Passporte du Soleil – who else is doing it?

Whoop whoop super excited now thinking about it! I’ll be on a Giant Reign 2 awesome for Morzine trails. Sammy drop us an e-mail and then we can arrange it nearer the time. franwhyte AT hotmail DOT com

I am starting from Avoraiz but staying in Morzine. How easy is it going to be to get to Avoraiz?

Not too bad to get to Avoriaz however I don’t know what time you’d be able to get there with the lifts as they probably just start for the PDS. Previously we had a friend who had a ticket to start elsewhere but he just played pretty and dump in Morzine and they let him start there.

Paging Chakaping (and anyone else starting from Morgins).

I’m doing the PdS for the first time starting from Morgins on the Saturday. Was planning to ride solo, but some company would be good. Any chance I could tag along with you? As someone else said, if you’re faster (I’m a pretty average trail rider riding a Spesh Enduro SL) I’d be happy just to drop back.

Me and the missus will be there doing it as well from chambery. i have a red nomad and the missus is on a rocky moutain Exts – say hi or shout at us if yo see us.

Dave

Hi amphibian, sure thing, there’s five of us doing it and the inevitable faffing usually means we don’t set any record times.

My email’s in my profile if you’d like to drop me a line.

Still got a pair (one male one female)of tickets for sunday start from Morzine spare if anyone is interested!

There’ll be two of us starting from Champéry on the Saturday, the third guy can’t make it unfortunately so I might have a spare ticket too…

snowslave – there are some pics here from 3 years ago. They’re in reverse order for some reason, we didn’t start with a beer!
Photobox album

We are supposed to be doing it from Morzine on the Saturday, 2 of us and have been getting really excited about it. We have a problem….! We originally booked to start at Chatel as soon as entries were open, the next day for various reasons we contacted Active Sport who did the entries and asked if we could be changed to start at Morzine. They emailed us saying that they had made the change on the database. So we were happy! Last week I realised you could check entry details on Active sports website so thought I’d print a copy off. Imagine my horror when I saw whoever had altered our entry had put Morgins as our start place. Meanwhile we’d booked accommodation and transfers for Morzine. What makes it worse is we are only going for 2 nights so can’t even make up for it if we can’t do the PPDS.
Active sport say they can’t change it now and have given us contact details for the organisers -I’ve emailed them a few times but heard nothing, and my French isn’t good enough to try and sort it over the phone.
What can we do?

Am I silly to be thinking about taking my new DH bike instead of my Reign?

A friend who’s been to Morzine a few times says I’ll regret it if I don’t.

I did it last year with some mates and was supposed to be going again this year but broke my collarbone riding to work this morning so thats put a stopper on that. Arse.

broke my collarbone riding to work

Bummer. The worst crashes never seem to happen when you expect.

🙁

(mr M-C posting) chapaking, youre spoiled for choice! Ive been to portes du soleil for 8 years and for the last 4 its been on a 5″ Coiler. I ride with guys on 8″ Glory’s and we’re pretty even on most trails.

If youve got a DH bike take it, it IS a DH mecca, but a reign is 6″ which is hardly under equipped! You might “enjoy” the flat sections and odd climbs more on the reign but most people ride full-on DH bikes.

Mrs M-C did it on a hardtail wih 48mm elastomer forks the first year (which ground to dust and ended up rigid but flexy), then on a 5″ I-drive and the last couple of years on a 6″ Reign.

Harvik gutted for you, me n mrs M-C have deliberately decided not to ride this w/e despite the nice weather so as not to tempt fate.

ATC2K head cam (with a loose mount) footage of a previous trip

In simple terms what is it? I take it’s an alpine enduro? Lots of uplifts to enjoy as many downs as you can get in?

Set course, with some more ‘core optional routes and an optional extension loop. Not a race, just an organised ride, with food stops.
Riders start from one of 7(?) villages which spreads riders across the course.

