and use them as much as you can in order to stay safe in addition to having the best ride that you can get when the weather is being disagreeable.

1. Pick Your Trail

Before you decide to go mountain biking on a trail in the rain it is usually a good idea to have ridden the trail you have in mind at least once in good weather so that you know what it is like before you ride it in the rain. Part of this is so that you can know ahead of time if there are any quick turns in the trail that you will need to watch out for and where these are at so that you can know when to slow down ahead of time.

Another part of this is so that you can know what the trail is made of. Trails that have a lot of rocky areas and things like that can sometimes fare better than trails that are dirt. The same is true of trails that have raised wood sections.

While either one of those options is perfectly capable of becoming really slick and slippery, these do not get muddy or anything like a dirt trail does which helps your brakes out some. Riding on a trail that is mostly dirt is also something that can be damaging to the trail if you are leaving ruts in the track due to the mud, so some places will not let you mountain bike there in the rain.

That is why you should always verify from someone who would know if you are allowed to bike on a trail in the rain. If it is only raining a little, or if the rain is simply a drizzle, then usually it is alright, but it never hurts to verify as it is considered bad manners in the mountain biking community to cause damage to the trails for any reason.

You should also take into consideration what the terrain is like, which goes along with the difficulty level of the trail that you want to try to do in the rain. For example, a trail that is a black diamond or close to it is a trail that is really difficult to do even in good weather and is something that you should not likely attempt to do if it is raining more than a drizzle.

Part of this is how many technical features that there are and if there are any steep and difficult climbs or any steep descents that you have to have control when doing. Technical features can get quite a bit slippery in the rain and are something that you should only even think about attempting if you have mastered how to do it already and feel confident that you can manage it. Learning a new technical skill is never something that you should try in the rain.

Uphill stretches can be manageable most of the time if you know the right techniques to help you, though these will be even more difficult than they would be in good weather. Downhill mountain biking in the rain is what you should be really careful about, perhaps even walking down the steeper areas since it is entirely possible that you could crash if you try to use your brakes and you do not have enough control on your bike, especially if the grade of the trail has you going down at a really steep angle.

Finally, you should keep in mind if there are any streams that are over or near the trail that these might have washed part of the trail away. There might also be trees which might have been already leaning and these might have fallen over due to the rain and be lying across the trail or blocking the trail with its branches.

Keeping these things in mind when you plan on going mountain biking in rainy weather is the first thing that you should do and it will help you plan for and mentally prepare for the challenges that you will be likely to face in addition to helping you to pick which trail you should ride.

2. Keep Up With The Weather Forecasts

If you are someone who is used to spending most of your days indoors, then you probably do not keep up a whole lot with weather forecasts beyond seeing if it is likely going to be a rainy or sunny day unless you are someone who gets tornado warnings. However, this is a very important part of mountain biking in bad weather.

You should not only know what the forecast is for the day, but you should also know what the chances of rain is in an hour by hour format in addition to having some way of watching the movements of the clouds so that you can guestimate at what times that the rain is likely to be at its worst and when there might be pockets of lighter rain.

The reason why both of these things are important is because there may be a chance that it can be pouring rain at 2pm and be perfectly clear by 4pm if you wait a couple of hours. Unless you are in a very strict timeframe with only a certain amount of time that you have to be on the trail, it is often better to wait until there is at least a higher chance that it will not be raining very hard.

This is why you should look at something that shows you what the clouds are looking like over the area that you will be riding as well. While these can change, and often do change, as you get closer to the actual time, this can be a great way to determine when the rain might be drizzling instead of coming down in sheets.

Another reason why you should pay very close attention to the weather is that you do not want to go mountain biking out on the trails if there is a tornado warning for obvious reasons. That would be one of the worst things that you could do, but looking at the clouds can help you when it comes to seeing if this is likely to happen, especially once you have gotten a bit of practice in reading the weather.

Perhaps one of the most important parts of checking the weather is to find something that you can look at that is as reliable as possible for your area. This is something that will likely take time for you to figure out, more so since there are so many different weather channels and apps that you can choose from.

