bit confused about this apparent need for 30 + lb / 160mm travel for “Alps” riding.

I’ve ridden Pyrenees, Chamonix, Chamonix to Zermatt etc etc on a range of relatively light bikes (Spec FSR, Trek Y bike (showing my age……), Yeti 575) and I’m 15 1/2 stone. Not into jumping (showing my age) but go okay in a cross country sense…. did bust the Specialized swing-arm, and loads of punctures until I beefed uo the tyres

More lift assisted x country than downhill, but am I not doing Alps then?

NW Alps?

Same as UK riding, but on bigger hills.

For me, Alps riding involves miles of seemingly endless flowing as well as technical singletrack, countless switchbacks, spectacular views, the odd lung busting climb here and there, lifts, and a nice cold beer and cake at the end of every ride 8)

No need for a big bike in my opinion. Have ridden there on skinny hardtails but now prefer the comfort and slacker angles of my Prophet. It’s a good idea to beef up the tyres though.

Morzine on an Orange Alpine.

Apparently…

alps riding.

you ride up and down a few hills. bit like the UK except the hills are a bit bigger, and more importantly the weather is better!

My mate Mr Sparkle ‘rode the Alps’ on an Inbred with Deore brakes.
It did have an XTR shifter on it though.

Maybe you should try harder?

Their ‘footpaths’ are like our gnarliest DH trails!

Their ‘footpaths’ are like our gnarliest DH trails!

not strictly true,

I give your a footpath in the UK, try and ride it, it is downhill afterall.

A path is as easy or hard as you want it to be.

Not true full stop, I’d say. You must have ridden some pretty lame DH tracks in the UK if you think that.

The lifts in the Alps make it much more possible to do bigger, steeper harder riding than is normally possible, when I go to the alps I like to take a downhill bike and just do things that aren’t normally possible most weekends.

Although I do also have a hankering to do some epic alpine rides, like Chamonix to Zermatt.

I always think posts like this are just the OP willy waving, and being a bit interfering. I don’t give a damn what you ride, but when I’m in the alps I like my long travel slack head angle and full body armour. I’ve been overtaken by many with lessor kit, and overtaken many with better kit. So what.

Essentially you can ride any bike in the alps, like others have said it’s just like here only the the tops of hills are higher. What I can’t understand is why you would choose to imply that anyone riding a bike with more travel or slacker than yours is “overbiked”.

If you can’t jump then you won’t understand!

OP you are xc-jeyboy.

MOst folk will ride tougher stuff for longer in hotter temps than over here.

Fiven the added temps and tiredness many like to pad up and ride a bigger bike.

That’s before you get into jumping.

I am trying to understand your point, but it keeps coming back to the fact that you rode around in the Alps on a variety of lightweight XC bikes until you broke one and that you had “loads of punctures” until you fitted something more suited to the job in hand.

+1 willy waving.

A well balanced and proportionate answer mrmo 🙄

Their mountains are generally bigger, and steeper. But argue against that if you want.

bit confused about this apparent need for 30 + lb / 160mm travel for “Alps” riding.

who says you need it?

To be honest, there’s no “need” for a front brake, suspension, pneumatic tyres, gears, or even the whole concept of a “mountain bike”. Is there? Its just that certain tools are more suited to the job in hand.

The first time I did the Alps was on a Hummer with 120mm forks. It was great fun and gave me the taste for many years of travelling out there. However, having a bike more suited to the terrain (steeper, longer, faster downs) meant I got more enjoyment from the experience.

I’m fairly positive I could get down a mountain on my bmx, it just wouldn’t be that pleasant. Or put another way – why do some people say that a 5″+ travel bike is less fun than shorter travel around trail centres, woodland trails etc? It’s because at the speeds you’re likely to do around woodland singletrack etc. are lower, and a short travel bike, or hardtail is more engaging at these speeds. Put the same bike down the Mega course, for example, and this “engagement” would just be a chore. However, try it on the 5″+ bike and you now start to get the same engagement as your hardtail around the woodland trail. Basically the bike you ride and the enjoyment you get is relative to where and how you ride.

As mentioned above, it doesn’t matter what you or anybody else is riding as long as YOU are enjoying YOURSELF.

The year before last my son rode the pyraneen bike parks on a cnoc 16, last year it was on a hotrock 20, next year it will be on a big hit grom.

Which bike do you think he will have most fun and go fastest on??

it was this that got me thinking about it, from another post re: Five / Alpine / Nomad

“Five
Light enough with plenty of travel but can it handle the odd trip to Alps? Test ride is due in feb. Will need the maxle at the rear.”

in my view, Five more than capable of above. But yes, other stuff more capable

Willy Waving? didn’t think so, but whatever……..

didn’t think I was commenting on anyone’s choice of bike either, but there you go.

XC-jeyboy? can honestly say never been called that before! 😀

charliemort – Member

so what is “Alps” riding then?

it’s riding, on alps.

the bike i’ll be taking to the alps this year is blue – does that help?

Surely the type of riding you’re planning on doing in the Alps should be more of a reflection of what bike is ‘right’, same as it is in the UK. If you plan to ride nothing but the DH courses then a DH bike is going to be best suited, a 6″ travel bike adequate and a hardtail will leave you feeling battered (doesn’t mean you won’t have fun though). Plan to ride a mixture of stuff (e.g. some climbs, more undulating trails) and the DH bike becomes a hindrance; for XC, it would be a nightmare.

