Do they get better or worse over the season?

Weather was rubbish in July so thinking later in the season next year?

From experience of going at various different points of the season over the years, they are generally crap all the time.

The opening week is probably your best bet. Although on some of the tracks they were bigger than I have ever seen before this year. Same old story, year after year.

depends we have been there in July before where they were horrific only the following day tp hurtle down the track and find someone in the middle of digging them out and rest of week smooth as….

If your expecting the quality of any mainline to be different then think again. Maintenance seems to only hold up for a day or two here. If anything I’d recommend either putting up with it or making the most of the lifts and doing more singletrack runs along ridgelines and epic descents.

I was thinking this year they may be limited to Morzine. They aren’t.
All bike parks have them all over Europe.
People unable to control skidding should be made to dig them out for community service maybe. ..

Bumps on a mountain bike trail? What ever next? Tarmac?

the main solution is to go somewhere thats not dirt based really. Rock trail hold up better

Pitch person….bumps are one thing, but riding downhill all day, with lactic acid burning in your wrists and fingers and wheel trap sized braking bumps take some of the fun away…

they are only bumps, just do lots of press ups before you head out there

or head over to chatel where they seem to maintain the trails a bit more or morgins which has an excellent bike park and is quieter and less cut up

Went 3 weeks ago, and in a few places it was tough going on a hard tail, an example being the top blue link section back down into Les Lindarets. I’m a very average rider, but they were the really only limiting factor for my level of riding on a Cotic Soul. In fact some of the reds had less braking bumps than blues I presume due to tighter corners and less speed.

Pitch person….bumps are one thing, but riding downhill all day, with lactic acid burning in your wrists and fingers and wheel trap sized braking bumps take some of the fun away…

I just imagine being at work instead and it usually puts things into perspective. 😉

This would be one of the reasons I stopped going there, so many better trails out there.

if you’re bothered about braking bumps, don’t go to Morzine.

there are many other places to ride where they simply don’t exist.

you can take the edge off them with few tweaks (brake levers from 45degrees down to only 20degrees down, + bigger grips = massive difference for me) but they’re never much fun.

What’s Verbier like in comparison?

We were there in mid July – braking bumps everywhere, in fact the word “bump” doesn’t really suffice, perhaps they should be called braking ruts.

In our group we speculated that the trails were maintained to a level suitable only for big travel DH bikes. More than half the trails from the top of Chatel were closed. On most trails there is no need to lock the back wheel, my guess its a combination of inexperienced riders and people skidding for fun.

It was my third time to Morzine/PdS and I doubt I’ll go back, the best riding we did was away from the normal trails in the resort, the marked VTT trails down to Samoens were superb as they are hard to get to. Likewise the in the Chatel the blue’s or red’s requiring a pedal round were in much better condition

Soften the forks and stick a set of ESI grips on, helped me loads this year. (Although the ESI grips were knackered after two weeks)

jambalaya – Member

We were there in mid July – braking bumps everywhere, in fact the word “bump” doesn’t really suffice, perhaps they should be called braking ruts.

In our group we speculated that the trails were maintained to a level suitable only for big travel DH bikes. More than half the trails from the top of Chatel were closed. On most trails there is no need to lock the back wheel, my guess its a combination of inexperienced riders and people skidding for fun.

it’s not just skidding/locked wheels that cause them, any braking will do it.

the trails are just too steep.

steep isn’t necessarily a problem, but it’s a good way to make people tickle their brakes.

lots of people tickling their brakes = braking bumps = lots of people hitting the brakes hard = massive braking bumps.

more ‘easy’ trails (less steep) would take the inexperienced riders from the steeper tracks = less traffic = fewer braking bumps.

They’re generally pretty battered all season. But that’s why we have fancy suspension bikes. They’re smoothest before the Passportes event and worse after a few days of wet weather. But as said above, adjust your suspension and work on getting fitter, stronger. We all contribute to making them just by riding over them once they start to form.

I blame Fourier

@ahwiles – interesting thanks

there don’t ten to be as many in January.

Keep your eyes open and pick your lines.

It amazes me how quickly the washboard bumps start to appear once the trails open, but usually July is OK and then there are a few big thunderstorms and before you know the whole place is as rough as heck. But some places are better than others, Morzine and Les Gets main lines get ridden to destruction. Any maintenance that is done is quickly destroyed. You just have spread out a bit more.

