I’ve just done Les Gets, a first for me, and whilst it was great I noticed all the locals were mainly in DH rigs.

Currently have a SC 5010 with 140mm Pike – perfect for the other rides I did but I felt I got a proper battering at the bike park. Not that I particularly minded but did make me think about getting something with more bounce for such trips.

Having never ridden anything with lots of suspension would a 180mm+ bike help smooth out some of the battering?

Am I better off going for something like a Capra or the whole hog and get a DH bike.

Regardless it was great fun but you can never have enough bikes 😉

Depends what sort of riding you plan to do. If you stick to Les Gets and just hit the downhill trails then a downhill bike will suit better. Seems a shame to go to the Alps and just do that, though. Sounds like the bike you have is pretty suited a bit of downhill and a bit exploring.

How often will you use it?

In many ways nothing beats a proper DH bike for riding DH but if you only do it once a year not really worth it.

Other parts of the alps are more suited to trail bikes rather than the full on DH stuff.

Some of the rest depends on how you ride and what you are comfortable with.

Some good chunky used bargains out there so no need to pick up something new

I got back yesterday from my first go on the Les Gets DH tracks.

Im not really a DH kind of chap. And felt very underbiked with my 120mm Canyon Nerve. And Im not sure anyone had seen Racing Ralphs there before 🙂

But it coped with the green and blue runs pretty well. Yes you get battered, but watching everyone else on big bikes from the lifts it looked only slightly smoother for them.

Personally I preferred to use the lifts to get out on some bigger “back country” rides. Probably what we used to call All mountain or somesuch. 🙂

This is the view across to the park from the top of La Rosta.

When I’m next back there I will be looking forward to all the lifts being open so that I can go further afield. Monday morning, I had to climb 550m the old skool way to get up here

I wouldnt have wanted to do that on a big bike, let alone an “enduro”. I will take some bigger tyres out next time for when I want to ride the DH tracks again, but mainly its the trail riding I want to do out there and 5″ is plenty for that with a few DH thrown in IMO.

What nickjb said, there is amazing riding away from the bike parks and your current bike would be great.

I go for two weeks a year and never touch bike parks.

Thanks for the replies. Yes my bike was amazing when not at the bike park, and even there it was fun just really wondered what the bigger bikes would be like.

I suppose the truth is I won’t spend weeks at a bike park it would mainly be XC stuff / exploring.

Maybe I’ll just up my pike to 150mm for the Alps and save the £££ for more trips!

Slightly off topic whilst the scenery in the Alps is amazing it does show what a great job Bike Park Wales has done with their trails.

What you want is a nice carbon demo in large 😉

Oh I get tempted easily. I have been considering some DH racing next year, but as I’ve just got the 5010 not sure if my wife will understand another bike so soon!

You can always rent one for the day?

Thing is if you buy a DH bike are you just going to use it for a week in the Alps? Also bear in mind that you’ll also have to be:
Fat
Obnoxious to all other trail users
Wear just one jersey to ride in all week, (preferably a XXL Orange Humvee with the Camo arms) so that folk can smell you coming.
Ditto with shorts
Spend your afternoon shouting at the bar-staff/burger stall in bad frenchglish

Are you prepared to make that sort of commitment?

If you do decide on another bike, then my advice would be to look at an enduro bike, my reasoning:
I have a DH bike and whilst I do ride it a fair bit, if it came to replacing it, it would likely be replaced with an enduro bike. I ride less DH than I used to and the modern crop of Enduro bikes are so capable on the downhills, for the majority of the time wouldn’t miss the extra travel and could probably benefit from a lighter bike which pedals better.

This.

Or at least it’s what I’m going to be taking to the alps this year for my mtb trip. I have a feeling it’s going to be fun on the downhills! (will limit myself to greens and blues)

(will limit myself to greens and blues)

you know the Les Gets “Blues” arent like UK trail centre blues? 🙂 Just sayin’….

I would say a 150/160 enduro/am style bike and rent a DH for the day for fun if you want. I’ve done that a few times, the DH rigs are great for the bike park and the rutted trails but to be honest I don’t go to the Alps for that.

you know the Les Gets “Blues” arent like UK trail centre blues? 🙂 Just sayin’….

