[Closed] List of things to buy for a week riding in the alps?

Rear mech, glasses/goggles, grips, gloves.

more brake pads
a bike 😉
rain jacket and warm gear for spring, still cold on tops
more brake pads
money
insurance

a smile! you'll need that!

EDIT: a smile can be acquired locally!

EDIT: a smile can be acquired locally!

So can everything else

Dual ply tyres...

Driving or flying? If you're driving, just take a full bike's worth of spares, that's what I did! More brake pads I'd say, extra layers and a waterproof.

Juan - we struggled (in fact didn't manage to get any) to get some Formula brake pads in Les Arcs this year

So can everything else

But you'll not be smiling once you see the prices.

colonostome bay (sp?)

Rear Mech.
2.5 inch (at least) front tyre
Decent first aid kit. Mate got sent home from the medics in Morzine 'for a shower' before cluttering up their place with his bleeding limbs. We patched him up plenty and rode on. Not impressed.
Money - wheel barrows full of the stuff. It's frighteningly expensive.

Some gold plated insurance.

new legs

Make sure you take some pads for a type of brake you no longer use, like me. This did genuinely lead to me fixing a Superstar product with a rock (extra points if woody2000 is 10 miles away and needs the pads you brought by mistake)

I took spares I already had, didn't buy anything I didn't already have. Spokes, rear mech, cable inners, pads. Also put a bit of thought into things that might be hard to replace- threw in a spare lever blade. Even if you can get things while you're there, it's still a hassle and a loss of your holiday time.

MECH HANGERS.

If I was driving down, tbh I'd take tons of spare stuff- in fact if I had room I'd take a spare bike.

Oh yeah, if your tyres are up for the job and in good condition you're not likely to need spares.

But you'll not be smiling once you see the prices.

You mean like a cup of coffee in London? Or anything at a tourist venue?

Dual ply tyres and Maxxis free ride or downhill inner tubes.

Big baws

Do i really need that much hangers and set of brake pads? (Will i be changing this on a daily basis) I will probably go driving if some friends tag along. Maybe 5bikes all... All have no idea what alps riding is all about. They would take the plane.. Have a small van 3seats max... What is gold plated insurance that was mention?..

Providing i have all the spares mentioned.. What other things expensive over there ? Where i would most likely shell out cash?

Might as well take a spare rear mech and chain.

I'd go for 2.5 Minions if not too late. Dual ply or the Exo casing run either tubeless or with DH tubes.

thegman67 - Member

Dual ply tyres and Maxxis free ride or downhill inner tubes.

Bikevillage was mentioned, that's not really what they're about.

What other things expensive over there

Eating and drinking out, plus most bike bits are like UK full RRP plus 30%.

Or 80% in Switzerland.

got an almost new 2.5 dual ply minion for sale. did 5 rides in the alps + 3 at home. then went 29.

Email in profile. 😉

rear mech and spokes if you have em (or at least know what size they are)
spare tyres worth packing if you have em. last 2 times i've been out people have run off to buy more burly/ bigger tyres on the first afternoon!

personally i'd go dual ply tyres + normal tubes for les arcs. done me good the last couple of trips.

What sort of riding are you doing?

Not really sure what to expect.. Most likely equivalent of red routes (hints of black routes mybe) that we have here (uk).. And trails with outstanding scenery which we see in magazines (or cube bikes advertising)..

Dropper post.

Rear mech +1
Haribo. You don't want to be buying that locally. 😯

Dropper post (oh, yes...)/brake service/decent maps of the PdS/short stem+wide bars/high-volume mud tyres/waterproofs/waterproof socks/RRP Neoguard
- when it rains in the PdS, it really rains!

We did actually bleed our brakes halfway through our trip (the oil was black!).

I got through one set of pads in 4 days 😳

Not bike parts related but: Camera...the scenery is stunning 🙂

wallop - Member

We did actually bleed our brakes halfway through our trip (the oil was black!).

