Mountain biking in the rain, depending on how much it is raining, is something that has quite a few challenges to it. Doing this while trying to climb up a big hill or the side of a mountain, however, is something that is even more of a challenge to do.
Though this is entirely possible to do, it is something that only the most experienced of mountain bikers try to do when it is pouring down rain. There are a few things that you keep in mind, as well as a few tips to help you make it up the hill, but you should be prepared to walk up the steeper sections or places that are too waterlogged for you to get any traction on.
How To Prepare For A Climb In The Rain
One of the first things that you should do to get ready for a mountain biking trip in the rain is to prepare your bike as much as you can. Since rain mixes with the dirt on a trail, unless the trail is made up of a lot of rock then there is going to be a lot of mud for you to deal with.
There are a number of different things that you should do to prepare for this mud. One of these is to make sure that you chain is lubricated really well with a thick lube that will hopefully repel at least some of the mud from getting into the gears and potentially causing these to get jammed.
You should also make sure that you have the right tires for climbing in slippery conditions. Tires that you have already worn the tread smooth on will not be able to have any grip at all in the mud on the trail and could result in you literally sliding backward down the hill in the steeper, slicker sections of the trail.
Therefore, if you want to spend as little time as possible walking your bike up the trail, you should get tires that have a lot of grip to offer with long spikes on the tread. You may even want to consider using your wider winter fat bike tires, and you will definitely want to make sure that your psi is low so that your tires have as much contact with the ground as possible.
Also, when preparing for the mud you will need to do a few things for yourself. The first and most important thing is to get yourself a good pair of goggles that you can wear. When water gets into your eyes it is not really a big deal, though taking one of your hands off of the brake can mess up your rhythm and is a bad idea in general.
However, mud getting into your eyes is not something that you want to experience. Not only can it be painful, but there is also the possibility that there is something in the mud such as a piece of glass from a broken bottle or other things which you really do not want to get into your eyes for obvious reasons.
Your bike pedal and shoe combination is also something that you should definitely think about in terms of wet and mud. Both platform and clipless pedals have some potential disadvantages that you should be aware of before deciding which one of these that you will go with.
While wet and muddy platform pedals can make it hard at times in order for you to keep your feet firmly on their pedals, you should remember that you will quite likely need to get off of your pedals and walk up the steeper parts of the trail with your bike, meaning that your shoes will get quite a bit of mud on them. This can make it virtually impossible sometimes in order for you to clip back in when you need to.
Finally, when it comes to preparing yourself for an uphill ride in the rain you cannot forget to grab at least a waterproof jacket. On top of this there are also gloves to help your hands to not slip on the bars, shoes that won’t get water inside them, and pants or shorts there are somewhat water repellant so that you do not feel uncomfortable there.
Perhaps one of the most important things for you to do when you are getting ready to go mountain biking in the rain is to prepare yourself mentally. While this might seem to be a little silly, it can get quite a bit discouraging trying to go up a hill when both gravity and the weather are trying their hardest to push you back down or to at least prevent you from going up.
In order to help you to get into the right mindset you should remind yourself that going uphill is something that has only a small part to do with such things as strength to weight ratios. If only the mountain bikers who had very good strength to weight ratios could be good at mountain biking then big bikers such as Miguel Indurain could not have done so well in the European competitions which involved climbing.
How To Best Climb Uphill On A Mountain Bike In The Rain
While climbing in the rain is in some ways quite a bit different than doing the same climb in good weather, there are some things about climbing that will stay the same no matter what the weather is like.
The first thing that you should do when you hit the incline where you can really feel that there is an incline there is to shift into a smaller gear if your mountain bike has different gears to it. While you do want to hold on as much as possible to your momentum, you should be careful not to expend all of your energy while you are just starting out.
In order to help you last as long as possible, you will want to only mildly increase the amount of effort that you are expending by staying sitting on your seat instead of standing to power pedal. It is even more important that you do not try to power pedal in a standing position in the rain.
This is because not only will power pedaling make your feet more likely to slip off of the pedals due to the fact that they are already wet, but it will also shift your weight on your bike and can add to the lack of grip that your tires already have because the weight on your bike will be shifting from side to side some.
The position that you should be in involves a flat back that is not arched over the bars, bent arms with hands that have a firm grip on the bars without being rigid, and pedaling through your toes and not with your heels. This will help you with your balance during the slippery parts of the trail and it is also a good position to be in for climbing even if it is not raining.
You body weight should be centered on your bike as much as possible, both in terms of side to side as well as in terms of front to back. This is a vital part of going uphill since if your weight is too far back and closer to over the back wheel than you risk flipping yourself or causing your front wheel to come up and into the air far too easily.