I know – I’ll happily take that on reds and some blacks in the uk… 😉

good for you oliver, it’s always good to see a nutter in pain out there

I take my normal bike, because I go to the alps for basically similiar riding- just lots of it, with uplifts. Just depends on whether you go for something different, or not.

My fave Alps bike was my 2011 Orange Patriot, 180mm, so much fun!, 160mm Enduro bike is a better all rounder.

I’m taking a 120mm 29er with 140mm Pikes and some tough wheels, expecting to get pretty battered but at least the braking bumps will be slightly less harsh!

Just out of interest, OP, what sort of stuff did you find the 5010 limiting on? I’m not sure exactly what LG is like. Were you hucking massive drops or did he suspension limit you on even the little stuff?

I’ve been out a few times and have come to the conclusion that 180mm bikes are most fun for the riding I want to do – big mountain trails that need pedalling out to – plus a bit of bike park fun for contrast.

But unless I was gonna be out there a lot, I’d probably just get a burly 160mm enduro bike now.

my first ever alps trip was on a 5″ bike with 150mm forks. The thing that got to you in the end was the roughness in places, just turned to fatigue really.

Much nicer with a bit more travel, that said there were some pics of Brycleand playing at Ft William national on the solo.

FWIW if I’d had the money I would have put some 170m forks onto my Covert for the Alps this year (currently running old 150m Fox’s), I think that would have been a good compromise.

I’ve owned 2 DH bikes, for me they were like elephants – unbelievably cool to own, but cost a fortune and when do you get to use them?? IMHO unless you’re up for racing a DH bike is a bit pointless, even with BPW up the road from me, I’d hardly use it.

In the 3 years I owned my Shocker, I’d bet money that it would have been far cheaper renting one for the day than owning it. It lost a grand a year in depreciation alone.

My G-Spot is great in the Alps on the stuff I like to ride, another 40mm of travel wouldn’t be enough to persuade me to ride the really nutty DH stuff again, I never really enjoyed it anyway. It flies down the ‘motorway’ DH trails, it’s great in the Parks and I even dragged it around PDS once (never again).

Saying that, I’ve got it because I’ve only got room for one bike, if I could have 2 and I owned a 5010, I doubt it would see much light at home.

nickc – yes i might try a renter, I can manage a little bit of “fat” but the rest of it I’m too old mature for, a certainly can’t say knarly and get away with it!

Sir HC – yes makes sense

oliverracing – Tomac inspired – nice!

Stoner – excactly that was my first thought, saying that the red I didn’t didn’t really differ to the blues!

sambob – yes it was the braking bumps that were the worst bit

wallop – braking bumos were the main thing, the rest of what I did was OK, loose stuff I’m sure is loose on any bike, I don’t really jump or do massive drop offs, but I did start to and felt fine on the bike.

P-Jay – Well I bought the 5010 as a do it all bike, I’m extremely happy with it and im sure 98% of my riding is covered. I think renting a DH bike is the solution to see what its like.

Never been to the Alpes with anything but a DH bike and never found it limiting so long as there’s chairlifts. OK that’s probably riding between trails rather than all day epics but if you don’t mind standing up you can find a lot of traction with SuperTackies.

What would I take if I went this year? My 11 y/o Keewee* and my Tracer. Ok I definitely need to be driving for that to happen but I could do anything then.

Not that that helps.

* Similar bikes can be picked up for around £500-600

Also worth saying the “Alps” spans 5 countries and a lot of trail.

Morzine is a very select part, I’d take a DH and a trail bike there, other areas I’d not bother with a DH bike at all

Taking hardtails to Morzine… again.
Between us that’s a Soul and a 456 and either a Trek 120mm fullsus or another 456.
It’s not only about shredding man made trail centre.

Taking exactly the same HT I take to the rest of the Alps (which as above, does extend far beyond Morzine, Les Gets and Les Arcs)

As good as modern 160mm bikes are there’s no getting away from the fact that they’re trail bikes and as such their DH performance is compromised by the need for the owner to be able to pedal them along trails, up climbs etc…a DH bike is a thoroughbred and its sole purpose is to descend like nothing else, I think they’re great.

