After dropping enough hints my mate has finally secured a week off his parent this summer in Morzine. I’ve never done an Alps biking holiday before, so I was hoping for some tips and suggestions on the below:

1) After much bone breakage over the last few years I want to have a good time, but not go nuts. I assume there’s plenty of variety, but if anyone has a specific suggestions for fast-ish, techy-ish trails without gap jumps or huge drops they’d be gratefully received (my frame of reference here is UK riding which might be wildly off, but I’m thinking ‘hard red’)

2) Bike. I have a 4 year old boardman FS which I love and a on-one 29-er. TBH I can’t really be doing with the hassle of transporting either of them out there. Should I rent? Or perhaps pick something up off PinkBike (though run the risk it could be an absolute shower)

3) We’re going with out respective wives. Both of whom do not ride but love the outdoors. Any suggestions on a mega sedate (no uphill pedalling) trail to introduce them to the wonders of cycling? I have something of a history of being not being a sensible judge of these sorts of things…

Thanks in advance 🙂

This will be my fifth time in Morzine this year with the guys and girl and their is a mixed bag of bikes going,2 Boardman fs 26r and 650b. They are trails all over the area for every kind of riding. You don’t need to hire a bike as my mate done most of the drops we did on his 26 Boardman.
My email is in my profile if you want any more info or a chat over the phone

Hi,

We stayed in Les Gets last year (family holiday).

The green runs in the semi-wet had pretty steep bits for people who don’t like MTBs.

For the Mrs the best bike trip was along the side of the river on the valley base. Picnic sedate / scenic etc. towards Samoens. Lac Montriond also supposed to be good.

Lot’s of out doors stuff going on: rafting, walking, canyoning, days by the lake. Take waterproofs too. Weather unpredictable.

For the more fun routes if you ride regularly you’ll be fine on all blues and reds. reds have gaps but as options. Main thing is that it is all steeper than over here and watch out for braking bumps like you won’t believe.

Great fun though. Enjoy!

take a range of spare brake pads. organic / sintered etc so you have the appropriate choice.

Cheers gman. We’re flying to Geneva, is it much hassle getting the bikes over there? I’ve flown out to Paris once with a road bike – they basically wrecked it. Also, transporting it from the airport to the resort might be an issue?

We have used Easyjet every time and never had any issue with the bikes also their are loads of transfer company’s that will take you and your bike to Morzine hassle free

Thanks Ade, that route sounds spot on. That’s the other thing which makes me think about renting – the overall I’m going to have to do when I get back if I take my own

1) Super Morzine and Chatel has plenty of fun fast trails which aren’t crazy. Family(?) , Panorama(?) and Serpentine are some examples I can remember. If you pick your lines, the Pleny black isn’t massively tech but hugely fun, and the blue is good too. When I was there I did check out some of the off piste, and everything I found was way way above my level, but there is plenty of marked stuff which is great.

As above, its like the UK only steeper and faster. The new red in Les Gets was insanely steep. We were there pretty early season and the braking bumps in Les Gets were pretty unbearable. This year I won’t be riding there again if they are as bad. Everywhere else was fine strangely.

2) I asked a similar question the other day: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/morzine-bike-options-rentbuytake-out

End result is I’ll probably be taking my bike out again, possibly renting for a day or 2.

@kiksy – thanks, that’s probably the way I’m leaning. My mate hasn’t got a bike, but I think he’ll either buy one or i’ll lend him my 29er HT.

I don’t mind steep, it’s the temptation to go airborne which end up with broken stuff

new red in Les Gets was insanely steep

😕

Where was that? On the Mont Chery side? There was a new red on the Pleney which was very steep in places. Saw a few folk on the verge of tears clinging on to the side of the trail for dear life. Terribly graded trail

Theres a few really easy, but fun green trails I’ve ridden with my (then) 8 year old Son – I don’t know the names but they run down the Super Morzine side and the Les Gets 1 side, the Green on Les Gets 2 is pretty steep and rooty for a trail for kids though!

Loads of fun non-bikey things to do and lovely resturants – your Wives will love it.

P-jay – thanks. I’ll let my ‘wives’ know 😉

Just got a pic, the apartment is right next to the ‘Espace de loisirs du pleny’ sign. It includes a guy in full face get up. Is that the name of a run, or the generic name for a the park? Also, I’m assuming I should take my full face?

Been twice, most of it is ridable on a hardtail. My Mate has done 2 weeks on a rockhopper out there!

I’d suggest looking into renting as by the time you’ve packed it up, transported it on the plane, and organised bike transfers its all qite a hassle/expensive, especially if you aren’t bringing a bike thats ideally suited for the trails.

From memory a enduro bike costs about 50 quid a day to hire, a dh rig around 80. If you are doing general exploring/not just the downhills/lift assit then its worth trying to get your hands on a dropper post i’d say, even if its only to attach to a rental bike. We did the passports 2 years ago and there were lots of ups and downs if you stray from the bike parks.

Enjoy – Morzine is amazing

ps..be wary of the mutzig…

Take plenty of brake pads and a set of mud spikes incase it rains. We took a set last year and it rained for 10 days straight, they were the only thing that kept us riding!

The green in Les Gets is great fun, I got my sister and my brother’s GF down it for two days. Slighty scary for a novice but they loved it in the end. Enjoy!

@BoardinBob

There was a new red on the Pleney which was very steep in places

Yeah that was it. It was the most scared I’ve even been on a bike, the steep parts were dusty, so very very little grip, and it was just hold on and hope for the whole way down. Made it to the bottom, went straight to the pub.

Yeah that was it. It was the most scared I’ve even been on a bike, the steep parts were dusty, so very very little grip, and it was just hold on and hope for the whole way down. Made it to the bottom, went straight to the pub.

I loved the blind corner into gap jump. That was hilarious first time down!

All of the stuff on the Chavannes side with the exception of the jump park is really nice and flowy, especially the red run, love that. Agree on the Pleney red, also the scariest five minutes on a bike in my life, mid torrential downpour trying to snake my way between magnetic trees like a paralytic Danny Hart having a fit, truely terrifying.
This was a few years ago so things may have changed a bit. We used SkiLifts for the transfers.

We didn’t do Morzine when we were there this year due to an injury. Went to Les Gets for a day and main red run down to the bottom of the long lift was horrific for braking bumps, it wasn’t something to enjoy just endure. The reds over the other side through the trees were much better. We spent a LOT of time riding the trails down from Avoriaz into Lindarets which were pretty epic, one memorable day just sessioning one long blue trail and getting faster and faster each time.

If the women don’t fancy riding they can always get a lift pass for walking which is cheaper. There’s a stupid big zip wire at the top of the hill near Chatel which may be worth a look.

@ Boarding Bob – going by name alone……

There was a new red on the Pleney which was very steep in places. Saw a few folk on the verge of tears clinging on to the side of the trail for dear life. Terribly graded trail

You weren’t by any small chance the mountain boarder who flew past me as I was deciding how exactly I was going to get myself off that trail in one piece?

There was some craziness on there, two identical ramps over the livestock fence, one with a down ramp….one with a blind drop off…..

Ha. Not me unfortunately.

The two wooden jumps were comical though.