A lap of the Portes du Soleil region taking in several uplifts and downhills to complete a 75km loop with a huge downhill bias.

details on

http://www.passportesdusoleil.com/index.jsp?c=65885

route on

http://media.skiinfo.com/images/dppic/f322077.jpg?c=42

I think that I may have decided on next years’ ‘weekend’ away!!

Oh gawd, I’m in a real quandry now.

Don’t mean to hijack this thread with muy bike dilemna, but I honestly can’t decide.

Reign
Pros: I know the bike, it’s set up perfectly for me with great kit, can beef it up with DH front wheel, wide bars and big tyres and discs.

Cons: Can’t use DH rear wheel and not sure about a 2.5in DH tyre on the 719 rim.

Big Hit
Pros: Only ridden in anger once so far but felt at home on it straight away, 7in front/8in rear of smooth coil travel. I really want to take it.

Cons: Is the Alps the best place to get to know a new bike? Heavy and slack, more budget kit, set-up and kit not all bedded in yet, worried I’ll be pushing it up any slight incline.

I love riding long flat singletrack traverses and obviously the Big Hit will be crap at those. But I’m learning to love the downhills too.

Anyone doen the PPdS on a heavy DH bike? What’s the ratio of climbing/flat/downwards?

Any more opinions from those who’ve been out there before?

Ta.

i ride the bike i need for the rest of the week in Morzine and using uplifts mostly, 2.5ins tyres 6-7ins travel.

last year the climbing was a bit of a slog for one bit up to the lake at Morgins on the road – wouldn’t want to do it on anything much heavier than 35-36lbs

most of course was wider slightly gravity assisted with only a couple of mild downhill options – might be 1 or 2 more options this year

we’ve got 8 possibly 9 starters from Morzine on the sunday

mudhound

Myself & a mate are both starting from Morzine on Saturday. Unluckily our friend is staying with us in Morzine, but has an Avoiraz start. Anyone know how long it wll take him to get up there before the kick-off?

Chapaking IMHO a big hit is way overkill for ppds although plenty of people ride big bikes. Take what your used to riding with big tyres on. Could use a big hit if your planning on doing loads of dh riding the rest of the time you are there.

Chapaking, take the Reign, you don’t want to be lugging a DH bike around the PPDS IMHO, and the reign is perfectly adequate for most of the DH around there unless you are planning to do airtime bigtime.

Myself & a mate are both starting from Morzine on Saturday. Unluckily our friend is staying with us in Morzine, but has an Avoiraz start. Anyone know how long it wll take him to get up there before the kick-off?

Our start was supposed to be Avoriaz, but we were staying in Morzine, we managed to blag our way onto the lifts from Morzine.

I rode a Giant Trance just beefed it up a little (alot of fun on Le Plenney, Lets gets 1 & 2), I had a full face, elbow and Knee/shin armour, I only used 2.25″ tyres but with downhill tubes.

The larger the group, the more mechanicals, the less time you have to complete the route and you’ve got to make time for the stunning scenery (especially Switzerland).

Don’t try and run anyone over on the downhills like one of my gang did. Fortunately he ran over another one of my gang who had a comedy crash on the trail a few seconds earlier.

I wish I was doing it this year… 😥

epic its 20 mins drive or so up there (dont know about parking or picking stuff up but shouldn’t be much of a queue)- if driving he could get up get pack and come back down. your best to leave les gets til last (as can freewheel back down to Morzine if get stuck there at end of day). bit of queue at Super Morzine lift for getting up to Avoriaz whereas if start there and head along Swiss superhighway to Les lindarets and the chatel bike park there’s no queue at start.

we never saw our guy who started from avoriaz all day last year, started from Les gets and then got stuck in a bar in Morzine for quite some while at end of day when lift stopped. bike show in morzine this year so can do that on the non passportes day

Done the passportes a few times officially and solo; here are my tips –

Full face helmet and body armour is, in my opinion, unnessary. Knees, shin and elbow pads are.