26 inch wheeled DH bikes cost peanuts and even new Scott Voltages are less than £2000….Giant Glory, Spesh Demos and Trek Sessions are all on eBay for less than a grand and are only a few years old, there’s just something about a big set of dual crown forks, triple clamped in place and steering that doesn’t seem to get knocked off line….gliding over braking bumps etc….

Most people don’t use theirs nearly enough to justify having one but unless you’re limiting yourself to one bike for financial reasons then just get one and enjoy having the correct tool for the job when the time comes.

I’ve not tried personally, but I’d imagine a 140mm 5010 should be “enough bike” for the Les Arcs trails, which are less braking bumps & more natural singletrack, whereas somewhere like Pila (cetrtainly the park trails up the top) you’d benefit from a bit more travel to make the braking bumps more comfortable.

looking forward to the imminent meme ^

What Deviant said, although there are 160mm-170mm bikes that have suspension kinematics and the length to be very very capable, the GT Sanction is one such bike. The OP would have a LOT more fun on a bike like that out in the Alps than his 5010 and would still find plenty of places to ride it in the UK.

The Reign also has good suspension kinematics for DH, I used to run a 180mm park bike out the Alps when I was in my late teens early 20’s and my Reign is every bit as good if not better. Less travel but it uses the travel better so it doesn’t need it and it’s as slack and longer to boot. It also weighs 10lb less, this is where they are great! If it only had 80 percent of the performance of a pure blood DH bike but weighed the same as my old freeride bikes used to, then I’d get rid of it and replace it with a DH bike….but it doesn’t….I can push it ride it up and down trail centers with ease.

I’m going to change the air can out for an Ohlins coil for my next Alps trip though.

I do prefer dual crowns though, loads more steering precision as Deviant says. I wish the current crop of Enduro type bikes came with 180mm dual crowns and 160mm at the rear.

there’s just something about a big set of dual crown forks, triple clamped in place and steering that doesn’t seem to get knocked off line….gliding over braking bumps etc….

This is very true. I rented a Scott…Something or other… in Morzine a few years back now, and it was huge fun, but I was done after a day of seeing the same corners, same jumps etc etc. (same bit of sky-ground-sky-ground as I got the same jump wrong a couple of times…)

It was more fun standing the queue hitting each other with sticks on the Armour we rented, although the looks from the other DHers in the queue suggested that it wasn’t something that was “allowed”.

You were done in a day of seeing the same corners? There’s freaking loads of trails you can push or even ride 180-200mm dual crowned bikes to. I even ended up in Switzerland on my 40lb monster despite staying in Morzine.

Unless you want to be a park rat, or want to start racing DH, I wouldn’t bother with a DH bike now.

Hell, I still was still racing DH and mine was just gathering dust in the corner of the room.

If I lived somewhere like that environment i’d probably have one, but for a trip once a year & the odd pokey uplift in the UK? Not a chance.

Big bikes do make the trails easier, especially somewhere like the PDS which gets utterly hammered with ruts & braking bumps everywhere, but you will still suffer from ‘the claw’ at the end of the day – just happens a bit quicker on the little bike.

To be honest though, there is only so many haggard, blown out trails you can ride in a day – the off piste stuff is way more interesting & would be fine on a non DH bike.

If you’ve got space to store it’s, fancy a bit of UK DH, the a bit of money for initial purchase I’d say go for a 2nd hand DH bike if you want one; there are loads of bargains around if you look hard enough. I’ve had plenty, raced UK & abroad had countless holidays in Alps with them and always enjoyed using them; there’s nothing like a DH bike for DH tracks. I’ve a mate who’s live in Morzine for about 12 years and he says quite a few Europeans tend to consider them like Skis – they have a decent set of skis, boots, all the other kit but only really use them once or twice per year. The next year – they still have the same stuff that fits them perfectly, they know the history and how well maintained and can eventually be sold on without too much loss over hiring.

My first Alps trip (Les Gets & Morzine in 2008) was on a 2006 Enduro with 130mm forks because thats what I had. What a blast.

You’ll be fine on a 140mm bike.