At the very least the lack of weight on the front end of your bike will give your front wheel less traction, and when riding in slippery conditions you will need all of the help that you can get here. This same is true to a lesser degree if you are too far forward. However, since it is highly unlikely that your back wheel will be coming off of the ground if you are going uphill, in this instance if you had to choose the lesser of two evils then it would be better to have your weight a little too far forward.
To help your weight be slightly more forward you should lean forward with, as mentioned, your back straight and your elbows bent so that some of your weight is going down into the handlebars. Your head should also be on the trail ahead of you and you should carefully watch where you are going.
Even though climbing uphill is quite a bit slow sometimes, you should not get careless about keeping your eyes on the trail. There may be someone going downhill who doesn’t even know that you are there, and it is perhaps your job just as much as it is theirs in order to watch out for any oncoming bikes.
This is particularly important for two reasons. The first is that the rain will limit how far you can see and will therefore give you less time to react to anything that you do see. The second is because of the fact that they are coming downhill in the rain then there is very likely going to be next to nothing that they will be able to do to stop.
While you are going up the hill you do not want to keep shifting gears unless you absolutely have to. The more gears that you have to shift between when your bike is muddy and wet, the more chance that the mud has to work its way into the gears of your bike, so try to climb with as few gear changes as possible in this sort of weather.
More than that, while you are going up a steep climb this puts a lot of strain on the drivetrain, so shifting just as often will not work at all, and even less so with all of the mud, and is far more likely to end up getting your chain really stuck in a bad way.
If you must change gears then the best way to do this is to do a few strong, fast strokes to get some forward momentum and to take some of the pressure off of the chain first and then to shift. Pause or slow down in your pedaling in order to allow the change to be made and then you can keep going.
One important thing that you should mentally remind yourself to do during the whole climb is to breathe properly. It is a fairly common habit that when you are straining your muscles in almost any way that you will tend to hold your breath or to at the least not breath as deeply.
In the rain it can be extra hard to remember to do this depending on which direction the rain is blowing, since if the rain is blowing in your face then you may find it hard to want to take deep breaths. Still, this is extra important for you to do in the rain because your muscles are having to use up more oxygen to fight harder to push you uphill in spite of the rain coming down.
To help you to remember to breathe, your pedal strokes should also have a cadence or a rhythm to them. Keep your pedaling smooth and if you must slow down, or feel that you can speed up, you should do so gradually. Do not expect to have as fast of a cadence when you are going uphill as you do when you are mountain biking on comparatively flat terrain.
Final Tips
While these tips are not at all necessary, these things can be helpful and are good to at least keep in mind when you are doing climbing in any weather. The first one is that even if you can see far ahead in spite of the rain, don’t do so beyond simply scanning for any oncoming bikers.
The reason for this is something that is solely in your own head, but if you think about it you might agree. It can be quite discouraging to look at the top of a hill and to keep looking at it and not be able to feel that you are getting any closer to it. This is why it is much better to look at things that are much closer and more achievable.
By doing this you can give yourself a mental pat on the back for making it that far and you can feel that you are actually getting somewhere when you then pick the next goal. Besides, in the rain it is easier to get yourself discouraged since your progress will be slower even if you could see far enough ahead to the top of the hill.
Another good way to do this if there are not really any landmarks which you could set as your goals is simply to divide a hill into three sections in your mind. For the first section you should force yourself to go at an easy pace, then pushing yourself harder for the second section, and only giving all you have got after you are well into the third section of the hill.
Another thing that you can do is to have a song going in your head that has the same rhythm to it as either your pedaling or your breathing. Sometimes you may even be able to line up all three of these so that your cadence, breathing, and a tune in your head all have the same rhythm and this can help you to keep this rhythm for a longer period of time than you otherwise might be able to do.
Also, something else that is very important to keep in mind is food and water. Even when it is raining you will still need to stay hydrated, however downing a whole bottle of water right before you start your climb is not something that you want to do. As a general rule if you plan on doing something like that you should do so around 20 minutes before you get on your bike.
Food is something that you are more likely to thing of since most people are familiar with the 30 minute rule of waiting at least that long after eating before you are supposed to be exercising. You should also not be starving yourself either since you will be needing a lot of calories in order to push yourself up the hill.
Finally, if you are going to be climbing uphill in the rain it is always a wise idea to practice going uphill as much as possible when the weather is good. Anyone can say that they would like to be a better climber, however it is only by actually working at getting better by practicing at it that anyone gets better at something like this.
The more you practice, the more the you will be able to feel the rhythm of going uphill and you will be able to find a cadence that you can hold for longer, making you better and somewhat faster at climbing while expending less energy. As you continue to work on your climbing your cadence will be able to get faster.