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

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]

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 I reckon a week of alps riding did about 3 months wear and tear on my Hemlock, and at least thta on me too!

This is hillarious, sounds like it is sensible to take 2 bikes.

Mike - by your calculations, I have ridden the equivalent of nearly 2 years UK riding in 7 weeks on holiday this year! I'll ignore the assumption about riding trail centres...

7 weeks riding in the Pyrenees and Alps this year, 2 bikes, broken bits restricted to:

3 or 4 punctures - running single ply and normal tubes
2 changes of Avid Elixir pads on Ms AD's bike, one change of M4s on mine
Joplin 4 post gave it up after 6 weeks
2 broken spokes and a rim that needed an hour or so to true
Scratches to riders and bikes, no A&E visits.

Similar story during a 4 week trip last year. Admittedly, I took a whole load of spares, because we drove down in a campervan.

I'm with Nick, I reckon trips to the Alps and Spain show up badly maintained bikes, poor braking technique and Hero/Drift camera inspired fits of skills overestimation.

juan - Member

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

Well my experience:
Bike shop in Barcelonette, 90 euro for a new head set and 3 [b]massive[/b] dents on the top tube where they must have dropped it onto a set of stairs. Unfortunately picked it up in the dark and was miles away when I noticed them.
Big bike shop in Perpignan, no pads for avid brakes even though all their bikes were fitted with them. Would have been 20 euro a pop if they had stock. Same shop 19 euro for a downhill innertube.
Shop in St Lary 40euro for a 24" tyre that costs £18 on CRC
Shops in 2 alpes asking 75 euro for an xt rear derailleur
Shops around 2 alpes/Grenoble asking 500 euro for a set of hope brakes (passed on this one)

Its no wonder people take stuff with them.

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

Well you have some very old brakes or some very bad LBS me think. But I suppose that is the conundrum to buy everything online.
I still don't get why you need so many spares. Don't you ever ride stuf you don't know? Most if not all of my riding is done on stuff I don't know. Trails are ridden every year or every two years so I hardly "know" them. I still don't brake bikes on a regular basis. It is just riding. Last time I spent a week in molini riding on upflits on complete unknow terrain I only wrap a disk due to pilot error. Nothing broke out "like that"...

Well my experience:
Bike shop in Barcelonette, 90 euro for a new head set and 3 massive dents on the top tube where they must have dropped it onto a set of stairs. Unfortunately picked it up in the dark and was miles away when I noticed them.

Big bike shop in Perpignan, no pads for avid brakes even though all their bikes were fitted with them. Would have been 20 euro a pop if they had stock. Same shop 19 euro for a downhill innertube.

Shop in St Lary 40euro for a 24" tyre that costs £18 on CRC

Shops in 2 alpes asking 75 euro for an xt rear derailleur

Shops around 2 alpes/Grenoble asking 500 euro for a set of hope brakes (passed on this one)

Again what set of hope brakes?

What headset?

a crap one and they didnt even fit it properly

That is not unreasonnable for DH tubes, my LBS stock them at 15€ a pop and that is below RPP

10 euro at Decathlon

gain what tyre? A maxxis ST, that is the price.

Halo choirboy £18 CRC

This is the price I assume my LBS stock them at around 69€ depending on the useless importers

Exactly the point, £45 CRC

Hope M4 £305 @ CRC

juan - Member

Well you have some very old brakes or some very bad LBS me thin

Wrong on both counts.

Once again- earlier in the thread a chap mentioned being unable to find Formula Oro pads around Bourg St Maurice. The real world strikes.

Just looking at some common vendors and there's about 30 different pads in circulation for reasonably modern and big-mountain-worthy brakes. Does your shop have them all?

Oh, fwiw I pay £5 for my favourite DH tubes- though generally get them 3 for a tenner.

There seems to be a lot of buying stuff for the sake of buying it in that list.
I've been to the alps a lot and the main things are brake pads and obscure things like mech hangers prob useful. To be fair if you put new pads in before you go they'll last a week or two out there.
How often do gear cables snap? I've been riding mountain bikes for 15-ish years and never had one go on me.
If you maintain your bike and you ride within your limits you're forks aren't going to suddenly explode or your brakes fall off.

Why would you need to replace a headset?? most bike parts are so reliable these days that a week in the alps is no problem

Why would you need to replace a headset?? most bike parts are so reliable these days that a week in the alps is no problem

2009 bike/headset that never had a proper service prior to going out (for 4 months). It died.

On the gear cable thing, amazingly my son and I snapped about 6 or 7 between us. Not actually sure how or why, but there you go.

Well ianv what are the price in a real LBS then? P.S. decathon won brand is crap.

They were maxxis