Riviera Bike – a review… – Page 2 – Bike Forum

JonEdwards · 2013-04-29T14:24:06Z

I know some of you were interested in a review of Riviera Bike, so having just got back from a week there, here goes…. The short version – amazing singletrack descents for the hardcore rider, amazing pizza & pasta, Italianate organisation. The long version:- [u]Riding.[/u] We were booked on the “All Mountain” package, as opposed to the “Shuttle & Descend” week. As such we expected to do a fair amount of pedalling, and had set our bikes up accordingly. Practically however, it was all uplifted – the longest climb we did was maybe 30 minutes of easy fire road, and there was maybe a 2 or 3 minute easy spin to the top of some trails. From my point of view, this was great, and bar needing to swap my LUST rear tyre for a dual ply, my Rocket was faultless. Elaine’s Hemlock, 4” travel, single ply 2.1 tyres, 180/160 brakes was very much undergunned. The trails themselves were amazing – the easiest descent we did reminded me of a sandier version of the 423 or Black run at Aston Hill (but many times longer), and there were an awful lot of never-ending runs down steep, twisty, naturally bermed gullys. Some bonkers rock gardens, plenty of natural steps and drops (nothing bigger than a couple of feet) a few built features, all there to keep you on your toes. The terrain is VERY steep, so loads of hairpins, and near-constant exposure (the trails were often not “dangerous” per se, but the consequences of leaving the trail would be very severe…. I absolutely loved it - Agrifolio, Bellender, Borello(sp?), all simply brilliant top to bottom, and having mixed in with a great group of riders (cheers, Harry, Rhys, Jaap, Herbie, plus guide Rich) we ended up having a really great time. For Elaine though, a lot of it was not her cup of tea – more on this later. Uplifts were efficient and well organised. Driver Cri, being a local was great at smoothing the way, and for an Italian, a remarkably confidence inspiring driver. Top geezer, and always happy to go the extra step - got the makings of a top notch guide too! [u]Hotel & Food.[/u] Accommodation at Santo Spirito was fine – the rooms were a bit poky, if I’m picking holes, but perfectly adequate. Breakfast was OK – slightly prefab, compared to the other food, although the coffee was obviously up to scratch. Evening meals though, oh my god – bloody marvellous - 5 courses each and every night. The pasta, pizza and gnocchi were just unbelievably good. Add in large lunches (pizzerias, and a couple of stunning restaurants), plus very little climbing, and for the first time ever I was getting truly sick of having yet MORE food put in front of me! But it was all so good, you just carried on troughing… Mariachiara who fronts Santo Spirito was incredible in the face of loudly drunken Englishmen (and Dutchmen!) on holiday. Constantly on the go, great sense of humour and the patience of a saint. It helped that one of our group was half Italian, but even so – an absolute star. [u]Organisation.[/u] This is where it starts to get a bit ropey. Communication between Riviera and its guests was pretty poor, and the guests from the other 2 groups who crossed over with us had the same opinion. Here’s a couple of examples:- The day off, it took us the best part of an hour to get into the bike store, because the 4x4 was parked across the doorway (an understandable security precaution). Ady’s phone was off (battery had gone flat, good planning, eh?), and when I eventually found him, he didn’t have a key, but he sent me round to Rich’s house to get him out of bed and get the key off him. No interest in actually sorting the problem himself. Later that day, we wanted to get back into the hotel. Door was locked, so we have to change our plans. Later I see Ady. “oh, don’t you know about the side door?”. No, because nobody has told us. On the Friday night, by 18.30 we still don’t know when our transfer is the next day. Rich doesn’t know, so I go hunting Ady again. “Oh we’re only doing 1 transfer tomorrow, leaving at 07.30”. Our flight, which we’d told him about at time of booking wasn’t until 21.45 and we’d hoped to get some riding in beforehand. “I can drop you off at San Remo train station in the afternoon” (train to Nice, bus to Nice airport). I go back and talk to E, and we decide to take the AM transfer rather than have to fight with the luggage on public transport. So we pile into bike packing. An hour later, when we’re late for dinner and still in stinking bike kit, he walks into the bike store and announces that he’ll do an evening transfer as well… Great, but why not just say that in the first place? That’s another chunk of riding time wasted building the bikes back up again! On the face of it, none of this is a big deal, but over the course of the week, it adds up to a lot of faffing and fannying, add in another big issue (see below), and it got really quite frustrating. All the organisational stuff could have been solved very easily by having a simple A4 fact sheet given to each guest at ...

granny_ring

Posts: 4787

Full Member

Nasher, it's great that you've got a good thing going on down there.

The OP I think does have a valid opinion on not getting the service that was 'promised' through bad luck if nothing else, so hope he would get a partial refund as a good will gesture?

Many seem to like what you are doing there and are happy customers so I hope it continues to go well.

Posted : 30/04/2013 3:08 pm

PimpmasterJazz

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Good response Ade and good luck!

Posted : 30/04/2013 4:00 pm

Frankers

Posts: 97

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Ady...

My mate Damon has offered to come out if you're in need of a new guide, as you know he also specialises in customer entertainment 😆

Though whatever you do don't ask him to fix anyone's bike

Posted : 30/04/2013 4:04 pm

buzz-lightyear

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Awwww I've got 2 weeks off work between Sept 1st and 17th with no plans. Ady - you're making me twitch just thinking about visiting you again. I might have to sell a kidney.

Posted : 30/04/2013 4:17 pm

hora

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Is it expensive??

Posted : 30/04/2013 5:42 pm

Cheezpleez

Posts: 1980

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God I love Molini! Got a family holiday booked for Sept in the next valley and hoping to get a few runs in.

I've been with RB and Switchbacks. Both good but Molini is special.

Get well soon Jo.

Posted : 30/04/2013 6:07 pm

Cheezpleez

Posts: 1980

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Oh and Leith Hill on steroids doesn't really cover it. You know that opening scene in Fear and Loathing with the car and the drugs and the pterodactyls ...

Posted : 30/04/2013 6:11 pm

hora

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Reality check. You're riding a bicycle 🙄

Posted : 30/04/2013 6:12 pm

unklehomered

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you don't know Hora, you weren't there man, you weren't there...

Posted : 30/04/2013 6:18 pm

hora

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😆

Posted : 30/04/2013 6:18 pm

Cheezpleez

Posts: 1980

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Could've sworn it was a pterodactyl 😳

Posted : 30/04/2013 6:24 pm

mattjg

Posts: 920

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yes I realise those are the tamer trails

I wanna go ride those though

Posted : 30/04/2013 6:40 pm

edoverheels

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I went two years consecutively with friends and still rates as the best bike holiday for me. I have promised myself that I will go back at some stage. Both years that I went i had mechanicals. First year my forks went bang, Ady let me borrow some - 160mm on a hardtail!. Second year my hub went pop and no 150mm spares around and so he let me borrow a whole bike for the last two days.
Autumnal scenery and Molini were special. Meeting the chef trail building on the hill and the hotel owner coming in to the bar over the road because dinner was ready was great. Other guests were good when we were there as well which helped.

Posted : 30/04/2013 8:03 pm

doubledunter

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See you on the 11th may then

Posted : 30/04/2013 8:48 pm

catvet

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I too would go back, amazing time great trails.
Ady, hope Jo is back to full form
All best
Hugo

Posted : 01/05/2013 8:46 am

[Closed] Riviera Bike - a review...