A shambolic week with Sierra Cycling

tl;dr

get it out kiwidave, don’t hold back

Awesome

As for what makes a good guide? I had guests tell me I was awesome and they had a great time, some tipped (most didn’t even buy me a beer) and few became and still are friends. I also had guests tell me that the trail was sh*t, that the weather was sh*t, the food was sh*t, that their bike was sh*t and that I was sh*t.

I can relate to this.

That sounds wonderful to some but I had very little down time, I got very fit but I was always exhausted. I was riding a LOT but it wasn’t trails I would ride personally and even the best trails got boring. I wasn’t riding for myself, or even with my friends. I got to meet a lot of people, most of whom were great, but like anything, this sport attracts bores, geeks, crazies, weirdos and arseholes. Group dynamics are a funny thing, you can have a great group comprised of total **** and a crap group comprised of really great individuals. After a while it gets to be a complete grind. The guests who you are lucky enough to become friends with eventually leave to be replaced by another set of strangers, and the cycle continues.

And this.

One thing I learnt about guiding is that ultimately it isn’t really about the trails, the guide, the location, the price or even the company you use, its actually about you the guest, and the attitude you bring to the table.

And this.

Good response Dave. That pretty much sums up my three years guiding too.

It really is a funny old game.

[get oar in before thread closed]

I haven’t read any of this thread and don’t really know what it’s about but am considering a guided MTB holiday somewhere hot next year.

Could anyone recommend an operator within, say, 20 minutes of Malaga Airport 😉

Epic volume of writing there kiwidave, hope you recover quickly from the Repetitive Strain Injury 😉

[/get oar in before thread closed]

Catharsis for kiwidave, there.

That is the raddest response I have seen in a long time.

1) All those words and I cannot find a single spelling mistake. I didn’t look too hard but these things are normally glaring. Chapeau.
2) Honest – even at the expense of pissing off Alan, Mary Jonny and Dave. fair enough.
3) Spot on – The best bit was this ” its actually about you the guest, and the attitude you bring to the table.”

Thread of the year.

I completely understand how it would be a bad start to a holiday, it used to piss me off as well but maybe it should all be taken for what it is, which is……and my girlfriend will kill me if I finish this sentence….

So what does this bit mean then? 😕

STW has finally attained thread nirvana.

“this sport attracts bores, geeks, crazies, weirdos and arseholes.”

Nail most definitely on head.

😆

Wow, that was awesome. You don’t take prisoners do you Kiwidave?

🙂

If you now live in a different country, with a different career and no common relationship, no bridge is going to be safe from burning 🙂

as the previous 8 pages show, it seems to be the case that it is not about the OP vs the company, it’s the OP plus the righteous feckers of STW against a company who have already been painted in a poor light.

It seems to be a no win situation for a company who, up until now, seemed to have a reasonable reputation.

I’m just unconvinced that this is a fair or satisfactory way to resolve the problem.

its a mountain biking holiday not a QE2 cruise.

this sums it up for me..

I understand that maybe SC made a couple of schoolboy errors that week and there were perhaps a couple of small issues that should be addressed to bring the service up to a reasonable standard.. and also that the OP experienced what seems to be an unlucky experience..
But if I went through life with such high expectations of impeccable standards I’m sure that I would be constantly disappointed and would spend most of my life missing the point..

The attitude of ‘damn this guy to hell and failure becuase I didn’t get exactly what I wanted’ is brutal and a disgrace..

what a pack of ugly hyenas.. a pox on all of your goolies

Can someone please answer my question before the thread gets closed? 🙂

Easily post of the year right there!

With a little redaction, kiwidaves post would make a great article for the magazine.

What makes his post even more excellent is that it is on page 9 and I really do not think I was quite ready for such a grenade of a post. What a purge!

Maybe there is even a film in there?

i blame the parents personally.

kiwidave – that was a really good insite into life as a mtb guide. Brilliant, its the best thread Ive read in a long time.

(I also pissed myself laughing at the pictures earlier taking the micky out of me – pure quality and all deserved)

Sometimes this forum is fantastic.

maxray, I never said I’d never post again, I said I wouldnt respond to any future reply from Alan so that it didnt turn into a “snipefest” between me and him. Others have propogated the thread not me, I have only posted to clarify points people have discussed. Such as….

kiwidave, the van broke down early/midweek, the overloaded trip was the Friday. As I said my issue with that was why it happened and the implications around it.

And I never said I had a bad holiday. I broke my arm and tore my tricep ligament off in the spring, and was expecting not to ride this year. I have recovered quickly and only 2 weeks earlier got the nod from my physio and consultant to ride hot dry singletrack with a bunch of mates I dont see much of. My holiday was not totally ruined by Sierra Cycling, but nor was it enhanced, which is what you pay for in a guided holiday. Most of my riding holidays have been self organised and unsupported (about 8 trips to the alps, 2 weeks in Colorado last year) and have been from ghetto camping and tuna pasta to rented condo, and I’ve enjoyed them all. I offered this review as balance to the usually positive posts, and obvious positive bias youll get in his guest book. What you chose to do with this information is down to the reader (yunki, sancho and others think I have unreasonable standards, again the reader can judge what is reported against their own).