Maintain bike before you go! (also worth mentioning, you can have a ropey bleed with air still in the reservoir, that works fine day to day but if you turn bike upside down or otherwise rattle it about, lets that air get into the working fluid. And o'course there's no chance that the slingers will rattle it about, if you fly 😉 )

Dropper post... TBH I barely used mine last time, and I use it all the time in the UK. It was just down for ages, up occasionally, down for ages so apart from one day there was no point.

many many brake pads. many. in fact, if you have a spare bike, take the whole bike or just the brakes off it.

insurance, good insurance. mate bust his collar bone and this really paid off.

someone broke a saddle. several broke wheels.

i got a fface specifically for the trip and i am very glad i did - i got tired quite quickly cos you are out for hours, and i made a couple of silly mistakes and landed on my head.

Cleaning kit, lubes etc. A bit of cleaning goes a long way to keeping things working..

Good MTB specific insurance. Basic holiday insurance may not cover you.
Brake pads,
Dual ply wide tyres. I have got away with single ply 2.35 rollers on 2 trips.
DH tubes or tubeless.
spare Mech hanger.
Most stuff is available out there but it is not as cheap as here.
Sun cream
First aid kit. don't rely on others to patch your holes.
take it easy for the first couple of days to get used to it. No point breaking yourself/the bike on the first day.

Take a good hard look at your bike, especially the pivot points and frame bearings and ask yourself " If any of that goes can i get another at a bike shop" The answer is probably not. My friends trek lasted one day before he lost a bolt from one of the pivots and that was his holiday ruined 🙁

Oh, and all the other stuff....

Having gone last year, the thing you are most likely to break is yourself!! Collarbone/wrist for me, one other fractured wrists,and plenty of big abrasions amongst the 5 of us!! We are all pretty competent riders in the uk, but the Alps is in a different league. On day one, we were struggling down a green run, thinking sheez, what are the Red/Black runs like??

Actually, I preferred the Reds, as they tended to be bermed. The blacks were a bit mad though!! We tried the infamous Pleney at 6:30 one evening when the Stormtroopers had gone to the pub - we survived, but some bits were stupid steep!

If/when I go back, I want a bigger variety of riding, not just the named runs, and may go guided. My only issueis we will only go for a long weekend, so in season, the main companies won't take us.

Do take mech hanger(s). I didn't, and promptly broke one on the first morning. Spent the rest of the day trolling every bike shop in Les Gets and Morzine for a replacement. Which I then broke.

A shock pump if you're air-sprung.

From what you say maybe 2 weeks I les arcs and skip morzine.
Some simple rules take nothing fancy, lightweight or obscure. E.g. roval wheels.
Dual ply tyres. 2.5 is still good for lift assisted trails but if you can some 2.35's too.
Spare pads organic and sintered for long dry hot days and when it gets very wet in morzine.
3+ pairs of good comfy gloves
Spokes and 1 rim between you
Spare mechanics and hangers
Tubes normal ones are fine in dp maxxis
Full face
Set of brakes and rotors between the group
Go pro
Selection of pain killers
Dead inner tubes to wrap cover bike etc especially if the lifties are hanging them funny. And for fork mud catcher
A guide for 1 or 2 days n morzine.
Insurance
European breakdown
Brake fluid and maybe suspension fluid.

You mean

We are all pretty competent riders in langdegla

A set of pads would last me 2 or 3 weeks at least, anywhere in the Alps, though I havent ridden in bad weather there much.

Never bothered with dual ply either, 2.4 High Rollers and normal tubes were fine - but I'm only 11st or so in gear.

You can get too worried about spares, but if you are driving, you may as well err on the side of caution. Whatever company you are riding with will havve some of the stuff you need, plus there are bike shops in France too... It's just as important to make sure your bike is in good nick before you go, to avoid wasting everyone's time when you arrive and 10 minutes into the first decent.

If you take a dropper post, and it's fairly new, maybe take a regular post as a back up too (especially if you have a Joplin 4!). I usually take a spare BB on trips, that fits both our bikes.