I was out in Les Gets 3 weeks ago and there were usually 2 guys out maintaining the Chevannes every day. I didn’t think the tracks there or Linerettes were too bad and better than they have been in previous years.
Besides having good suspension and a DH rig, there are a few tricks to minimise the bumps. I try to brake (hardish) before the main braking area and letting go over the bumps so my suspension works through the bumps, might have to grab a bit more brake just before the corner but try not to drag over the bumps or in the actual corner. You can also sometimes find clean strips at the edges of the tracks but you might have to take some interesting entering/exit lines.
Oh, and you go faster doing this!

There mid July and bumps were as bad as ever, not a smooth ride anywhere.
Seriously considering somewhere else for next year.

I have a dh rig, it just means you go faster! Bumps are still bumps. I hate to think how I’d cope on 100mm hard tail! Respect goes out to all that ride it like that.

Manual through them. Seriously though I wish someone would hurry up and invent a grader for bike park trails

Braking bumps, anyone been to Peaslake recently, it’s not just a French thing.

It doesn’t vary directly by when you visit, I’ve been riding the trails on pleney before the lifts opened and they still have braking bumps in them. Over the whole season I was there it was pot luck for the couple of times they did maintenance.

Totally disagree with kayak though, just back from 2.5 weeks in the alps, 18 days and 12 resorts and plenty of them didn’t have braking bumps.

Oh and similarly weather by the way, that can vary over the time as well, August is likely to be hotter but than can lead to more storms etc.

I hate to think how I’d cope on 100mm hard tail! Respect goes out to all that ride it like that

I do think they cause most of the bumps though.

some places that are particularly bad are steep north facing slopes (stay wet for longer), and anywhere where the lift companies haven’t really decided who should do the fixing (Toboggan from Chatel to Lindarets being an example of both)

Very very few people on the trails in the Alps are on hardtails so it’s daft to try and pin the ruts on them.

The odd thing to me about Toboggan is that the worst bumps are on some of the flatter sections miles before the corners. A rider going at an average pace wouldn’t need to brake there, so are the bumps caused by DH rigs going much faster and braking earlier ?

the worst bumps are on some of the flatter sections miles before the corners

Pedalling bumps?

I hate to think how I’d cope on 100mm hard tail! Respect goes out to all that ride it like that

I survived 🙂 😈

I do think they cause most of the bumps though.

I don’t. Probably only about 3 HT riders there during a week, and 2 of them were us.

Pretty relentless though – bumps the entire way around berms, coming out of berms, entire braking section approaching berms, whole 100-200m sections of dead straight slightly sloping bit of hill between Morzine and Les Gets on what is the ski slope in winter.

Preferred the rocky sections, although a few more mm of travel might have been a bonus.

I spent a week out there on a prince albert in 2010. My fingers and wrists were agony every morning after hitting all the braking bumps. I’d see corners coming up at speed and brace myself for the agony I was going to feel getting round there.

Brilliant week. Absolutely fantastic. I’d do it again like a shot. What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.

jambalaya – Member

The odd thing to me about Toboggan is that the worst bumps are on some of the flatter sections miles before the corners. A rider going at an average pace wouldn’t need to brake there, so are the bumps caused by DH rigs going much faster and braking earlier ?

do you mean ‘flatter’? – or do you mean ‘straighter’? – there’s not much on the toboggan run that’s ‘flat’…

straight bits yes, flat bits…. er… where?

i suspect the sections you mean show where most people have built up a speed that they’re happy with, and start tickling their brakes just to control their speed – to stop them accelerating any more.

as above, lots of people tickling their brakes just a little bit = braking bumps.

i hate that run – it’s such a crap way to burn 500m of vertical.

@awhiles – yes flatter as in less steep, I do recall the trail was less rutted on the really steep sections. Is there another way down ? The fire road is really really dull ! Bit of an academic question as I really don’t think I’ll go back.

That toboggan is absolutely gash. I had to stop and laugh at one point it was that bad. A few of the corners looked like an MX track with 2ft deep ruts in them.

The old way down was far more interesting, even if half of it was fire road.

Classic example of how not to build a trail & complete waste of a mountain. They could have any number of lines down there, with a decent lift back up as well now.

So many missed opportunities in the PDS.