I’m going to PDS in August and would like to know what’s the norm in terms of protective clothing for general trail riding? I won’t be doing any road gap jumps or full on downhill.

I’d suggest knee and elbow as a norm. I also wear padded pants but have a history of landing on the same spot on my right thigh. If you come off and get up fine you’ll never know if the protection helped but don’t risk wasting your holiday being injured. I know how much that sucks.

Just knee pads and your normal lid.

No need for a full facer then? I thought that was standard issue for Alpine riding? Suppose ultimately you choose the level of protection you’d like in the event of a fall but I don’t want to end up looking like a knight at a tourney.

We’re off to the Alps tomo. I am using my normal Trail lid, some knee pads, and toying with the idea of nipping out and buying some elbow pads. Like you, wer’e not gonna be hucking it, just some fast flowy singletrack.

I would personally wear a FF – it’s hard to avoid the more dh trails even when you *only* plan to do xc stuff 🙂

cbmotorsport, enjoy!

justatheory – Member

cbmotorsport, enjoy!

Thanks!! I am like a dog with two ***** at the moment, I am completely useless at work, and cannot concentrate. They are not getting their monies worth today.

whatever the hell you want!

Far too contentious to suggest anything in here so I will tell you what I took instead.

Full Face (it’s lift assisted no need to worry about pedalling)
Knee/Shine – I Wore that in the UK
Elbows – As above lift and wore in UK for normal thrashing it
Pressure suit for DH days (it’s lift assisted no need to worry about pedalling)

YMWV

Sun screen.

as above for me as well,I wear the full face but its whatever you feel comfortable in.

Whatever you’d wear for a big day in the saddle on some proper singletrack in the UK and are comfortable with. We went last year and I was so tempted to get all padded up but glad I only wore my GForm knees and XC lid as I’d have been uncomfortable in full pads/FF helmet. Its not big or hard if you are used to doing UK red trails with ease.

The only reason I’d suggest any pads so if you have a silly off it wont end the day/weekend/week out there, especially if you get tempted by some DH runs 😉

My thoughts – We got back last week.

To begin with, we were both using a xc lid and I put my knee pads in my bag. By the end of the week we both had ff, elbow and knee pads. They were worth every cent. We ended up going faster and faster on harder tracks than we would ride in the UK. Mr TW used his elbow/forearm pads for the first time and carved a vicious gouge across the elbow cup. Without that pad, the best holiday I have ever had would have been ruined.
I would say don’t be put off by those making stormtrooper comments. On my very last ride of the holiday I was congratulating myself on how much I had improved and how much faster I was going, when I lost concentration on a wet cattle grid 😳 I face-planted the metal handrail and then buried my peak in the mud. When my ears stopped ringing I carried on with my ride. Without my FF I would still be looking for my teeth.

It was an amazing week and we are now desperately trying to arrange another trip in a couple of weeks. I have never smiled and laughed as much. I wish everyone a great time.

Knowing me, I’ll probably have a bash at a downhill run or try a big jump. Can you rent FF helmets when you’re out there?

justatheory – Member
Knowing me, I’ll probably have a bash at a downhill run or try a big jump. Can you rent FF helmets when you’re out there?

Why? If you want to learn how to ride properly, at home is probably the best place to do it, not on your holiday!

You can rent the works out there and lots of people do.

Standard advice- it makes more sense to pad up on holiday than at home, because if you wing yourself on holiday, you’ll end up enjoying it less or missing rides. At home, if I fall off on a sunday I just spend the week at work moaning. And since on an uplifted holiday you’ll likely do more descending in a day than you could do in a week in the UK, on unfamiliar trails, maybe unfamiliar surfaces (dust!), some of which might be quite hard, the likelihood of an off is higher.

Kneepads a sensible minimum IMO, you’ll never regret wearing good kneepads, the drawbacks are so trivial (less than a helmet, but nobody ever seems to think riding without one of those is clever…) I wear my elbow pads, they’re a little sweatier and can be slightly uncomfortable but again, they’re bits that stick out and are pretty easy to protect.

Everything else depends on what you’re riding, how you ride it. I’m going back to White Room, will wear my open face, elbow and knee pads. The riding could just about justify my fullface but it’s not decisive and I don’t want the hassle and discomfort. Too much pedalling and not enough crashing for my pressure suit. If I was going to do a downhill week in morzine or something, I’d wear all that stuff.

My pal and I did the PDS last year, used ‘G Form’ elbows and knees
normal helmet, thats all you need, did the full 88k, didn’t know I had the protection on. 36 degrees in Chatel on the Friday nice and warm,
keep camelback topped up.

I don’t see it being any different to riding in the UK so just wear what you would here…. Unless you want a good false sense of security, then go and buy all the pads you can.

Sun cream was the best suggestion so far as that is the highest variable that will change in the Alps, and most likely to have an impact on your h&s

Yep just like being able to 3000m of decent every day for a week in the UK 🙂

Can’t believe no one has mentioned ‘ribbed for her pleasure’. As Westwood said on the Radio One safe sex campaign, ‘you gots to strap it up before you slap it up’. Could have applied to cycling in the Alps just as easily.

Mike ok so the decents are linger, get bigger brakes. They are not special foreign rocks/stone/gravel

FunkyDunc – Member

Mike ok so the decents are linger, get bigger brakes.