I'd assume you always carry one spare set of pads and a mech hanger?

Do the other guests a favour and take plenty of jerseys 😉

And if you've got room for some cider, then all the better!

You'll have a brilliant time, go an enjoy yourself!!

@wolfenstein

You have quite a comprehensive list there, I've done a few trips and never taken as many spares as listed but you don't know - a couple of thoughts

Dual Ply Tyres - as others have said, nice and fat and run at as low as you dare
Chain Device (plus add extra protection to stays and if you are precious duct tape frame against rocks)
Wheels - friends who are more aggressive riders have broken quite a few wheels, ground is hard, speeds are high and if you miss a landing ...
I ride a normal helmet but I'm not an aggressive rider - if you do take a FF make sure you can strap it to your backpack - its hotter out there than you think which brings me to
Sun cream
Ibuprofen, Rennie, anti-hangover treatments, sudocrem or other rash, graze, sore @rse treatments
Camera

As above drive if you can, you can take more stuff. I flew for the first time this year and despite all my efforts I scratched the piston of my new Kashima shock 🙁

DavidT - no, don't really go to trail centres. I mean me all have plenty of experience riding Mountainbikes. Now I'm sure you are a god, I don't claim to be. I was merely pointing out the alps is a whole new ball game.

Im gonna wade in on the dropper post thing and say no dont. I deliberately took mine off due to the massively long descents rendering them pointless. If you are doing more xc type stuff then having to stop to raise/lower the seat in some of the most stunning terrain you'll ever see is hardly a chore. And, it's less to go wrong 🙂

+1 for painkillers! Nice to have, and annoying to obtain. Indigestion pills, some basic strapping stuff- things to keep you going basically. I took a load of the blue self-amalgamating medical tape, knowing it can keep me going even when things are not really working right.

I mean me all have plenty of experience riding Mountainbikes.

Riding mountain bikes where? The mountains in sussex?

But come on, the pleney run has some steep sections in it, as do most of the downhill tracks in the uk?!?!

The thing that'll ruin you most in the alps is the length of the hills and the braking bumps.

The long descents made the dropper post even more useful. If it was a Dh trip I wouldn't bother but for trail it was great especially round d les arcs. Just pop a normal post in the spares box.

For my first trip we took the spares list and split between the group.

[i]Good MTB specific insurance. Basic holiday insurance may not cover you.[/i]

Myth, as long as you're not racing, you're fine.

Hanger, couple of tubes, couple of spare brake pads,

before you go:-

Service the forks/rear shock if you've got one, check bearings/pivots.

Bear in mind though, it's just dirt, same as UK... 😀

Myth, as long as you're not racing, you're fine

....and dont intend requiring a helicopter rescue, unlikely admittedly.

Sorry OP, I guess this thread isnt helping much?!

Just check the wording and exclusions on the policy. All vary all have clauses and definitions. E.g. dog tag have cycling (road) mountain biking , dh mountain biking and race on different levels of cover and risk. Bwsr to check before. Rhetoric excess may vary massively too.

Ride sensibly, have fun, and you wont need a bag of pain killers, new pads every day, new rims or hospital treatment. Better to have stories of full day's riding than willy waving stories of crashes, broken bikes and A&E visits. IMO anyway.

Agentdagnamit great sentiments and ideas but in the course of 2 weeks with lifts you can end up riding the equivalent of months of descents in the UK. I'd rather be prepared than stuck either in pain of with a broken bike. Last trip I had one crash in 10 days and the bike was unscathed. I've seen stuff break and people hurt themselves on the simplest thing at the end of a day etc.

Take a couple of gear cables too. They can snap quite easy

Good thread...............

Wolfenstein - enjoy your week, I'm sure you will.

I'm obviously not Northern enough or DH enough to be allowed an opinion on here.

mikewsmith - Member

Agentdagnamit great sentiments and ideas but in the course of 2 weeks with lifts you can end up riding the equivalent of months of descents in the UK.

