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Morzine bike hire
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littlerobFull Member
Off to Morzine and want to hire some bikes for a day (or possibly just half-day).
1. The various shops I’ve looked at are charging 80-90 Euros per day which seems a bit steep (x4) and are probably for something a bit more extreme than we need (Daughter isn’t that fussed about riding, so want some nice easy trails).
2. Would you hire in advance, or just rock up? (I’d prefer the latter, so that if the weather is grot we’re not obligated to go for a ride).
Any suggestions/comments?
Thanks
LR
RobzFree MemberThere’s quite a few shops that rent out bikes.
A decent enduro bike will be 70-90ish euros a day ime.
Some of the french (i.e not run by brits) have more basic/cheaper bikes and you would probs be fine just rocking up without a reservation (perhaps not at a weekend). Brakes will be wrong side though.
Worst case scenario you have to hire from multiple shops.
Lots of hire shops in Les Gets too if need be.
matt_outandaboutFull MemberThey can charge what they want in Morzine and Les Gets.
Eldest_oab ripped his brake like out the caliper fitting. His hosts pal runs a bike shop, but didn’t have Magura fitting. The next bike shop charged €75 for olive, insert and terminal fitting…and laughed when he tried to beg a discount for being a poor student.
We had issues similar a couple of years back, with bike parts and car tyres after a puncture.
It seems to be the culture….razorrazooFull MemberPretty sure I heard the shop manager point the family in the direction of the InterSport shops when they inquired about hiring non DH/Enduro bikes a couple of weeks ago.
Though 90E sounds a lot per day (why I took my bike as rode 5 days). the bikes some of our guys had were £4K RRP Scott Gamblers. Now I appreciate that the bikes are bought discounted at the outset, but after factoring in the costs the run the fleet (I imagine wear and tear is pretty costly – brake pads, tubes, tyres, rims etc plus shop overheads and labour) I can’t see each bike making huge profits after a season of renting (given that I’m sure they’re not all out constantly either).
littlerobFull Memberrazorrazoo I get that they might be the Carlos Fandango of downhill bikes, but we’ll be somewhat over-biked on the greens that I anticipate we’ll be on. I guess that’s the problem, its 90E for a bike that can do everything – even if you don’t.
jimdubleyouFull MemberI guess that’s the problem, its 90E for a bike that can do everything – even if you don’t.
I suspect there’s some liability insurance issues going on there too – imagine if somebody ignored the warnings and managed to get their BSO on a red run.
Might not end well, and the shop could face a liability claim.
razorrazooFull Memberrazorrazoo I get that they might be the Carlos Fandango of downhill bikes, but we’ll be somewhat over-biked on the greens that I anticipate we’ll be on. I guess that’s the problem, its 90E for a bike that can do everything – even if you don’t.
I know that’s not what you want for your hire, hence pointing towards InterSport who seem to hire a broader range of options. It was more a general observation that was discussed by our group the other week when we were there (as 90E a day is a lot of cash to part with as a single rider, let alone a family). Alpine Sports also seem to do a range of bikes inc ones for kids.
Another observation is that for both bike hire and lift passes, there is not much difference in the cost in terms of half vs full day.
StonerFree Member
Just strolled past a friend’s shop. Price list for you.
Includes body armour and helmetTop price is DH €89
€69 is AMayjaydoubleyouFull MemberAnother observation is that for both bike hire and lift passes, there is not much difference in the cost in terms of half vs full day.
For a bike they’ll have to clean, check over and possibly repair, regardless of how long you’ve been out. Even if you came back and presented them an immaculate bike at 12.30, they cant guarantee you’ll do that, so they won’t have another customer stood there ready to go.
The next bike shop charged €75 for olive, insert and terminal fitting…and laughed when he tried to beg a discount for being a poor student.
Does seem a tad steep, how long did he spend fixing it? walk in labour rate of what per hour does that come to? (I’ve never had magura so don’t really know whats gone wrong here). None of these things are cheaper for the shop because your son is a student though.
littlerobFull MemberThanks for all the replies. I think we’ll just rock up and take pot luck.
I do get all the stuff about the economics of bike hire but at the same time ~£320 + lifts + lunch + snacks for a day easy riding is quite an expensive day out.
On that note, how do the lifts work for a single day biking?
StonerFree MemberYou can buy whole day or 5hr (resort-wide passes) or individual numbers of lifts (sector specific)
jimdubleyouFull Member-
<small>Save 50% on your summer passes when you present a winter 2017-18 season Portes du Soleil pass</small>
Get. In.
littlerobFull MemberI think I’m being dense, but I can’t find a map, or list, of what constitutes the lifts in a “Morzine only” pass.
I’d imagined (from advice I read here) going in the direction of Avoriaz. If that takes us through 2 zones, then we may as well get an area pass.
I think our accommodation either came with, or suggested buying, some sort of summer resort pass that might cover some lifts.
littlerobFull Memberanswering my own question, the 2nd table in https://www.morznet.com/lifts/summer-dates suggests that Super-Morzine is within Avoriaz, so I think that’t the pass that would do us.
ayjaydoubleyouFull MemberSave 50% on your summer passes when you present a winter 2017-18 season Portes du Soleil pass
Get. In.is that a pass from the winter season, or a winter season-pass?
