does anyone know of any good, well priced places to hire bikes in Morzine? Looking for something good quality but not super expensive (ie probably not Santa Cruz), just a trail bike rather than a DH monster.

cheers

There are plenty of places that do it but it's very expensive for a week. Even for a long weekend it works out cheaper to take your own.

Plus the bikes are TRAAAAASHED! I had the worst happen to me whilst out there a couple years ago, Chain Stay snapped on my SX Trail, hired what looked like a beast of an M3, returned it a number of hours later after realising how trashed everything was!

Just bring your own bike out there, I'd say a Rigid Single Speed bike you know and trust will be more fun to ride out on the big hills than anything rented!!

I looked into hiring a DH bike for just one day (wanted to try pleney out on a full on DHer rather than trail bike) and the cheapest I could find was 150euro a day. At those rates it would be cheaper to buy yourself a few year old second hand bike, take it over there, use it for a week and then sell it on when you get back…..

cheers all. It was the thought of travelling out with a baby, pram and 2 bikes that didn't really appeal. Think we might try and pad out the bikes with some baby gear instead and take our own!

Same experience here – some mates came out last year and a couple (relative inexperienced) hired bikes, didnt pay much attention until they started complaining of various problems during the day, and realised they where both completely shot!

with the pound and euro so close now its worse than ever and as steve says they are fully shite and probably set up for fatties as it makes sense to cater for the worst possible scenario.

Flow MTB base in Morzine hire good quality Santa Cruz hecklers and bullit's

Not sure if you have to be a guest with them though.

flow mtb hols

Try Endless Ride they have a couple of Orange Alpines to rent, which I did last year and they where very helpful, even though I wasn't staying with them.

Taking a bike on a plane is ok. I've done bristol to geneva for morzine loads of times with easyslut, they give you lots of kgs for your bike I think tis 30, so you fill the bike box up with loads of crap…
Fitting the bike box/bag in the transfer vehicle can be interesting, best to organise transfers first and let them know what luggage you will have. Out of interest where are you staying?

+1 for taking your own or buying a second hand dh bike and flogging it after. The hire charges are ridiculous. I looked at it for this summer and all I could afford was a kona fire mountain for about £50 a day.
Don't feel you need a DH bike though if you have a decent 130mm bike it will see you fine on the pleney and most other stuff but some of the less well maintained routes have terrible braking bumps so it's nice to have a few more inches. 13 of us traveled with bikes to Morzine this summer and no problems!

Yep – we have bikes for hire. They are expensive to hire, sure, but ours are brand new each year, they're not cheap bikes (£3k each).

We reccomend people bring their own bikes, sure, but if you've got more money than time, or don't want the hassle of packing / un packing / servicing / cleaning etc, then it's money well spent in my opinion.

Shop by the Pleney lift that hired out Scott's a few seasons back is worth avoiding. They gave my brother a bike for a weeks hire with shot brake pads, and when my chain snapped into a million pieces, they fitted a brand new chain onto a pretty worn drive train, thus giving me about 5 gears that worked as the rest slipped. When i went back they suddenly couldnt speak any English….

Only used them as the Chalet we were staying in had their Orange 5's we were going to ride stolen a few days before we arrived.

I'm off to Morzine In July with a group…does anyone have any names for a good guide to hire and shows us around. Jo at rideability is already booked up!