Yup. Every day we were doing more vertical than I'd do in 3 or 4 normal rides in the UK, not to mention that the trails themselves were often harder than a typical UK trail (not neccesarily in terms of the hardest features, but just the fact that there's tons of stuff happening, and often at speed). I reckon a week of alps riding did about 3 months wear and tear on my Hemlock, and at least thta on me too!

I was out for a longish time this summer (4 bikes, me and my son). The things I had to do were:
Replace gear cables (lots)
Replace rear mech
Replace tyres (3 between two of us)
Replace loads of inner tubes (mostly mine with single ply minions)
Replace a brake lever
Service fork and shock

[i]I reckon a week of alps riding did about 3 months wear and tear on my Hemlock[/i]

Really? How?

Admittedly I've never ridden a full suss, but still..In all my Alps experience I think the most I've done is change brake pads, and if I'm honest I probably only did because I'd bought them with me. the Alps in summer are pretty dry, and even when it rains it's tends not to turn into grinding paste, it's dusty for sure, but a wipe down at the end of the day was about as much as I did to bikes, a few punctures...that's it. Obviously stuff breaks occasionally, but it's often not just because you're in France..

[devils advocate]
I think a lot of folks don't look after their bikes well enough, and a trip to Alps exposes poor maintenance routines- especially full sussers
[/devils advocate]

Really? How?

My total stats for the year on Strava - 250,000 ft of descending, 100,000 ft of which was done in 1 week in the Alps.

My damage toll from last year's three-week Alps trip...

7 or 8 pairs of brake pads
One gear cable
One spoke popped loose
Lost the Mission Control adjust knob from top of my Totem.

How the hell do people go through so many brake pads? Do you get off the lift, apply brakes & let go again at the bottom?

In 8 years of Alps riding (predominantly DH), which amounts to over 5 months spent there we have:

- lost 1 pivot bolt on an IH Sunday.
- Broken 1 spoke
- Had 1 puncture (Dual Ply tyres/XC tubes)
- Lost 1 chain

Service everything before you leave, take a few sensible spares you would struggle with & go have fun.

Ride within your limits, remember you're there to have fun. I've lost count of the number of testosterone fuelled crashes I have seen out there from 'lads riding holiday' mentality. Guys eying up and being egged on to try stuff way past their pay grade - normally one guy has made something by blind luck & the unfortunate one spending the rest of the week hobbling around off the bike.

I live in the middle of Morzine... if you can't be arsed lugging everything or getting spare tyres then I'd happily sort you out for cost... which would be fair prices on second hand stuff (not morzine prices) or if I've got new tyres ect then chainreaction prices..

I've got all the tools and lots of spares usually apart from bike specific things like mech hangers

How the hell do people go through so many brake pads?

I had older Formula The Ones on both bikes. The pads just seemed to melt on the steeper runs.

Do you get off the lift, apply brakes & let go again at the bottom?

In a lot of Verbier, yeah pretty much.

🙂

It's been mentioned already, but worth mentioning again, don't take any obscure kit over there.. or if you do, make sure you have plenty of spares and know how to fix it..
Group I was with in the summer, one guy had some Pace RC41 fighter forks, popped a seal in one of the legs on day 1, even though he'd had them serviced just before, didn't take any spares.. guy in the bike shop gave him 2 choices, new forks @ £400, or hire a bike @ £80 a day..

If you're just riding around Morzine and portes de soleil, then you can get away without any sat nav etc, just when you get your lift pass ask them for a map, they're free and whilst not to any scale as such, are perfectly useable for finding your way around..

Another thing I found useful, an ice/heat pack.. you will definitely ache after each day!

If you're going to go to Bike Village you won't need the full face helmet, and you wont need big heavy DH tubes or tyres. What you use in the UK will be fine. They're all about big back country single track rather than lift assisted DH motorways. In a week with Bike Village in our group of 12 there wasnt a huge amount of brakes or fettling. 1 rear mech, a spoke and maybe a couple of sets of brake pads. Nothing major at all.