One thing that you should keep in mind is that you might want to be able to check the weather no matter where you are so that you can go straight from work to the trail if you want to, so having an app on your phone that you can look at is much better than relying on a television or a computer to check. You may also want to use more than one app, one that you feel is pretty accurate with the hour by hour part and another one that shows the clouds.

3. Invest In Waterproof Items

Once you are all set, know what trail you are going to be riding on, and have found a good weather forecaster to watch or listen to which seems to be accurate enough, the next thing for you to do is to make sure that you are wearing what you need to be in order to stay as dry as it is feasible for you to do.

The first and perhaps the most important piece of clothing for you to wear is a rain jacket. The reason why I say this one might be the most important is because it can either make or break your comfort when you are mountain biking in the rain.

It is very important that this rain jacket not only does a good job of keeping the rain from getting in, even in those odd places, but also that it lets your skin breathe. This is really important in the summer when it is quite likely still warm outside even though it is raining.

Since the rain jacket will be covering up at least most if not all of your upper body, this can also trap the heat in with you if it is not designed right. Because of this, it can make you uncomfortably warm inside of it and can make you really sweat if it is not ventilated enough, making you even wish that you could take if off and put up with being soaked with the rain in order to be cooler which a good rain jacket should never do.

Goggles are another one of the really important items that you should wear in the rain. Rain added to the dirt on a trail is the perfect recipe for mud which can easily splatter your legs and can even sling mud into your eyes.

For this reason, protecting your eyes is a vital part of mountain biking in this type of weather. Water does not really bother your eyes, but mud will, and trying to wipe it out of your eyes while seeing where you are going is something that is nearly if not actually impossible to do. That is not even to mention all of the potentially harmful things that could be in the dirt that you do not want getting into your eyes.

Other items that you should at least consider getting are more or less optional and a matter of preference. One of these is shoes that are designed to prevent the water from getting into them. Depending on how you feel about having water in your shoes, you may view this as a necessity.

Then there is also the water repellent shorts or pants that help you not to feel that you are sitting on a seat that is really wet which can be uncomfortable as well. Gloves are the last item that I will mention, and getting water repellent gloves can be a good idea to help you grip the handles on the bike without slipping due to the wet.

4. Pack Some Extra Items

One of the things that you should pack when mountain biking in the rain is a change of dry clothes and a towel or something that you can use to dry off with, especially if you are going to try to do a long trail or will be spending a lot of time in the rain. This should be a complete change of clothes including undergarments, socks, and even shoes.

You should also pack a bucket of water if you can, or at least a bucket that you can place wide open to catch the rain while you are out on the trail so that there will be water in it when you get back. Though this might sound silly to do when it is raining, if the rain clears up halfway into the ride then at the end you will be really muddy.

Therefore, before you can change into the fresh clothes that you brought along, you will need some way of rinsing the mud off if it is not raining hard enough to do the job for you. The only other two alternatives are to either change into fresh clothes while you are still muddy or to get into your car to drive home without changing while you are still in your muddy clothes…

Assuming that neither option is something that sounds appealing, while you do not have to use the bucket idea you should still come up with some way of rinsing most of the mud off. You should also bring a plastic bag that you can put your muddy things in.

To make this convenient you can pack your dry clothes in the plastic bag. When you are done with your ride you can rinse off as well as you can near your car, grab the plastic bag with your fresh clothes, and then take it to a bathroom to change, taking your fresh clothes in the bag so that they do not get wet at all if you remembered to also pack an extra rain jacket.

5. Make Sure That Your Bike Is In Good Condition

Another think that you should think about and should prepare ahead of time for a ride in the rain is your mountain bike. There are a few different things that you can do in order to get your bike ready and, while these things may not be entirely necessary, they can help make your ride just a little more enjoyable as well as a little safer.

One of the best things that you could do if you plan on doing a lot of mountain biking in the rain is to install mudguards on both the front and rear wheels of the bike. Doing this will not only keep a lot of that mud from slinging up and onto you, but it will also help keep some of the mud from slinging into the chain and the gears.

Of course the mudguards will not prevent these from getting muddy at all, but it can at least cut down on the amount of mud that gets into them which prevents the mud from wearing them out as much during your ride and helps them to last a little longer then otherwise, and every little bit adds up.

