I began this website in September 1999 as a means of learning to build a website. I had just started mountain biking and found that there was not a lot of route information about at the time. As I had quite a lot of walking experience I was familier with the moors, dales and lake district so it was not such a big problem for me but I though some route information might be useful to others. And so I created muddybums!

Most of the routes currently on the site were written in 1999 - 2001 and probably need up dating a little. I know a few good single track bridleways have been carved into ugly yellow mororways across the moors over the last couple of years. Traffic to the site has continued to increase every year to a point when it was suggested that I should try on on-line shop. The web site was given a more 'professional' in summer 2004 for the shop and I have still got managed to get all the routes and photographs loaded up in the new format.

There are numerous sources of MTB cross country route information available on the internet now but I will continue to try and update the existing routes on muddybums and hopefully add some new. There is always somewhere new to explore no matter how well you think you know an area.

I have now met many new friends through the web site and we meet most weekends to ride together. If you would like to join us, just send a message.

If you follow the routes on this site, I hope you enjoy them and ride safely with consideration for the environment and others.