If you're going to go to Bike Village you won't need the full face helmet, and you wont need big heavy DH tubes or tyres. What you use in the UK will be fine. They're all about big back country single track rather than lift assisted DH motorways. In a week with Bike Village in our group of 12 there wasnt a huge amount of brakes or fettling. 1 rear mech, a spoke and maybe a couple of sets of brake pads. Nothing major at all.

Absolutely. I think the biggest bike in our group was 140mm. In a FF helmet you will cook when the sun comes out and there is a fair amount of up/down/up/down. A dropper post is useful. I used a Rampage SC 2.25 tyre on the front with a Spesh Captain 2.0 on the back and it was perfect. We had 3 days of rain and one set of pads was fine all week. Worth taking arm and leg warmers as the temperature difference between the top and the bottom can be very significant - I was SO pleased to have them. Sam at BV has a well equipped workshop so you only need trail tools.
BV also have a washing machine so at the end of the day we all just bunged our kit in and it was clean and dry for the next day - great not to have smelly gloves after 3 days.
Medical kit is useful so if you do get a headache or stomach ache you have stuff with you.
Apart from that, just go and have fun!

nickc - Member

I reckon a week of alps riding did about 3 months wear and tear on my Hemlock

Really? How?

Because of maths! Just pure altitude dropped/distance covered, and the nature of the trails (also riding fast on unfamiliar trails does put a bit more stress on things)

I think in the UK only the endurance downhill race has ever put the bike through that sort of ringer, and that's only one day.

Wow people take all that, JFC... So when I go riding in the Alps (oh hang that is everyday riding for me) Should I take all that too? Honnest, spare tyres, a set of old but usable brake pads, a quick link a spare mech hanger a multi tool and most important a fleece a waterproof jacket and a flask of hot tea. You don't need alld the stuff, it's France, not the ****ing african jungle.

Take some salt and vinegar for the chip on your shoulder juan.

juan - Member

So when I go riding in the Alps (oh hang that is everyday riding for me) Should I take all that too?

The difference for you is, if you need to spend a couple of hours zooming around finding a part, or you need to wait a couple of days til one arrives, it's just everyday riding. But for this lot, it's all wasted holiday.

Ok northwind the point I am making is that my bike doesn't just fall off to pieces. There is no reason why your pads/cables/BB should just fail with no reason. Plus as I said, it's france, mech hanger aside you will find a replacement part in a LBS.
Cha****ng no vinegar for me, remember I am French.

[i]My damage toll from last year's three-week Alps trip...

7 or 8 pairs of brake pads[/i]

Crikey, I think you're braking too much 😉

The 2 things I was most glad of:

[img] [/img]

and

[IMG] [/IMG]
(although I didn't need one!)

We had one broken pedal and one chain in our group this year, I did expect to go through pads as my rear brake was overheating regulaly, (me being over cautious) but the pads lasted the trip.
I didn't find food & drink much more expensive than uk cities, 15-25 euros for a good meal.

juan - Member

Plus as I said, it's france, mech hanger aside you will find a replacement part in a LBS.

I wouldn't expect to just walk into any LBS, France or not, and pick up pads for a particular brake, or spokes for a particular wacky wheel, stuff like that. (see- up the page, wherein Formula Oro pads could not be located in the Tarantaise valley)

And even if they have them, I'd rather be riding than shopping.

As for bikes "falling to pieces"- there's all sorts of legit reasons that wear and tear or crash damage are more likely to strike on holiday. Unfamiliar trails obviously, which changes a lot. For a lot of folks, quite different trails too (to me tbh it's just like the stuff I seek out at home but not for most folks on here). So that has an impact on the bike and on the rider. We had about 10 punctures in the first 2 days and almost every time, people said "Well I don't get any at home!"

Lots of riding too- when you go riding locally are you always uplifting and riding all day, stacking in as many metres as humanly possible to make the most of every minute? The rides I do in france are different from most rides I do here. Also lots of people just plain get carried away.

