I’ve been to the Alp’s a few times over the years, until this summer I’ve always taken my own bikes, but this summer I fancied something a little bigger than my typical 5” inch UK spec. trail bike.

We hired some tasty looking Mondraker Prayer’s for good money from a “well known shop” in Morzine, with another branch in Les Gets.

We had a great time, but the bikes = death trap.

Two of us hired, for three days – the list of problems:

1. The first bike I picked up had a duff freewheel which caused the chain to suck up into the drive chain. <bike swap 1>

2. Riding the rooty blue above Les Gets, tight and slow. Wheel drops out the frame at the back.

Off the bike, couple of scratch’s, but I’ve had worse.

I’d checked the QR’s, but what I hadn’t appreciated was that even when tight as at the cam, they are loose in the frame. Never seen oil and full of dust.

Quick clean, bit of oil = tight Q/R’s.

3. Rear mech hooks up into chain, tears itself to pieces. Take to shop in Les Gets. This one might be my fault, I’m sceptical, but don’t remember twatting anything. It’s getting towards the end of the day – so they give me another bike <bike swap 2>

4. Manage to get the third bike back to Morzine, rear brake pads are screwed and the Marzocchi on the front has less damping than a desert, and about 2” of travel. Back to shop <bike swap 3>. Noticed that the bike I’d been riding is back in the for hire rack the next day – still screwed.

5. Wheeey – I get two days of amazing riding. Heading back to shop on last day, my mate notices his otherwise reliable bike’s back wheel has moved in the drop out, despite our earlier re-tightening of the QR’s.

Anyone know of decent hire spots in Les Gets/Morzine, I’m going to take my own bike and stay out there for a week, but we’ve mates coming to stay for a weekend and they need bikes. I don’t want to kill them :-). Heard good stuff about Endless Ride, but I believe you have to stay with them.

Neil

Well, based on experience, I was about to recommend Flow but I don’t think that would work with you???

Rachel

Not hired in Morzine, but Zero G Chamonix last year was f**kin’ A.

Give Guy and Sarah at FlowMTB a shout, they have opened a new shop and hire Mondrakers.

Torico in Morzine were good for us – asked for the bike to be brought in twice in the week I think to check it over, replace brake pads, even service forks if I remember rightly. Good hire bikes and good service when we needed emergency repairs.

Have seen some shockers from the big name shops.

Torico, thats it….thats their shop!!

buy bike, take it over, bring it back, sell it. you’ll be saving money compared to hiring and you can give the bikes a few rides and service before you go?

Same as Dirtbiker100 said, easiest way. You will pay more but if you get something solid and reliable that you ride a few times over here, well, its better the devil you know than the devil you dont. Heres a pic taken in 2008 just outside the Pleney uplift of a Kona that was bought for a Morzine bike shop for the equiv of £3000…owner said he bought it that day, hit a drainage ditch a little hard and bounced off the bike at speed as it went bouncing down the track. When he walked to it and picked it up he didnt notice straight away, until he got on it and realised it didnt feel quite right!

AS db100 says.

We stood slack jawed (less than 200m from Super Morzine lift) as one bike shop proprietor ranted at a paying customer who was explaining that the brakes on his hire bike didn’t work. In the end there were three or four of us just looking, not speaking at shop guy who eventually relented. He will NEVER get my custom.

Buy here on ebay, give it a bit af a shake-down. Ride in Alps, sell in UK upon your return for what you paid for it.

The only place worth hiring a bike from i’ve experienced are holiday companies who sort out everything including guiding/food etc such as AQR or Switchbacks.

I’ll second Jemima’s comments.

Torico are excellent, though not hugely cheap. I rented a Mondraker Summum from them towards the end of last season and despite the fact that it had been used and abused for a season, it was in perfect condition. Everything worked exactly as it should, the tyres had just been replaced, linkages were spot on. Went to the trouble of setting the suspension for me.

Highly recommended. By the way, absolutely no connection with them, just a happy customer.

for those recommending buying, the OP said he’s taking his own bike but needs several bikes for friends hence the hire.

It wasn’t Flow MTB we hired from. We booked through an agent (clues in the name of the post), who subbed the hire out to Intersport. I don’t like flaming people, but I don’t want people to assume the wrong shop!

The bike I returned with screwed forks/brakes went back on the stand for some other poor chap, so they clearly didn’t care.

Mondraker Prayer a great bike, just staggered at how little maintenance the shop was doing. How hard is it to replace a set of brake pads! Whilst I’m not a fan of health of safety culture, I couldn’t let two bikes out which had stuffed quick releases. Your basically trying to hurt someone, and lets face it, a quick clean and light lube as part of your weekly checks sorts the issue.

I’ve hired in the UK from Biketreks in the Lakes and The Hub in Scotland and the bikes = mint.

I’ll give Torico and Flow a try.

