first trip to europe (les arcs)

this will be my first trip to europe, iam going with trail addiction at the end of july.

none of my riding mates have been and arent coming so wondered if could pick your brains?

iam taking a santa cruz trc, 140mm pikes up front. wide bars short stem 1×10 full chain guide and bash.

is it worth going for a 2.5 tyre size over a set of high rollers 2.35 dpc supertacky that i already have? i am 95kg

also i used to have a cc db coil on my last bike but picked this frame up with a rp23 this one i seem to get along with but would it be worth putting on a 2nd hand fox van r coil?

thanks for your thoughts, the ones that are helpful that is.

Take a spare shock with you and then you have the option of changing it should you be unlucky enough to blow one, happened me at fort William it was frustrating to know I had a spare shock sitting at home.

I was using a coil shock and blew the damping, although it was rather interesting I still rode half a day with no damping. Blow an air can and you won’t be able to continue riding.

Will be with TA end of July myself, I’m running a coil shock but taking a spare air one. Also riding some big fat tyres, 2.5 maxxis really aren’t that wide and probably equate to a lot of other 2.5 tyres

Les Arcs area is absolutely mint- I’ve not been with TA but we bumped into them when out with White Room. 2.35 dualply will be absolutely fine, though a bigger one might be more fine. Trailaddiction aren’t all uplifted though from memory (or at least, when my mate went out with them a couple of years ago there was a fair amount of pedalling) so there’s a balance there. (I’ll be going with SX 2.3 Butchers- just about pedallable, but just about downhill tyres) Big dualplies can be great but they can also suck a bit of the fun out of a ride

Do they have hire bikes available? You can get hung up on spares, indestructibility etc but the best safety net is being able to just grab another bike if you have to- it’s expensive if you end up doing it but it’s cheaper than buying a ton of parts you don’t need. RP23 is a very reliable shock though these days, odds of blowing it up if it’s been looked after are slim.

Single ply tyres and dh tubes worked for me and my hardtail. Have fun it’s great out there…

I’m heading out to Les Arcs in July too. I have been debating tyres, currently running single ply super tacky Minions with DH tubes, debating whether to change to dual ply.. Never punctured though, in two years in Morzine and numerous uplift days in the UK.

I’m quite a light rider, so hoping I’ll be OK.

I’d be more worried about your front suspension, . . . make sure your fork is like butter, i went with an old school pike back in 2009 and my hands suffered big time!

I was out last year with bike village.

The guides were on 2.4 rubber queens, I was on 2.2 rubber queens and 2.5 bontranger big earls. There were folk in the group on all sorts from 2.2 upwards. Only had a couple of punctures between all the group in the week.

Pick something grippy you like but take spares of spokes and hubs and have your forks serviced before you go.

Lapiere with broken freehub= new wheels due to lack of spares in area
Super posh fulcrum wheels with broken spoke= new wheel due to lack of spares
broken damping on lyric= new fork

Have fun:)

Trailaddiction aren’t all uplifted though from memory (or at least, when my mate went out with them a couple of years ago there was a fair amount of pedalling) so there’s a balance there.

Sounds like your mate either went on a Back Country Week or put himself down for the wrong sort of riding. We’ve been out twice with TA, all uplifted (other than little pedals when necessary) and generally on the DH bikes