Hi all, 3 or 4 or the boys are thinking of going over to the Portes du Soleil area, probably in August time for 3 days riding. Never been before and was hoping anyone could offer advice on the following:

Any suggestions of good places to stay, where to find something? How easy would it be to pick up something close to the chair lift in one of the resorts for 4 nights, rather than a full week?

As we’ll be flying whats the best way to take the bike. Does one of these bike bag things from crc work, do I need to spend 2 hundred quid on a travel box or would scrounging a cardboard bike box from my local LBS work ok?

Assuming we’ll be flying into geneva, what the best way to get 4 lads, kit and bikes to the resort? Are transfers fairly easy to come by, how much are they roughly or would we be better hiring a couple of cars/a van when over there?

Any advice greatly appreciated…cheers

When we went we (a few years ago now) booked with a company (TrailAddiction); if going again we’d do the same.

If for nothing else, price-wise it was hard to beat – and Guides’ with knowledge were great.

And how many actual days are you planning for riding? A lot of hassle for just a couple – better maybe just to hire bikes?

EDIT – we drove too, live in the south plus company car with fuel 🙂

tpbiker – Member

Assuming we’ll be flying into geneva, what the best way to get 4 lads, kit and bikes to the resort?

Drive, four blokes and kit? It’s cheaper to drive provided you get a good price on the Tunnel or the Ferry, Portes du Soleil you can do it in 8-9 hours not hitting the go pedal too hard (We’ve done it in seven from Calais).
Best if you can blag a van or truck, but it beats air and you have the vehicle in resort to try different areas.

It shouldn’t be difficult finding somewhere cheap provided there’s nothing on, contact the resort tourism info place. Portes du Soleil? That’s Les Gets, Morzine & Avoriaz right? Never biked there, snowboarded often enough, plenty of accommodation you should have a ball..

Advice = Enjoy yourself. It will be great.

2nd what thebikechain said. Its all pretty easy going once you are there and great fun. No need for guiding, plenty of places to stay, bit pricey to eat out. We normally go far a week and rent a ski chalet. The resort is at a fraction of it’s winter capacity so there are deals to be had. Email a few hotels, they might even arrange the transfer. Driving is a good option if you are down south. If you fly a cardboard box for the bike is fine, in fact IMO it’s the best option as they get treated with more care than a bag. I’ve seen plenty of bent bikes that travelled by bag.

Thanks guys!

I wanted to drive as well, the issue is that all the other lads have ladies/kids which means they are banned from a full week away larking around on their bikes, and as I live in scotland its pretty much an 18 hr trip either way. By the time we get down we’ll have to come straight back home!

Was planning to bike for 3 days, fly out monday/back friday. Your right bike hire would probably be a sensible option but I hear it can be a bit dodgy over there, plus it would be a shame to not see the Heckler in his natural environment! 🙂

Hull – Zeebrugge ferry if in northern England

Some of our group hired LaPierres from one of the shops I think we had a Froggy and a Spicey and both were great, shop even offered to swap the brakes to UK handed. About E70 for the day so a bit pricey and it is nice to ride your own bike.

If you only have three days to ride, I’d definitely consider going to a holiday operator who could collect you from the airport and provide guiding – in order to maximise your time riding good trails.

This is especially the case if you’re looking more for XC/AM than DH stuff.

I would recommend using Jolly Good Holidays for your first trip out to the Alps, based in Morzine and provide the required transfers to and from Geneva. They are very flexible with dates so they should be able to suit your requirements with regards short stay etc. With regards bikes transport, the CRC bags are fine, you just need to be aware of weight limits, i.e. Easyjet are 32kg max for your bike bag, unless its change from last year.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBR0Zg-O8NI&feature=g-upl&context=G2973969AUAAAAAAAAAA[/video]

me in front mate on his squawkey trek giving west country commentry

Used mountainbikebreaks , stayed in chatel all inclusive which included transfers and meals except lunch and one evening meal.

Busses all have bike racks and are free, but pick your time as they can be busy.

Took our bikes via easyjet in padded bike bags, wheels out bars off, spacers in frame, discs and pedals removed, halfords cardboard box inside bike bag and lashings of pipe lagging, put your spares and as many knee elbow pads ( extra padding) in bag as you dare. Easyjet were great if a little clueless.

I took a five with 150 my mate took his trek fuel and we both felt a bit overwhelmed on day 1, the five was the minimum id want to avoid limiting what I rode too much, although my mate did ride everything I did with 30 mm less travel ( shook a wheel to pieces though)

It’s a lot steeper and so much faster than anything is ridden in the Uk, so make sure your bike and brakes are a1, the braking bumps in the park can be pretty rough so talk to a shock tuner prior to going.

Overall it was amazing and I can’t wait to get back there!

Going here in July 😆
Might be able to advise on accom if you drop them a mail shot

Thanks for the responses! Sounds and looks absolutely amazing and having checked some of the above accomodation suggestions I reckon a full board deal with transfers might be the answer! Any ideas how much lift passes are at that time, I’m guessing 100 quid for 3 days worth that’ll let me explore the entire area?

