stop it wl!!!!

Just back from a long weekend with SwitchbacksDH in Spain, one word, WOW 8)

Michael was great as not only a very experience guide through the day but also entertained at night, cool guy. And the riding, wow, the riding… natural DH at its best, some of the tracks are just hand crafted from god himself, others by the devil 😆

Just need a weeks sleep now to recover, oh and my bike needs some serious TLC 😀

Can’t wait to go back, most highly recommended 8)

Any pics Bream?

Did you meat Mike H as well?

I got an email from Switchbacks today with a special offer for May and June of 395euros for a week of riding too. If I could get time off then I’d be going.

Stacks and stacks of pics, just need to shrink them and upload, takes forever.

I’m writing a full report to share our experience so I’ll post it up when finished.

We rode Malaga DH only with Michael S and possibly the coolist van driver in Spain, Lucky. However the stories of Bubion has me longing to go there now as well with a smaller bike, so many places to ride and not enough time off work to do it!

Only pic uploaded so far, me at the start of 911:

Bream

Hi – are those tracks ridable from a XC perspective would you say? I know there are xc tracks in the same location, (and have the maps in the Bikefax book) but is the DH ridable by a XC HT rider? I was thinking of spending a day there over Easter.

Si

We have up to half price Special Offers on currently & free holidays to club organizers!
Great singletrack rides during the day & lively night life on the coast at night.
Check us out on http://www.sierracycling.com.

Si,

There are so many trails out here its almost unbelievable, we focused on the DH side but I saw plenty of normal HT XC guys riding about. I would say there is also excellent XC out here IF you know where to find it!

About half the stuff we rode could be rode by a HT XC rider with upper average skills and about a quarter of the trails could be rode by anyone. Most of the really techy, jumpy and gnarly hard sections had chicken runs but I’m sure there are better trails here suitable for pure XC. Hence why I would love to come back on my smaller bike. Also worth considering the Bubion option as that sound like XC heaven.

Cheers,

Jeff (already planning his next trip back 😆 )

Yeah – I booked a week off work last week and a hotel in Sierra Nevada a couple of months ago. But then I had a virus and didnt feel I was fit enough to justify the holiday so cancelled.

Roper and I are going to try the big “All Mountain” Sierra de las Nieves route in a few weeks time.

I have discovered the area around Casares and am quite enjoying that and also exploring Sierra de los Barrios which is pretty unchartered XC as far as I am aware. But it’s pretty chilled riding around there.

PS – I’d also recommend stronger tyres and thicker tubes than the normal Racing Ralph type, don’t think those sidewalls would last long out there, very rocky everywhere. Maybe a single walled 2.35 High Roller type would be best on an XC bike.

Why oh why did I read this. Memories now flooding back of a great trip with Ride Sierra Nevada last year and the 4 weeks until I go back just cannot go quick enough. Now, must shake myself out of this daydream and do some work… 😯

Yep – am currently running 2.4″ Michelin Reinforced tyres!

Oooh, is this turning into another tyre thread?? I had Halo Choir Masters when I rode in the Sierra Nevada. Light enough to go up the hills, cheap enough to trash, sticky enough to…er…stick. In a week of hard riding (OK, I’m not a downhiller but I don’t hang around) the tyres survived and I only got one pinch flat on the last descent of the last day…on Mavic 717 rims too!

Actually I feel I have missed out on 18 months of what tyres threads as no one ever seems to discuss West Andalucia (it’s all Lake District/ Stainburn/ Glentress etc isn’t it) so if you want to talk about tyre choice for anywhere between Malaga and say Estepona/ Algeciras this is the thread : )

Just back from Spain http://www.aeadventure.com/holidays.html
pics http://s95.photobucket.com/albums/l145/bigjohnskona/Spain09/

would certainly go back without hesitation.

would also go back and ride with alan @ siera above and Jim in Alora @ seasonnalyunadjusted.

I prefer the rocky, tree lined riding as opposed to the stuff up in Bubion. My(our)experience of the Bubion trip maybe was

nt know how to adjust them!!!!

I should really go back and have another shot, the riding was good but I may have been holding back due to the above.

Now that the exchange rate has taken a dip re the euro food and drink are not the cheap buy they used to be. Just as expensive eating out there as home. That also makes the fridge filled with ham and cheese at switchbacks seem a bit less inviting, having had the choice of a proper breakfast, evening meals, wine and beer included in my recent trip