I generally agree that taking your own rig is a plan, but I don’t like handing over my bike to the airlines where its not insured for anything like it’s value in transit, and driving isn’t always possible for a long weekend so I’m looking for a decent hire spot. This year I’m driving over for a decent stay and will be taking a Bottlerocket which I picked up for a steal in the LBS.

Neil

Hiring’s never going to be cheap. These companies need to recoup the initial substantial investment in the bike, and remember you’re normally getting full mechanical support too, plus (if the shop is any good, like Torico or Zero G) expert advice on where’s good to ride at the particular time.

I too saw some shockers when I was in Morzine, other than in Torico, generally rude service in the French places (I suppose it’s a less service-oriented economy) including an old lady being kitted out in full body armour (as in a full bodysuit) and a full face – I’m not judging her, but I doubt that’s what she really wanted, I think they were just trying to make a fast buck off her.

We hire bikes, and the current rate our average value of each bike is £3000, we maintain ours but crap can happen. So the outlay and maintenance (tyres and pads can last just a week) cost is very high..

Also as said it is easier to hire from the company you holiady with as they will cary spaes and fix it on the fly for you if things go wrong…

On an Alps bike, I’d expect new or almost new tyres at the start of the hire period, and definitely new pads.

Hiring a bike can make the trip if you’ve got the cash. You don’t have to faff at the airport, you’ve got more technical support and in my case last year the bike I got was nicer than anything I could ever afford “freehold”. But it has to be from a good shop that maintains them and will help you with repairs without delay.

I hired for a week because my bike in the UK was on its last legs and didn’t have the travel I needed anyway. Didn’t encounter anyone else who’d hired for the entire week, I don’t think it’s common. Mostly I think this is because most riders are way more obsessive about equipment than me, I just see the bike as a tool, not a personal thing.

These guys are brilliant. Stayed late to repair my sheared linkage bolt one year. Last year they tried everything to get a replacement hanger including trying to make one. In the end they lined up a commencal which was in great condition.

The locals use them for repairs and hanging about so that tells me something…..

Not mug on the site but the chap said just to email for info and he’d get it sorted….

http://www.nevada-lesgets.com/ang-restau.php3?catego1=SUMMER

As sniff- Nevada Sports- Top guys.

Nasher,

Yeah I know that hiring bikes is expensive – but we paid decent cash. In comparison to the cost of getting there its small beer. It was all a bit hurried last time, but we hired thru a dedicated MTB hire website, which turned out to be an agent.

I’m thinking ahead this time round, hence the post, and dreaming of sunny days in the mountains whilst hosing the sludge off my bike in the freezing cold twice a week 🙂

I wouldn’t want to hire on the cheap I can imagine your going to pile thru pads and tyres and service hours, so I can see the value in paying reasonable money.

Neil

Thanks for the good words about Torico – much appreciated.

We had Mondrakers last year, and I have to say that the freehubs did tend to get a bit sticky and, in some cases, fail. We ended up putting Pro2 hubs on our worst offending bikes because there is nothing worse than coming back to the shop after lunch with a customer already there waiting for you with a duff bike (apart from being that customer of course…) – luckily this only happened on a couple of occasions.

Thankfully the guys in the workshop did a sterling job keeping the bikes up and running.

The Prayer is a cheap bike – it’s great for the money, but not quite up for the constant pounding our customers gave it.

The Summum is a great bike – but took a lot of looking after though – not helped by unreliable 2010 Boxxers and tiny pivot bearings. The rental price reflected this all too well – high maintenance or what!

We learnt a lot in our first year, and know that reliability is key – so we’ll be speccing the bikes with that in mind.

As for next year… we’ll be keeping it British – we shall be buying a fleet of Orange bikes – 224 Evos and Alpine 160s.

They’ll cost €75 a day (either bike) – and you can book them online right now.

Cheers,

Guy
toricomorzine.com

Nevada-Sports: I rented from them a couple of years ago and for me it was not a great transaction. Had brought a DMR Trailstar with me but wanted to try a full-sus for the last day of the trip.

Got a Scott High-Octane off them, manitou travis fork. Admittedly crap fork, but they said it had just been serviced and I wasn’t too bothered. Just wanted to try a big bike out.

Problems:
– rebound on the rear was too high, had asked them to slow it down for me but to no effect, I twiddled it myself but never got the response I wanted, thanks for the help!
– tyres were bald, after 1 run I put my own wheels on the bike.
– no brakes on the next run, coast down the hill, get the shop to look at it, they change the pads
– on the uplift after having the pads changed I see fork oil streaming down onto the disk (how did they not see this), take the lift back down

Decided to give the bike back and call it a day, have lunch and pack up. The guy in the shop says he wants to charge me for the half day of f*cking around that I had to endure, I explain the litany of problems, he tells me if I want a good bike to bring my own … at this point I quite happily vent at him, given all the previous frustrations, so we have a small shouting match in the shop before a mechanic intervenes and I leave without paying.

Note, the owner was not there at the time. I had chatted to him previously and seemed decent, but in any case he hired a d*ck and won’t be going near them again.

YMMV