This one struck me as I have been out on my bike over the last week or so. Here in the UK, after it had been wet and damp and sloppy muddy for the last couple of months, a cold front moved in just before Christmas and it froze the wet mud.

What does that mean? Well, apart from the trails feeling like they are rolling nicely for the first time in a while, and maybe our legs aren't as weak as we thought, it means OH MY GOODNESS THE GRIP!!!!!! It's like riding on velcro! Proper laugh-out-loud, how-is-it-this-good grippy.

Aside from the fact it was wonderful to feel the bike properly stick to the floor and really carve through some corners, it just made me laugh. Because feeling these changes, reading the conditions, feeling the rhythm of the seasons, it's quite universal to offroad cyclists isn't it?

Universal to us, but almost no other outdoor pursuit.

Doesn't matter if your dirt bike bars are dropped, or flat, or somewhere in between, we know about this stuff. We feel it; through the bars, through the pedals, in the air, reading the terrain. Viscerally feeling the ground for grip is what unites us, and one of the things that makes riding bikes offroad so special. That better understanding of nature. We might think we're mountain bikers, or gravel riders, or bikepackers or any number of other labels, but actually we're all just soil nerds!

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