Will likely be heading to PdS region for a week this winter
StonerFree MemberYou need a season pass to get the discount. I.e. the one that costs €900 and gets you half price on the €250 summer pass
nickjbFree MemberI think our accommodation either came with, or suggested buying, some sort of summer resort pass that might cover some lifts.
That’s the multipass. Covers all lifts but only on foot. Also free tennis, swimming, skating (iirc, but you still pay skate hire) and a few more. If you want a cheap day out and have a car you can drive to avoriaz with bikes ride the ppds route back to morzine then use the multipass to go and get the car. Quite a nice but simple epic-ish ride for kids.
littlerobFull MemberA bit of follow-up on this (for anyone googling in future). We’re just back from a brilliant week in Morzine. I’m not sure we could have fitted much more activity in. Leaving aside the rafting and Via Ferrata (feel free to ask if interested) and focusing on MTB/VTT we did the following:
On about Wednesday we went to the Intersport near the Super Morzine lift. All the bikes were taken for Thurs/Friday but there was availability for Saturday. I think this worked in our favour as it was probably quieter as well (change-over day).
We got 4 reasonable bikes (for our level of ability) with knee pads, body armour, and helmets. With the multi-pass discount we paid €244. We bought day lift passes. Its a bit of a shame that the multipass doesn’t give a discount for this, since in effect we had a day on our multipass that we couldn’t use, but it is what it is.
Spent the morning doing repeated loops of Soylent Green and Alpage (both green) then started switching to the blue at the bottom of Soylent Green.
Headed off to the Refuge Abricotine for lunch via (I thought) quite a fun path (I’d been expecting fire-road). Up the Lindarets lift, then through Avoriaz to the Fourmiz green. We liked this run, its a shame that its so hard to get to.
In the afternoon we did more loops as in the morning, with gradually introducing more bits of blue. Especially at the bottom of Alpage as the end of that is a bit boring.
Finally we did Tutti-Frutti blue all the way from the top and at that we called it a day. Super-Morzine down, hand over bikes, job jobbed.
Thanks for all the help and suggestions. Morzine was excellent.
LR
P-JayFree MemberGlad you had a good time!
I was there last week, for future reference I suppose.
I rented a couple of very beaten up, but working entry level Lapierre Zesty bikes from Morz’na Sport (top of the road the Robbo / Dixie bar is on), I’ve used them before, they don’t have an summer online presence so they’ve usually got plenty available for about €45 (per bike) a day which is very cheap for Morzine. We rode the XC to Les Gets, couple of the Green/Blue options down Chavannes (the old ‘Motorway’ Red DH is desperately in need of a facelift and maintenance, it’s the worst I’ve seen it in more than 10 years) and then the new Red/Blue DH from Les Gets back to Morzine, it’s a absolute peach of a trail, far better than the old XC-style slog. There’s about 500m of the old fire road bit and about the same of road (up and down again) at the end, but it’s a cracking trail. Judging on the amount of riders still taking the road from Les Gets to Morzine and the pestine condition of it, I don’t think it’s that well known? Anyway, basic, bit rattly and with grips almost worn to the bar, they’re weren’t the stuff of dreams, but more than up to the job. For the cost they set the sag for me and my Son pretty well, didn’t bother the rebound, but I’m pretty go at getting a ‘it’ll do’ setting by eye.
The day after I’d booked a Scott Gambler from MTB Rental Morzine for €90. It was a bit fresher, I’d e-mailed them my weight and a request to fit the brakes UK style which they did. It was still a bit rattly. They made me sign a disclaimer to say that I was liable for any damage to the bike however it happens whilst in my care. I didn’t want to get into the details, but I got the impression that if someone failed due to wear and tear, it would my bad luck. TBH I couldn’t get on with it, I wish I’d taken my shock pump, the fork was way too hard and my hands were suffering pretty much from the start, also my multi tool doesn’t have a Torx key, which I would have needed to move the SRAM shifter to lower the brake levers. If I had to moan (which of course I do) it’s that I arrived at 09:30 planning to meet up with a few other STWers at 10am, I got there to find a huge tribe of people renting a fleet of e-bikes for some kind of group thing (why anyone would want an e-bike in PDS I don’t know) it took so long to get my bike I’d missed the meet time, in fact if i’d booked a half day I’d be lucky to get 2 hours out of it, and by the time they got to me I was pretty much thrust a dirty bike and told to get on with it.
In hindsight I shouldn’t have rented the DH bike, there’s a big gulf between the easier trails in Morzine now and the harder ones, by the time I was starting to get my eye in with the Gambler it was pretty late in the day, I’d have gone faster on a Genius as it’s closer to my Bird Aeris I ride at home and I can set up Air Sus pretty quickly, at least to a ‘it’ll do’ level anyway.
I still had a blast riding about, I like to cover ground rather than session so I did about 70k on it, Morzine to Les Gets couple of runs, DH back to Morzine, Super Morizne Bike Park couple of runs, Lindrets, back to Morzine, Pleney run for old times, skipped 10% because it looked like it had been shelled recently and the fork would kill me, XC back to Les Gets and finally the DH back. As exepcted the Gambler was a slog on the few flat bits, but I washed it and returned it. They spent about 15 mins checking everything on it before letting me go, at least 3 times as long as they spent giving it to me.
weeksyFull MemberTo echo the above, last year or year before I hired a Pivot Mach 6 carbon and rode terribly on it, we just didn’t get along.
I’d rather ride my t130 and put up with less bounce than ride a bike I didn’t like -
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