[Closed] who has taken a hardtail to the alps and survived? (make your mind up time!)

If you have a choice, take the boinger. You'll enjoy it more.

A lot of my mates have done it HT though and it's fine.

i've only ever had my HT in the Alps and i've survived. in fact i'm doing just that on sunday and riding from germany to Lake Garda.

lots of people have done the same and are none the worse for wear.... well, maybe a little, but they're still breathing.

yes...orange sub zero...awesome.

I have! Loved it so much I am going back this year with a tent strapped to the frame. We were doing of the beaten track riding aswell, however we went back for some more DH stuff in Sauze D'Oulx and whilst I took a 'susser my brother still took his hardtail. All good

alpin - I was telling a mate of mine about that thread you did on Germany to Lake Garda last year. You wouldn't have a link to it would you?

Here's some pictures. This one was 24" which was a handful, but good fun1

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You kids are all too weak. About 15 years ago, before Morzine became the mtb mecca it is known today, a bunch of us went out there on our fully rigid hard tails (although someone had some Mag 21s which was pretty cool). Amongst the steeds we had:

1 Dynatech with said Mag 21s
1 Principia (when they briefly made mtbs) with carbon rigid forks
1 Alpine Stars (with elevated chainstays and cool splatter paint job)
1 Explosif with Project 2's.

Anyway, we rode the trails for the week and it was all good fun. 'Course, we were XC whippets and didn't know what pain was; we rode up the trails and not just down just to make it that bit harder. We didn't know any better - we were just there to ride our bikes and drink French beer.

Wow you are so cool 🙄

I've ridden a rigid bike in the Rockies. Am I cooler than you?

More to the point, where you going in the Alps, and what kind of trails you going to be riding?

Your BFe will be more than capable of riding anything you come across, but will its rider be? I'd suggest if you're going out to Morzine to hit up all the DH tracks, with their massive braking bumps, you want as much suspension as you can get, and even a 5 Spot will leave you gasping for more. If you're going to somewhere with lots of flowing XC trails, and next to no rock gardens or braking bumps, a lightweight XC hardtail would suffice albeit with slightly beefier than UK conditions tyres I'd suggest...

So where (and what trails) you riding?

cynic-al - Member
Wow you are so cool

I think monsta has a valid point here cynic-al (although I'm sure that half the time sour-al would be a much more fitting sobriquet).

He's just saying that it's possible to ride relatively unsophisticated equipment and enjoy yourself if you don't know any better.. and illustrating his point with the list of relatively ancient and shonky bikes.. good point quite well made I thought.

EDIT: double post

Of course that's possible...and irrelevant to the op.

[url= http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/alpencross-text-pic-heavy-put-the-kettle-on-and-break-out-the-hobnobs-1 ]for scott.....[/url]

i'm off again next week. on my own this time as matey is (meant to be) writing up his final thesis for uni.

same sort of set up; tarp and sleeping bag. i'm taking a pad and pen this, too. oh, and some maps! bought a camera pouch today so hopefully there'll be more photos this time, too....

Last year i rode the alps on my hardtail and it was grand. PDS was fine, chatel was the roughest but morzine/les gets were alrite.

Will be going on a hardtail again this year

My mate regularly rode the Alps on his Marin hardtail with 80mm forks before he got his SC Blur which he said made the whole thing more enjoyable all round. So yes, perfectly doable just maybe not quite as much fun but ymmv.

Of course that's possible...and irrelevant to the op

ok

 

Mate and I did Picos trails (not MB trails really). He was supremely fit and rode an old specialised with u-turns on it. Whilst I wasn't, and had a Heckler.
it probably levelled us out pretty much, except on the climbs where he'd scoot off then come back down to taunt me...
He managed it though, and really enjoyed it - only comment was around being stood up for half the day on the bike, really tired his legs out.

if you enjoy riding a HT then take it. it's a different kind of riding, but riding nonetheless...

or... stop being a pansy and MTFU.

You can do all of PPDS/Morzine/Les Gets on pretty much anything. If you go off and find other trails is where you might get into difficulties 😈

alpin +1. HT's everytime. I live in the Alps, about three years ago I decided to downgrade my bike to a fully, the descents were definitely faster and a lot of fun, but after breaking the frame I decided to upgrade back to a HT (Kinesis XC120).

The first ride was like a home coming. The bike climbed so much better and I actually enjoyed the descents more than I expected.

I guess you have to consider what you will be riding, if you are going to "touring" (i.e. Alpins Alp Crossing) than you will be climbing 90% of the time. Therefore you should target a good climber, i.e. a HT. If you will be sat with the rest of the tourists on the lifts missing out on the "real" alpine experience then a fully will always be better

Of course that's possible...and irrelevant to the op.

I would have thought it was entirely relevant to the OP's question.
You really are a bundle of laughs Al 🙄

To the OP - you've been before and know what to expect. Just balance out what will give you most smiles and least pain. What's the worst that can happen -you'll either have a blast or an even bigger blast 😆

alpin - thanks for the link, and good luck for this trip - looking forward to the new thread when you return.

I took my Prince Albert to the lifts last autumn and it was great fun. I was getting funny looks from all the people on DH bikes but it was perfectly doable. I had great fun but I was really beat up at the end of the day. Much more than I was when I went to the Alps for a whole week. That was going up the lift and straight down again lots of times.

So if we don't do loads of runs of the Pleny it should be fine. One more thing is that because you might make more mistakes as you get tired and you have not got as much margin for error then you might have to take things a bit easier.

Aye first time out I did and used a sub-zero for a day too. Was fine and as ton says subzero was brilliant setup prehaps as it was part designed just for that kind if riding.

He's just saying that it's possible to ride relatively unsophisticated equipment and enjoy yourself if you don't know any better.. and illustrating his point with the list of relatively ancient and shonky bikes.. good point quite well made I thought.

I agree, my first Alps trip was on my NRS 3.5 inches of travel. I was overtaken by crazy scottish blokes on 1994 fully rigid V braked bikes, clipped in. They were having a great time. Ride whatever, you wont die and you will have a great time.

I'm driving there this year and I'm thinking of taking 3 bikes..

All hardtails on our last trip and managed the more off piste XC and the easier DH runs fine. I found that overheating brakes on repeated DHs was worse than the lack of rear suss.

We've had quite a few guests on hardtails. None of them died, they all had a good time. I got the fairly distinct impression that most of them were suffering from bike-envy though. 😀

completely possible. but also completely grim! ha ha

well maybe not that bad, but PDS is now famed for braking bumps, and braking bumps on an HT are hurrendous...

had some chaps with us on them. general went slower, crashed more, got tired quicker... if you have a full suss then why not take it?

mboy - Member
hit up all the DH tracks
gasping for more
flowing XC trails
beefier than UK conditions tyres

All you needed to put in there to get the full house was "big rig", "stable" and "steed". tsk tsk. 😉

Anyway, silliness aside, i actually agree with you: having done Morzine on a HT I think that the OP would be fine with the HT as long as he's not DH track/freeride parking it all day. OP, if you are, take the susser. Alternatively, as suggested above, take the one you like best. 🙂

I raced in Morzine on a Giant XTC with Mono Minis without to many issues or scares, although I did start to get twitchy at 105kph on some of the descents.

lol monsta i lived in morgins when i was a guide out there and used to ride morgins and chatel on my ss hardtail with vbrakes and an awesome 63mm travel up front 😉 this was only about 10 years ago lol

most of them were suffering from bike-envy though.

doesnät exist, does it? i thought only skills envy existed and something can be done about that....