White Room – Alps – 5th – 12th July – Are you going?

Me (Groomy), Jaffa, Ian and Mark got together with our families last night for a pre Alps BBQ, but we soon pi$$ed everyone off with beer fueled (gay Disaranno & diet coke in Jaffa’s case) bike related conversations.

Just a couple of last minute minor jobs to do on the bikes and we are ready for our start out at 9.00pm on Friday.

Can’t wait!!!

Yeah can wait now. concentration at work nearing zero. Bike related texts and phone call up 50%. bike checking and kit comparisons nearly all sorted! still undecided on what rubber im going to use though! got some chunkey monkeys and a michelin rock r, the rock r weighs a ton but is bomb proof and the grippiest thing ive had on the bike! packing it tonight so needs a decision!!

Getting lots of abuse at work for the increased levels of bike geekery between me and Matt! He’s just treated himself to 2 x Minion UST’s in 2.5 Supertacky flavour.

2.5! how heavy are those bad boys, will they fit 😉 😀

I’m undecided what tyres to use too. Bought some Minions front and rear and tried them out a couple of weeks ago with downhill tubes on my local trails and they felt bloody awful! These are back on the bike now but I’m definitely taking my usual choice of Chunky Monkey & Smorgasbord for swapping over, if I find I don’t get on with the Maxxis tyres.

Work concentration is none existent now!!!!

When is everyone expecting to get to TWR? We should be there looking very tired late Saturday afternoon after driving down from the Midlands.

Maxxis come up small and they’ll still be lighter than that bloody Michelin anchor!

We’ll be arriving around 5 o’clock. Lightly pished having flown over and been picked up by Stevo!! 🙂

yeah its bloody heavy but love the grip on it! anyway most the riding is pointing down so the weight may be a benefit(says convincing himself)

We’re setting off early doors Friday, driving down to Dover and smashing as much of France as we can then staying in an F1, up early and do the last bit.
I’m running 2.35 Minions front and rear as I don’t like punctures and tyre changing.

If you see the opposition (trail addiction) say hi to rob and Tom (cube stereo and tracer). They wanted to go with steveo but it was booked out. Can’t believe I’m missing out this year!

frogstomp – Member

idiotdogbrain » 16th-22nd August for me

Same here.. at a guess we may have mutual friends..

Same dates for me, hi Frog and, err, Dogbrain 😕

Hans Dampf 2.35 Trailstar front and Pacestar rear or do I go with Chunky Monkey 2.4 Trail Extreme front and rear??? Will be running tubeless. Can’t decide!

Run whatever you don’t mind shredding! I’ve used the same 2.4 advantage 3 times, pretty shagged now, a bit like an ardent actually!

From what I saw last year Hans Dampf sgs will lose the edges off every knob by about the 3rd day and lose half their grip. Really liked my old Clutches out there, they were really good in the dust/loose stuff (valley was baked dry). Butchers last year not quite so good for that stuff. Will be highrollers this year I think as I’ve got some to burn up.

I may well go with the CM’s as they are a bit draggy for Uk trail riding and a bit more substantial than the HD’s. Cheers for the input.

Getting close now!! Almost counting the hours!

Godzilla – if you’re setting off early Friday you’ll probably crack most of the journey that day so I expect you’ll be getting to the White Room late Saturday morning. We’ll be doing our best to catch and overtake you driving through the night whilst your sleeping in the F1 but I doubt we’ll manage it! Look out for a red A4 with 4 bikes on the towbar!

All this talk of tyres hasn’t surprised me really. Like Groomy, I’ve got a pair of Maxxis Minion DH tyres in 2.35 – I’ve not ridden on them at all yet whereas Groom tried and hated them – said he was all over the place because of them (nothing new – always an excuse). However, I can see that they come up incredibly narrow and I’m sitting wondering if a pair on new Chunky Monkies would be better. For grip maybe but for puncture resistance I doubt it. I’ll try the Minions but I’m taking some high rollers / On One tyres as spares so can always swap over.

Packed my bike kit last week. Packing the rest of my gear tonight.

Cool, we’re in a silver VW Transporter, i haven’t packed but i have tomorrow off to sort my shit out.

See you on Saturday guys!

For info, the other party next week is the regular White Room Russian Invasion. Should be fun!

Stevo!

Did you get my mail re: flight times for the transfer?

Cheers

Andy

Yep, all good!

Great. See you Sat. Seriously buzzing now 🙂

The weather forecast looks rubbish – hope it picks up.

Yeah, first few days dont look great but it could all change over night. fingers crossed

Feel for you lot there this week, the weather looks grim, not the same when its like that!

A little bird told me “jaffa”had a big off on the first day,something about a dislocated shoulder/collarbone??

Yep had an off in the afternoon of day 1 although it wasn’t anything like a big off, just an unlucky fall.

Managed a posterior left shoulder dislocation. Totally gutted.

Flew home Tuesday and had more X-rays coz they can’t work out if I’ve fractured the ball end of my top arm bone. To be honest the NHS doc I saw didn’t seem too interested in spending too much time finding out if there is any muscle or ligament damage either (maybe to do with cost cutting and not wanting to do a ct scan) so I’m gonna go via Bupa.

Current plan is to get proper diagnosis of problems and work hard on physio etc so I can get back out next year.

Keep ur fingers crossed for me!

One final point, the guys at the white room were ace when it happened. Thanks to Alex for flicking the ants off me and to Stevo and Pat for making their way round to me as we’ll. Waiting for the 4×4 / chopper was the longest hour of my life.

On the one hand, sorry to hear about that, especially on day 1… Gutting. But on the other, Pat’s back, woo!

What trail did you “off” on? Should we mark the spot with a plaque for posterity?

I think it was la tour.

It was in La Thuile – no idea what they call the trails over there! The one off the second lift with the jumpy bits that goes out to the left.