Missing the point much? The more you ride, the more likely you are to crash. Maths and that.

Most people don’t spend that long riding technical terrain, In 1 week in the alps 70%+ of the riding was technical and we did a lot of riding.

The last lift assisted riding I did I clocked 70Km in 4hrs mostly singletrack.

mikewsmith – Member

In 1 week in the alps 70%+ of the riding was technical and we did a lot of riding.

Aye, very good point… Riding with White Room, we did a ton more descending than we would back home, but it’s not just volume, it’s content… I suppose the way to put it is that it’s all good bits. Around here, you mostly ride good bit-linky bit-good bit. Which I reckon is quite a big difference, if you’re not used to it, those wee rest periods and brain-recovery moments are fewer which makes it easier to get tired or just to get one step behind the riding.

There should be a set of rules for MTBing, like the rules for Road Riding
Rule 5 would be in there.

There should be a set of rules for MTBing, like the rules for Road Riding
Rule 5 would be in there.

Brilliant – not seen that before. That entertained me for an otherwise dull 10 minutes at work 😆

Sorry, I’m a girl so I don’t really understand ‘macho’. Could some one please clarify? Does HTFU mean:
-Stop being a sissy on the XC trails. Get a big helmet and full set of pads, hit the downhills and jumps. Ya mincer!
Or does it mean:
– You don’t need pads. Pads are for sissies. The trails in the alps are just the same as the Dales. Real men ride in nothing but speedos. Ya mincer!
Thanks for any help 😀

I don’t think you can compare riding in the Alps for a week with regular UK riding as you do consecutive long days of riding. The more tired you get the more likely to mess up you are and then your pads become your friends. If you are thinking having “just one go” the DH runs they a FF and some goggles and knee protection are invaulable, if you intend to ride multiple DH runs then all the normal DH protection applies!

Last time I went out there all the local ripper kids just wore neck braces, FF and maybe knee pads. They were about 12, bounced on impact and were very good riders! I do not fall into any of those catagories so wore all my armour. I was only riding DH so didn’t feel foolish and when I did fall off I got up again. Its up to you really but being on holiday in such a great riding venue will make you want to try bigger and dafter things, you just cannot help it and it doesn’t take much to have an off. I’d take every bit of padding you have to be honest!

FunkyDunc
Mike ok so the decents are linger

????

I seem to be getting confused by people saying
“I only ride DH”
do they mean this

or this

and some of this

What I meant was I wasn’t there for find any hidden singletrack or ride up any hills or do anything but use the lifts to take me and my DH bike to the top of the hill and then ride down it again.

You may argue that some of the tracks are not strictly full on DH ones, while some were more challenging. I still wore body armour, I still fell off and I still had a lot of fun! You could probably ride a lot of them without being padded up, like the local youths did, but to be honest I’m not as good as them and wearing armour make me feel invincible!!

A bottle of Factor 50

Not sure about POS but eye protection can be good for dust, mud and sun. Don’t want an eyeful at some of the speeds that are very easy to attain in the Alps.

Knowing me, I’ll probably have a bash at a downhill run or try a big jump. Can you rent FF helmets when you’re out there?

Worst idea ever, if you can’t already.

Seen it so many times, the ‘trail centre riding lads on tour mentality’. Peer pressured into doing something WAY bigger than they would ever consider in the UK.

Classic was the old Chatel road gap. You can see them all congregating round it on AM bikes, eyeing it up, one squids his way over it and somehow stays on, mostly down to blind luck & then the lemmings all follow, doing their best dead sailor impressions.

Normally one is seen being carried down the mountain, strapped onto a spine board a little later.

Still, it used to provide some light entertainment on the slowest lift there, watching all the casing, nose bonking & ball riding, just because the testosterone is running rife.

Ride within your comfort zone, don’t think it’s a good time to try anything stupid & wear what you deem comfortable to ride in.

Good answer there Hob Nob and good advice 🙂

12 years ago me and a couple of mates chucked our bikes on the back of the car and drove to Chamonix. We spent three happy days getting the lifts up and riding back down. We covered a huge amount of terrain. I had a 1991 Specialised Stumpie with no suspension, my mate Steve had a £100 Halfords ATB. Only Ian had a Rockhopper with suspension forks. All of us had helmets but nothing else. Truth was we didn’t know any better, but we didn’t get killed/maimed or even injured (other than the odd bruise and graze). Point is that there is no one correct answer, you don’t NEED additional protection, but you will spend all day going down, and given that you’ll almost certainly be on a FS bike, you’ll be going much faster than we did! It is tiring and when you’re tired you’re more likely to lose concentration and make mistakes. Having knackered my knees on a jump in my local park, I’d say knee pads are probably a good idea, other than that a decent helmet and know your limits and you’ll probably be ok

Ride within your comfort zone, don’t think it’s a good time to try anything stupid & wear what you deem comfortable to ride in.

Sage advice. I do like getting air and I’m comfortable doing it but never done anything big, like road gaps. I should clarify, that I won’t be riding everyday as it’s primarily a camping trip but couldn’t resist at least a couple of days while I’m passing 😉

Think I’ll go for knee and elbow pads with my usual lid. Cheers guys.