Interesting to read of your experiences and your perspective as a guide, and the living arrangements.

Edit; ditto below and above comments, with some judicious editing that should be a magazine article it was more interesting and insightful than most mag articles, and chapeau for not taking any of the comments of you personally (sounds like a period of your life you have boxed off and moved on). Worth an email to STW Towers?

With a little redaction, kiwidaves post would make a great article for the magazine.

+1
Really good read from the perspective of what it’s like to guide.

I’ve lurked around this thread avoiding comment for a couple of days but the post by kiwi dave it has to be said is spot on. I have done quite a a few mtb holidays, at least three with SC over the years and enjoyed just about every one of them. I would go back, not for the riding, but the fact it’s a chilled out holiday by the beach and pool with a a bit of half decent cycling thrown in.

Only holiday I have come back a stone heavier each time despite riding every day 🙂

sorry crashtestmonkey.. you misunderstand me

I don’t think your standards are unreasonable.. They differ from mine perhaps..

But I do think your decision to throw Alan to this baying mob of malcontents was extremely insensitive, inappropriate and ill conceived..

maybe he should have set Esther Ranzen on him instead?

Really good read from the perspective of what it’s like to guide.

Agreed.

maybe he should have set Esther Ranzen on him instead?

or called childline.. 😕

should have set Esther Ranzen on him instead

Can I take the baying mob please?

C monkey I havent commented on your standards, more how I feel I would react to the situations you were put in.

Mary sounds like a nightmare

To me paying for a ride is rather like paying for sex, a bit sad 🙂
(not charity rides though, ill pay for that)

poor analogy there. Its not paying to ride but paying for a guide. A proper analogy is not paying for sex, but paying for a porn subscription. 😉

yunki. Fair enough, obviously I disagree with your opinion as Sierra Cycling are quick to use the forum as free advertising to promote their business so I think it is unreasonable for them to expect the traffic to be one way. Plenty of business types frequent here and most of them are held in regard and probably generate business because of it, but negative feedback is then an occupational hazard. I’m sure Alan’s previous contributions have netted him more business than this thread will lose (especially given many posters are of the “what are you whingeing about” school and wouldnt be deterred).

Sancho, again fair play. The fact this thread has run for so long with everybody remaining civil suggests STW isnt quite the baying mob, people have differing opinions and experience and are free to express them, but no one has been abusive. Plenty of threads collapse into keyboard warrior name calling much earlier. Plenty of people may be bored with it but its a genuine conversation with food for thought from all sides.

That is the raddest response I have seen in a long time.

1) All those words and I cannot find a single spelling mistake. I didn’t look too hard but these things are normally glaring. Chapeau.

laissez fare

Only one I noticed.

Yunki, why is posting a review about your MTB holiday on an MTB thread wrong? we review bikes, people are quick to slate bad sellers/buyers on the classifieds, I don’t see how this differs? If I was searching for a holiday with Sierra Cycling and saw this review, I would take the time to read it and make an informed decision myself. Just becuase of one negative review doesn’t make me not want to use a particular company/product. we just wanted to express our views, I’m well aware others feel very differently.

Meg Ryan to play Mary in the movietisation

ooh ooh, Jack Black to play kiwidave?

What baying mob? Has anyone been that unfair in this whole 10 pages?

Bottom line though – you didnt have a bad holiday?
I ask because Im going.

Well, it proves what my boss said to me some time ago…

The only correct response for a company to give in a forum situation like this, is to apologise profusely for the fact that the customer was not satisfied, accept they could and should have done better, and tell the customer to contact them directly so they can find some way of rectifying the situation.

Then walk away and don’t get involved in the inevitable forum arguments.

I don’t want to get drawn into this at all.. I said what I felt and don’t think I left room for interpretation or misunderstanding..

But you’ve asked so I’ll answer..

I think it was self indulgent and wrong.. you had a bad week..

You gave minimal feedback to the tour operator before deciding to go public with your grievances straight to the heart of the company’s client base amongst a notoriously self-righteous forum without even giving the bloke a chance to explain himself..

What could you possibly hope to acheive other than having a negative impact on the tour operators future..?

I’m disgusted.. sorry

By ‘the baying mob’ I’m referring to all the haughty allegations of ‘unprofessional behaviour and a terrible response’

it’s just pompous and absurd.. SC, while providing a service, is not the flippin’ QE2 or a michelin starred restaurant

just my tuppenceworth.. 🙂