TBH if I was riding for 8 hours a day every day in the UK, and spending every night eating and drinking and sleeping instead of maintaining, it'd beat the hell out of me and my bike too. But the riding holidays I do multiply that by lots.

3m medical tape.
For taping up your hands if/when you get blisters.

Oh- general Pro Tip, best thing for blisters is those Scholl foot plasters. They stay where they're put, and they're very cushiony, and accelerate healing a bit too. Good for general sore bits- inflamed tendons etc. They're not cheap though but there should be some in every cyclist's first aid stash.

chamois cream is an [b]excellent[/b] suggestion

you can buy it out there of course, still using the "anti-frottement" cream I got from InterSport

Mech hangers
Lots of tubes if you use tubes
If you run tubeless, spare Stans fluid
Lots of brake pads
Gear cables
Lots and lots of money

Don't leave it till the last minute to service your bike, round a bolt off and have to spend £600 on emergency forks 😳

[i]also riding fast on unfamiliar trails does put a bit more stress on things[/i]

Makes sense

Order a load of spares from CRC, then return the ones you don't use when you get back.

Nice one @packer.. Havent thought of that 8)

Updated list from suggestions:

Things to buy: (that i dont have)

01. Tyres (advantage or minions dhf) + inner tubes + repair kit + extra stans fluid
02. Brake pads x 3 sets
03. Rear mech hanger x3
04. Chain + chain links x2
05. Decent (all can do) toolkit (lezyne maybe)
06. Decent MTB insurance (cover helicopter rescue)
07. Osprey or Mule hydration/day ride bag (i think my Rogue is too small)
08. Gear cables x2
09. Haribo x3 8)
10. Sun cream 8)
11. Spare spokes
12. Spare rotor (200mm front)
13. Contour HD video cam (go pro 3 just too expensive and heavy + me just being cheap)
14. Brake fluid + sus fluid
15. Extra bit of pivot (sus link) bolts as spares (i have no idea where to get this)
16. Ice/heat pack
17. Scholl foot plaster for blister
18. Shitloads of money ( i highly doubt this after purchasing all in this list)
19. Spare Fork ( now what is CRC maximum days return of unused items?... Im not really looking forward purchasing one out of necessity and not CRC/wiggle/merlin price., or waste my holiday hours fixing it up.. I would rather deal with it when i come back)
20. FF helmet (not really sure about this, do you need this on red routes there?.. I also want a backup helmet just in case i wanna have a go with more techy trails, probably gonna happen last days of my riding holiday.) . Plan is gonna go easy first few days.. XC / red route stuff .. Enjoying scenery as well... Dont want to have elbow/knee broken the first few hours.. Remember i still have to drive back home.

Things i already have

01. Decent elbow/knee guard
02. XC helmet /cratoni c-maniac
03. Clothing layers, jerseys,rain jacket,warmers
04. First aid kit+ painkillers
05. Dropper post came standard
06. Camera (photo)
07. Cleaning kit
08. Duct tape
09. A smile ... 🙂
10. Haribo x1

Really thanks guys for the suggestions.. This is really helpful. .. About where in alps.. I only have bike village im reading about at the moment..... They seem to cater all that there is (as their website claims to be).. I hope this is a good place to start with, being us that never been there... Im not really worried so much about the spares but it is better to have it and not need it than the other way around, after all CRC and wiggle have a very outstanding unused items return policy. I hope they're not reading right now, or maybe i hope they do so they can come up with ALPS basic spare kits (all in one) to sell for people who have no clue. Point is.. Wish to have good riding all days of the holiday, and not wasting time worrying and shopping LBS over there in case things go south as i have 3bikes to worry already (other half and kid).. And another 2 more (friends that would maybe tag along who probably got no clue to repair or service a bike) .

And to the guy who's selling me a minion dhf 2.5, for some reason i dont know how to send PM.. Can you send me instead and how much.. Cheers.

any old kit will do just make sure youre packing some

[img] [/img]