I’ve done it on 224 fitted with single crowns, old patriot LT, and a Norco A-line. 224 with single crown forks easily best, so don’t be afraid of taking DH bikes, though all-mountain (?) such as Pitch look ideal. Orange 5 with 36’s also looks good.

Again, as many have said, big tyres and well maintained brakes are a must.

Some, but not all, lycra’d euro’ racers are slow – many are very fast indeed, on unfeasibly crap bikes, so don’t go trying to follow/race everyone – it’ll end in a stack.

Enjoy yourselves.

Beanum,

I would be very interested in getting yoru spare place starting from chambery on saturday. I can not find out how to get your email from your profile. Please email me on dnwsmith @ hotmail .com

Cheers

Dave

Some, but not all, lycra’d euro’ racers are slow – many are very fast indeed, on unfeasibly crap bikes

😆 Yes I remember them as they flew past me down hill at warp speed on some ancient pink and green peugeot rigid bike with cantilevers!!!

That’s because they couldn’t stop, Andy!
😉

You all ready yet? I’ve been faffing with packing on and off for a week now. Hopefully done today. It seems to be more kit than I imagined it would be, apart from the tools and spares which are remarkably compact…..
To be fair my camping/sleeping kit is the bulk of it.
🙂

Quick open question –

How many sets of brake pads should I have d’ya think?
I’ve got ggod ones on the bike and 4 spare pairs of sintered. (2 bikes worth)

Should be enough for 4.5 days riding, yeah…?…?

4 spair pairs here. No, loads to do! Need to sort bike; big rotors, change tyres, bleed brakes, new seat post etc etc…..

Ha – we’re all in the same stage then!
I’ve fitted my adjustable post – yours here yet andy??
Packed 4 new pairs of pads, and a new pair at each end on the bike too….
Got a little shoe box with a mech, chain, pads, 180mm rotor, SPDs, spare cleats, zip ties……

Flats fitted to the bike, unworn full face in the box (well, I say unworn but I did wear it up and down the street for a bit…)

I’m gonna start a new thread where you can post your ‘I’ve Alpified my bike’ pics!!

Looking forward to it chaps!

DrP

Yep. My full-facer arrived yesterday with my elbow pads and huge wide handlebars. So I’ll look like a gnarly downhiller, but ride like an XC jeyboy. I just don’t wanna crash and make myself look even uglier, TBH….

Could that actually be possible?? 😯 😉

You found a full-facer to fit, then?

I think you left it here:

RB that image will be with me all next week 😆

DrP; yup post has arrived and will fit this afternoon. Bit worried about this effect when I release it though 😯

just about packed now.
dont forget a first aid kit and sudacrem!

You boys are packed? I made the mistake of telling people i was going on holiday for a week (i’m sure they thought I said I was emigrating) so have to work all weekend. The joys of being self employed. Saying that, I think I have everything I need and will try to get packed monday night. Getting excited now and praying for good weather!

No not packed at all! Still pfaffing with van and other stuff.

But the all important question – is your bike sparkling clean…?

Andy – Are you planning on bringing bike polishing stuff, or shall I shove some brushes/lube/GT85/microfibre towels with my kit? You know I feel queezy when my bike gets dirty!

DrP

DrP; Thought PP was getting some communal stuff?

He said he was bringing double strength rubbers and buckets of lube, but then asked me to bring inner-tubes and teflon chain grease….
[naive] Oh he’s a forgetful sod that PP…….[/naive]

DrP

Note – I didn’t know he was bringing cleaning guff. I’ll have it in my car anyways…

double strength rubbers and buckets of lube

Are you two sharing a tent?

Ah no worries, I’ll throw some in the back of the van.

Ooohh so excited now! Just watched the movie again (above) to remind myself how much fun it is and hope for good weather!!! Fingers crossed!