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@kramer we've been considering la 8. Is it any harder than el chablette? Rode that today and survived.
I think it's much easier that Elle Chablette. Great fun, especially once you know the lines, a few tricky sections.
Also worth trying Farmer Jackson's. Left above the hut at the first right hander of Woodstock, then keep to the left at the first fork. Reasonably steep rooty tech goodness. Loads of grip when it's dry, alternates between loads of grip and absolutely lethal when it's wet.
Thanks Kramer 👍
Or go further out and do axe wound.
Or go further out and do axe wound.
I think that they're different names for the same trail?
Yes I’m a serial brake dragger 🤦
First time road riding in the Alps we made the mistake of hiring a chalet in Alp d'Huez village (at the top of the climb).
Anyway, day one and descend Alp d'Huez, got to the bottom and one of our group who was a big lad and not a confident descender, had dragged his rim brakes the whole way down. At the junction at the bottom there was a 'pop' and an inner tube popped out of one of his tyres, which had delaminated ie the material just unwrapped from the bead and the tyre fabric just separated from the rim leaving a hot sticky mess of bits of tyre.
Black 8 isn't hard, but it's hectically fast at times and actually hitting the features is a bit tricksy especially on the first run- I basically couldn't go as fast as I wanted to, while also being able to make decisions about what to ride fast enough, so I rode round a bunch of things that I should have ridden, or just plain didn't see em. Great fun though. Can you still duck under the pipeline and do the stuff over there? (well, the stuff that isn't mental, I saw a random ladder drop that I wouldn't ride in a million years...)
Can you still duck under the pipeline and do the stuff over there?
Yes. To varying degrees of not giving a hoot about your own self preservation.
Isn't that where White 8 is? Off out to Les Arcs a week on Friday, done it once before but that was 6-7 years ago..
Yes, and Pipe Dream, and Brown Pow (or the nadgery chute of death as it is known in my circle).
Cool - would you have any gpx or strava routes for them?
200mm rotors (at least, unless you’re teeny)
Just back from a week in Morzine. 180 rotors both ends were perfectly fine for me, and I'm 100kg (plus gear). Might not be the raddest of the alps, but still quite a bit of vertical, and momentum to turn in to heat before Newton made me go light speed.
Shimano are just too inconsistent
Mine (M8000) were again bang on consistent all week, with the only exception being the ride to the first lift after the bike had been stored vertical overnight.
Stock Shimano resin pads too. That set has done a week in Torridon and Aviemore, and another week in Glentress/Inners, at least. Did need to change them on the 5th morning.
Did consider 3rd party pads, but last time I used them I got stung. Superstar ones were coming off in chunks. And in our group last week, most of the rest were on EBC / Uberbike and somethign else, and were the ones with blued rotors, even though it's me that's more at the brake dragging end of the spectrum.
Hoarded a decent stash of Shimano resin pads, so I think I'm sorted for a while yet.
edit: oof! at that rotor though
I’m afraid not. Follow black 8 down until it flattens out and you’ll see a route off to the right. Duck under the pipes. Directly left is White 8, a little further on but still on the left is Brown Pow, straight on is Pipe Dream (the “easy” route), I think.
Just don’t run your pads to the metal too often please
Ridden lots in the alps & pyrenees, usually spend a couple of months every summer out there, never got on with uber brake pads, always started howling after a while, one of the spanish guys we were riding with at the time recommended Galfa pads - game changer
In Verbier one time we got caught in a storm so we just rode/slid straight down something standard steep for Verbier (very steep) cant remember the name, by the big cliff, I went through my pads, the backing and part of the pistons.
180 rotors both ends were perfectly fine for me
Sure, but there's literally no downside to putting 200mm rotors on your bike, while 180mm can be fine, 200mm will be better in the Alps. They'll stay cooler longer, make your pads last better and be more efficient at stopping for more control and less effort.
180mm tends to be fine for the bike park stuff if you've got decent braking technique.
From experience it's on the 2k sustained 25% average vertical descents where they start to cause problems.
The amount of variation in reviews is interesting though, it makes me wonder if they have issues with specific fitments?
I was wondering this as well. I've no investment in getting on well with Racematrix particularly beyond familiarity and having a few spare pairs on hand, if they were giving me grief I'd get shot of them immediately. But they were fine!
It does also make me wonder if I tried something else I'd suddenly be finding my brakes so much better that the scales would fall from my eyes, the strava times plummet, etc etc. Now I'm back in Bikepark Peaslake and so on, they'll do the job anyway though.
Another vote here for racematrix pads being shite.
On Galfer reds and also in Les Arcs area ATM.
I won’t even run them at home in the Tweed Valley as they’re just not up to the job.
I’ve just finished 6 days in Verbier and am now in the Racematrix are rubbish camp.
I’d never had a problem before but first 3 days on Genuine SRAM pads in my Codes and all was well. The rears needed replacing so put in some new RM pads and half way through the day they were howling and I had a very black rotor, they didn’t clean up or improve at all. I persevered for the next day but then changed them to some others (unknown brand) and they were instantly better, noise mostly gone and the rotor is no longer completely black.
I think I’ll just stick to SRAM pads from now on.
For reference Magura discs are 2.0mm thick whereas everything is 1.8mm, not sure if it makes a difference but I've never had issues in the Alps with various Magura's including the legendary Gustav's!
Said it before the race matrix pads used to be brilliant
The compound had an almost green tinge to it and they were brilliant
They the changed supplier and there utter garbage just glacé over
You can get them back a bit by removing them and scrubbing them together with some water but it doesn't take long for them to glaze again
SRAM HS2 are also 2mm thick. It does make a difference in the Alps.