What I love is the comments along the lines (not in this thread, yet) of ‘I overtook a few “stormtroopers” on my 4″ travel XC bike; that is the true willy waving. Of course you did, there are loads of muppets who think that they need a DH bike and every bit of armour possible just because they are going to ride down Pleney. A big bike and all the armour does not make someone a downhiller, it just makes them someone who bought a big bike and all the armour.

the bike i’ll be taking to the alps this year is blue – does that help?

My “Alps” bike is black (assuming you call Slovenia’s Julian Alps to be true Alps). Funnily enough my Odenwald/Pfaelzerwald bike is also black. Oh and my Lake District (Helvellyn/Altura Trail/NorthFace) bike is black, too. And I expect to take a black bike to Scotland this year.

Am I doing it all wrong by having only 100mm travel up front and no “stormtrooper” kit for those rocky trails that just happen to be on an alp rather than not an alp?

who cares?
Ride what you want where you want and don’t bother yourself with what anyone else does/thinks.

That’s another part of the whole ‘Alps riding’ thing though, isn’t it? People feel compelled to wear every bit of armour possible to ride out there, but wouldn’t dream of doing so to ride down something like, say, Snowdon which is a damned sight rockier, probably wetter & slippier, etc.

I took my armour on snowdon. Glad I did.

Surely the main difference though is having chairlifts. If you use them you will ride downhill more, and you don’t have to worry so much about the weight of your kit.

Damn I need to go again soon 😥

Nice troll 😉

Of course Alps riding is different, and yes, I wear far more armour there than I would normally. This is for the simple reason I do not have to cycle up so many hills. With many more jumps and long steep technical descents in a day why not wear more providing one is comfortable?

I also ride an Alpine 160 with Llanberis area being my local riding area 😀

A well balanced and proportionate answer mrmo

Their mountains are generally bigger, and steeper. But argue against that if you want.

the only things that make the alps different to riding in the UK are lifts and that tracks are longer, if you are looking at DHing you will get far more tired than in the UK because rather than decending for 10-15mins if lucky, you can decend for an hour but the tracks on the whole are technically no worse than what you can find in the UK.

I have been to Verbier i have seen some of the tracks available, i have scared myself silly by falling off, but i can find similar in the UK.

A mid life chrisis….

Loads of 40plus year olds high fiving at bottom of braking bump ridden tracks!

mrmo,you done that on the bike then? 🙂

snowdon rocky yes,but there’s place’s in the alps rocky as too.

Last time I was riding in the Alps it was the guy with the big travel Nicolai that broke his arm, not the medium travel XC bikes.

V shaped descent across a small brook and steep climb out the other side. Bad weight distribution on the exit, made worse by downhill nature of bike angles, caused him to wheelie and fall backwards into the brook, breaking his arm on a rock.

The bike does not maketh the rider. In fact, we’re all usually beaten up and down by our exceptionally fit elder rider on his Superlight who has this annoying habit of choosing the better lines.

No high fives, banned by the fun police.

mrmo,you done that on the bike then?

snowdon rocky yes,but there’s place’s in the alps rocky as too.

I am not that stupid! and that is my point, show me something hard in the alps and you can find something similar in the UK. I suppose one difference falling off a ridge in the uk you’ll fall a tens of metres, some Alpine ridges you might almost fall a Kilometre.

All the alps offer is bigger and lifts, they are not technically harder, the length does make them harder as you get tired. I find my arms ache far more as you have to use the brakes for far longer periods. your legs get tired as you are decending further, etc.

there are some mental things in the UK if you look. North Wales is home to LLangollen and loads of other secret tracks in the area.

Alps are generally built for large amounts of traffic so easier… There are exceptions.

I do think we are blessed for steep tech riding in the UK if you know where to look and don’t mind shuttling in a van.

high fiving

I will shoot them with a high calibre hunting rifle if I see such things.

What next? 40yr old men wearing their jeans around their hips/thighs with their boxers out?

Mid life crisis is what it’s all about. Escape from the family and the crappy job for a week with your mates and go and dick about on bikes in a foreign country where everyone (very handily) speaks English. Drink more beer in that week than you usually would in a month, laugh as your mate falls off into a stream, spend far too much money on stuff you don’t actually need, talk endlessly about that last run where you nearly killed yourself because you were going so fast, eat pizzas, burgers and chips every meal and then chat up the ropey barmaid (who you wouldn’t even give a second glance to at home), safe in the knowledge that nothing is ever going to come of it.

What’s not to love about that? 😀

Loads of 40plus year olds high fiving at bottom of braking bump ridden tracks!

Sounds like me, what exactly is the problem with that. Is it uncool, not the done thing or despicable and immoral?

Can you provide a reason argument not to enjoy getting down steep and technical trails (whilst wearing copious amounts of protection to reduce injury if you tumble) and then getting all pleased with yourself at the bottom?

I don’t think he was saying there is a problem with it but, as you and I have said in the previous two posts, it’s a reality.

I’m 40, am over-biked, it has some stickers on it and I drink too much on holiday. Do I care? Does anyone else care?

Actually, my girlfriend probably does 😀

Fair point.

You get 3/4 times the amount of descending done.
You get brake fade and arm pump on every trail.

sigh [dreams]