If you can do so, another change that you can make for your mountain bike is to change out the tires and maybe even the whole wheels. There are few things that you can look at when making this decision, one of which is the tread.

A tread that has longer spikes while be harder for the mud to clog up and will give you better grip in the mud which is a good thing for a number of reasons. On that same note, tires that are wider will also help your grip, as will tires that have a low amount of psi.

Finally, there are also other things that you might want to look into, such as getting a saddle that won’t hold water on it in addition to being able to handle being wet, hopefully without it feeling like you are sitting on a really wet seat.

The grips that are on your handlebar should not get slippery or slick at all even when they get wet and they should still be easy for you to feel like your grip is still really solid on them. The same goes for your pedals which should not be easy to clog up with mud if they are clipless and which your feet should not slip off of easily if you are riding with platform pedals.

6. Don’t Put It Off Or Take A Break

Just the very thought of getting out in the rain, especially if it is a miserable combination of being cold as well as wet, is not a very appealing thought most of the time. There are a few things that you can do to help make sure that you get yourself on the trail in spite of the weather though.

The first thing that you should do is to not get overambitious by planning on doing a long trail that would take you a while to do even if the weather was nice. Instead pick a fairly easy trail, remembering that any trail will be more difficult and will take you longer to do in the rain.

When you are riding down a familiar trail you will be able to tell yourself about how much longer it will take for you to make it to the end, and this will help you hold out and keep going and can make any wet spots that seep through your clothes to seem more bearable since you can picture the end in sight.

Along those same lines you should also stick with something that is familiar so that you can remind yourself what you can expect. This last part is for more than one reason, and you should keep in mind that looking at a map while it is pouring rain is something that is not exactly very practical to do, so you also want to avoid taking any trail that you tend to take a wrong turn on or one that you feel that the rain might make you miss a turn to.

Another thing that you should avoid as though it was something that was hazardous to your trip is to go into a warm coffee shop, restaurant, or anywhere else that is warm in order to wait out the worst of the rain.

Unless you know for a fact that the rain is going to get lighter soon instead of staying the same or getting heavier, then the comfort that you feel in the warm, dry building is a sure way to end up deciding to not go for that ride after all.

Along with this is the fact that you should try to avoid stopping at any point in the middle of your ride if at all possible, or at any point after you have gotten wet already. This also means that using a lift to get to the top of downhill trail is also something that you should at least consider avoiding, even if it is one that protects you from the rain.

This is because when you are on the trail and pedaling you can forget sometimes just how wet you are and when you pause for any reason you are all the more reminded of how wet you are. More than this is the fact that that when you are moving the movement helps to keep you warm, however when you are still you can catch a chill even if it is not really cold.

If you want to keep going then, and not give up and decide to go home sooner than what you originally intended on doing, then the best tip is to just keep pedaling and not to stop anywhere. Of course, if you get a flat or something then you will have to stop to fix it, but other than this you should keep going.

7. Have Fun And Wash Your Bike Afterwards!

Finally, the last tip that you should use when you are mountain biking in the rain is to enjoy yourself. Instead of focusing on any of the bad points of riding in the rain, focus on how fun it is. You can even let yourself enjoy splashing through the mud puddles.

While getting wet is inevitable, the extra challenge that you can experience when you are riding through a slippery trail can more than make up for any discomfort. For those who love adrenaline, this is something that requires you to pay very close attention and to have even more of a perfect control of your bike.

When your fun is done though it is very important that you take good care of your mountain bike by washing it thoroughly from any mud that might have gotten on it. This is important for more than one reason, the first one of which is that the mud if left on the bike can cause parts of it to rust if it is not washed off.

Other than this is also the fact that the mud tends to get into the chain and gears of the bike. Once here the mud can get in between the chain and the teeth of the gear and this will stretch the chain out, once the chain is stretched out so far then it will need to be replaced.

The mud that gets into the chain will also wear away at the teeth of the gears, causing them to need to be replaced sooner as well. Therefore, if you do not want to replace a number of different parts on your bike, you should make sure that you get all of the mud out of the chain in particular.