TRP also make a 2.3mm rotor, Hope ebike rotors are thicker too. There are also fancy German rotors similar.
They are much more resistant to warping in my experience.
Anyone got comments on vented rotors?
They’re spendy and probably overkill for trail/enduro riding.
Heads up for anyone wanting to go under the pipes off White8.. 1. Loads of forestry work being done so the trails are getting destroyed with tracked forestry vehicles, 2. It’s actually off limits this year - was chatting to the owner of Gravity Lab and he said the police are actively finding anyone they catch using them.
Also, Gravity Lab are encouraging people to complain about the conditions of the official trails - they want as many complaints the tourist office as possible to help force more maintenance.
@philstone, are they fining for riding all unofficial trails or just that one? Might be heading back at the end of next month, or maybe not if they're cracking down on unofficial trails
I've never been one for worrying too much about which brand or compound pads I have, although I've been on various organic/resin/similar ones for years. Then I had day 1 in the alps on some Absima sintered things that had found their way onto my Guides. My god were they lacking in power. The hand pain was off the scale and I had to drag (brake hard) for long sections just because I lacked the power to brake as I normally would (not normally a dragger). New Disco green ones on the next day and all was well with the world. I was skeptical the issue could be just pads but I've been OK on these brakes before, and when I changed them I couldn't believe the difference.
For me, <200mm in the alps would seem an odd choice. If/when the rotors wear out on my big bike I might even go for 220s, and I'm only fairly little (<80kg).
Did Black 8 here too. Not a massively techy trail (less so than Chablette I think and the others near that) but tiring to do in a oner in a hurry to catch the tour go through Bourg. I only did it once so little jumping but it's quite a jumpy trail for what it is, I'd say. Would be fun to session it a few times. Seemed very heavily ridden (deep dust) but I liked it anyway.
We finally did black 8 on the last day and I inevitably cooked my brakes again 😆
Never had an issue with Race Matrix and we ride at least 2 months a year in big mountains. About to head off on this year's trip tomorrow, so fingers crossed they still work as normal.
I did have to upgrade to SRAM HS2 rotors last year to stop the squeeling though, the stock rotors that came with my new Codes weren't up to the job. No issues with 4 pot Shimano though, with Ice Tech rotors.
I’ll have 4 sets of RaceMatrix Code pads going up for sale soon. Unfortunately I’ve cut the cardboard down so can’t send them back.
I've got Code RSC brakes with the standard sintered pads and 200mm discs and really struggled with them 3 weeks ago in the Bourg area(Les Arcs, Tignes, La Thuile and Pila). Kept overheating them, the back brake in particular, lever sinking back to the bars and having to pump the lever on the fly to build the bite point back up. Affected my confidence/flow and spoiled it a little for me as a couldn't push quite as much. It wasn't air in the system as when they cooled the feeling came back just fine. Reading through some of these comments though it seems like its a matter of poor technique on my part by being such a brake dragger and not going brake, roll, brake ,roll. Certainly something to work on and try to remedy before I hope to go again in another couple of years time.
I’m clearly a serial back brake dragger given the colour of my rear disk and that I used 2 lots of pads for the rear and 1 for the front. I get the theory of roll and brake but on the steep stuff in the Alps as soon as your off the brakes your going too fast for my simple brains self preservation mode to allow
I’ve got Code RSC brakes with the standard sintered pads and 200mm discs and really struggled with them 3 weeks ago in the Bourg area(Les Arcs, Tignes, La Thuile and Pila). Kept overheating them, the back brake in particular, lever sinking back to the bars and having to pump the lever on the fly to build the bite point back up. Affected my confidence/flow and spoiled it a little for me as a couldn’t push quite as much. It wasn’t air in the system as when they cooled the feeling came back just fine. Reading through some of these comments though it seems like its a matter of poor technique on my part by being such a brake dragger and not going brake, roll, brake ,roll. Certainly something to work on and try to remedy before I hope to go again in another couple of years time.
This is the reverse of what I found when I put Code RSC's on my bike for my last alps trip! different strokes for differnet folks I guess! Still on the same RSC's with race e matrix pads in and 220mm front and rear.
Just back from a week in Les Arcs.
Was running Cura 2 with 220 Magura rotors and Trickstuff pads. No problems at all. Loads of power and they definitely got really hot - my rear rotor has some interesting darker colours and the calliper was still warm 10 minutes after getting back to the chalet.
I think the main takeaway is big rotors and good pads. You can't go too big on the rotors I would say.
I agree. 220 front and 200 rear are pretty much unboilable IME.
I get the theory of roll and brake but on the steep stuff in the Alps as soon as your off the brakes your going too fast for my simple brains self preservation mode to allow
Ha ha, yeah, I always say it’s like being dropped off a cliff. It does get better the more you’re out there though.
Resin pads all day long in the Alps after learning the hard way on day one . Metalic pads and 203 rotors cooked
2nd year out there Galfer resin pads E4 brakes 203 ice tech rotors no power loss braking and no bluing or screaming from the brakes, just a pad swap after day 3
Trusty - just the trails on the other side of the water pipes as far as I’m aware.
Spent today cruising around Morzine....
The number of folks I followed with squealing brakes because they were dragging them through every turn, down every swoopy section..... This in turn means I'm on the brakes and my pads start to suffer.
The number of folk who don't know how to ride/brake is crazy.....
Remind me not to visit bike parks during the school holidays (usually go end of August when most kids/families are back home).
Race matrix in the pyranees last year, horrendous howling for three days same as another in the group, swapped to galfer black standard on the guides recomendation, instant silence....as far as im aware galfur make hope pads.
I was amazed pads could make such a diffrrence and assumed i was over braking, but no, its like they have never been tested on bigger descents..