Now all I need is to scrounge some of those halfords boxes and off I go! Awesome!

We stayed with Blue Rdige for Pass Portes event this year, they were flexible on dates and are nice people. Chalet is a short ride / walk into Les Gets or a downhill trundle to Morzine. From my recollection lift passes are a bit cheaper than £100 for three days. The company also do transfers for other operators.

Blue Ridge Les Gets

I think a day pass is 20euro, three days will be around 50 . If you are just going up and down the same area then it’s cheaper to get a card of singles, if you want to explore then get the day pass.

There are some good guide to boxing up your bike if you do some googling. Basically undo the rear mech and zip-tie it to the chainstay, undo the bars and tie them to the toptube, use body armour to protect everything and put some spacers in the drop-outs. Halfords might have some of these kicking about as they come with new bikes. Taking the disks off and sticking them in a padded envelope is a good idea too but can be a pain.

For my 7 day hol in morzine this the summer I’m working on:
£130 accomm – probably here: http://www.alptitude.com/index.php?page=prop_2_tel1&season=summer&lang=en&hist=
£100 travel – £20 return ferry if i book asap and shared petrol with 3 bikes 3 people in a passat estate
£70 Lift pass for 7 days.
pasta and sauces or similar for cheap dinners and supermarket beers. pints in bars are 5eur a go…

(yes if you hadn’t guessed by choices of accom and food i’m in my 20’s and going with a bunch of guys)

If you’re flying no need to hire vehicles once you’re over there all you need is accessible by lift. Also wrap your bike up like its made of glass. Last time I flew I borrowed a friends bike bag and ended up with a bent large chainring and 2 bent rotors. Hence why I always drive these days, means I can take plenty of tools, spares and wet weather tyres.

dirtbiker…defo the way to go! Especially the pasta and sauce:-) I’d do the same if I could…I’m 35!

assume the whole area and lifts is open in June? i’m looking at the second week? Someone mentioned the resort doesn’t fully open until July which was a bit surprising. Can anyone confirm?

ta

Only a couple of lifts open before end june. you should consider changing yr plans

tpbiker – most resorts lift systems aren’t fully operational till end of June, the Pass Portes sort of signals the start of the season. The bike Mecca’s like Morzine and Les Gets open sooner, early mid June might be a struggle though for mid week. You need to check specific resort websites. For example my mates wanted to ride Ultimate in Verbier in late June and found the required lifts were not open yet, the bike park was operational.

My tips….

Assuming you take your own bike make sure you give it a good check over before you leave – the Alps will make any minor niggles into big ones.

If you don’t already have some fit bigger rotors to your bike. I had one trip to Switzerland where I had a 180mm front & 160mm rotor on the rear. I boiled the fluid in the rear & had smoke coming from the brake at one point. Once I’d gone to 203mm front & 180mm rear I no longer had this problem.

Consider the spares you might need…

I usually take the following spares (for a week): –
3-6 tubes
2-4 sets of brake pads (I usually fit new ones before leaving)
Tyres (pair)
Spokes (at least 8 – some front, some rear wheel)
Mech Hangers
Derailleur (rear)
Bottom Bracket
Gear Cables (2)
Any other parts which are specific to your bike & likely to be hard to find if damaged.

Any spares you buy there will cost close to double the UK price (I learnt this to my cost when I had to shell out nearly £50 for two pairs of brake pads in Switzerland 2 years ago)

If flying take some time to pack your bike carefully (I took off all of the following & packed them carefully: rotors (packed between 2 sheets of stiff cardboard), rear mech, mech hanger, pedals). I made sure I put pad spacers in the brake calipers. I used plenty of bubble wrap & some pipe lagging from the DIY store. I also strapped my knee/elbow pads to the bike.

I have a DHB bike bag which I’ve flown with about 10 times now – the only damage I’ve had is one bent rotor. A box from your LBS will work well – these seem to get treated a little better by the baggage handlers.

Sometimes the problems you get aren’t the ones you expect – on the trip I was on one of the guys had problems with the rear wheel thru-axle coming loose – at one stage he had to get somebody to ride behind him to check it was staying in place!

I’ve also been advised in the past to consider using an appropriate threadlocker to secure the various bolts of the bike to stop them being shaken loose (not actually done this – haven’t had a problem)

And most importantly – enjoy yourself!

Fly pfff

Drive ha

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tpbiker – Member
dirtbiker…defo the way to go! Especially the pasta and sauce:-) I’d do the same if I could…I’m 35!

Me and my mate did the same aged 39 and 40. Do it – you know you want to.

[/quote]Me and my mate did the same aged 39 and 40. Do it – you know you want to.

My mates are much more civilized than me! Looks like its June 20th to Morzine, most of the gondelas appear to be open by then, and for 3 days I don’t think we’ll run out of hills to ride! Cannae wait…

TP the Pass Portes event is June 29/30 and July 1 – it’s not to everyone’s taste but I like it, a fun part of a holiday, it’s been extended to 3 days by demand, you pick a day to ride the route, tickets will sell out very soon after booking opens on the 15th. By the way if you can stretch to more than 3 days riding you won’t regret it.