Jon or Beanie if you happen to spot ths thread again, what is the possibility of coming by to see one of you this weekend?

I did send you an email Beanie but I guess the one in your profile is not the right one any more?

Just wait for the next couple of days posts, that was the best stuff!

Col des Ayes was just long and it was hot, compared to others it wasn’t too difficult and actually most of it was rideable because there is a decent gravel road that goes all the way up to 2200m (out of 2480m) then you can even ride a bit of the singletrack after that before a hike-a-bike section at the end.

Day 3 for those that are following this thread…

Day 3 – Briancon – Chateau-Queyras[/url]

Oliver – Exactly as I did but the images weren’t showing up in the preview box?

The section of trail in this write up was thankfully the only time we underestimated how long trail would take, it was also probably one of the few sections not on the official GR5 trail so that is maybe why!

Where in the country are you spooky?

Here we have it, part 2!

Day 2 – Col des Rochilles – Briançon[/url]

It took a little longer than expected but i’ve gotten photos edited, text written and it all arranged nicely on my website for you to browse and read through. Enjoy!

If anyone is able to get imaged from the page to show up on here that would be great, it won’t work for me! I would quite like to put one or two directly into the post each time I post.

Brilliant edenvalleyboy … I’m guessing this is why not many replied to mine as it was done only a week ago!

Oo here we go! I[ve spent hat North of the Sun one (the only one i’ve seen that has been mentioned so far), great little film, not quite the kind of thing I would be up for mind! Far too cold!

Any more? I was thinking this kind of thing would be right up your street and there would be loads of responses!

Maybe Martin Lewis can help you claim?

Oliver – It did take a while but I quite enjoy it and will try make some more inventive ones int he future! (indesign makes it way faster than you might imagine). RE the weather, doing the trip in August makes a bit difference I think and we were too hot most days tbh. I reckon we could actually have gone a load lighter as well, like taking a book and spare pair of shoes was unnecessary plus we should have taken lighter sleeping bags!

I think we judged it pretty well with placement of equipment as well, the weight on the back was not bad and not having too much weight on the bike was nice when carrying and also meant it still handled pretty nicely.

I will try and get the next one out over the weekend!

Oliver – I’ve no idea about the Dolomites but it looks epic, used to live in Slovenia just next door and i’d recommend riding there!

Not sure about policemen enforcing it but I’ve met several sort of park rangers out in the hills whilst living in Grenoble and been told a couple of times oh don’t go here with bikes or maybe that is not a good idea etc. So I think they enforce it. I was told by a couple of people that the most sensitive area on the GR5 is La Vallée des Merveilles which is in the Mercantour national park and you only pass through that if you take the Menton ending option. I have to say the best riding by far was in the mercantour park like but maybe I shouldn’t be advocating that.

As for kit, I wrote a bit of an overview post before diving into the day-by-day things and it has an infographic thing I made with all our kit. For some reason that I can’t work out this page on my site is super slow! So if you just open it, let it load in the background for a bit it will appear at the bottom of the page after the ‘cols’ bit and ‘villes’ section there is an ‘equipment’ section. As I write in the post, I still think we took too much stuff but we were in August so super warm and no need for all the extra warm gear except for a warm jacket and some leggings in the evenings. RE tent/tarp we had a bit of an issue regarding our combination of kit… we took a tarp cos lightweight but then we both just used the sleeping bags we had at the time as buying new sleeping bags in expensive, these were rather warm! Because of this we always wanted to sleep with sleeping bags open otherwise you’d wake up in a pool of sweat every night however the tarp was obviously also open (we actually didn’t even set this up most nights, just slept on the ground sheet) so all the creepy crawlies could come in! In the end we actually ended up aiming to sleep as high up as possible (towards 1500-2000m) was ideal so that it was either cool enough to sleep with sleeping bags open or there were much less bugs up there.

GR5 Overview[/url]

Oh and i’ve managed to get the images to link directly in to here now!

Well montgomery it is made by Americans, you have to expect a bit of that :wink:, if you can get past it there are some nice mountains to look at, promise. But the scenery, editing and idea there is a journey takes place in the video was more the point.

Those two looks good, thanks chaps!

Nice one guys. Seems like the site is working at a decent speed then if no one has commented otherwise…?

Oliverracing – Just realised you are the guys who also did the GR5 last summer who even look like me and my mate and even have the same name! (I am also a Will). Reading your report it seems like you missed some pretty epic sections however i’m not sure how legal it is to ride it all (although we didn’t realise this until we actually arrived at signs which said so and it was too late to make a MASSIVE detour so we rode on cautiously, no one complained and were in fact almost always encouraging, even the locals!).

I realised just now you asked me some questions on your thread and in response the sections of the GR5 south of Briancon are often really rideable, you would often have the real GR5 going up some hiking path then a gravel road or proper road zig zagging up nearby until about 500m or so from the top of the col then it was on to a proper trail and some hike-a-bike mixed with riding, surprised how much we rode uphill really.

Hey guys, thanks for the replies! Really appreciate the offers- Beanie, i’ll send you an email via the address in your profile. Jon, how do I get in contact with you, would love to come and see what you have done, the photos look great!

Mike – thanks for the Sikaflex info, I have actually read almost every post and comment on your big thread about converting your van, fantastic job, looks amazing! Might have to come to you for some more question and info at some point although my project will be a little smaller (thinking Transt SWB/MWB with high top) and a little less sophisticated for my first go.

Hey John, if i’ve got the right photo then it is the first col we did south of Briancon called the Col des Ayes, it is the switchbacks you can see in the map i’ve linked below…

Col des Ayes map

Cheers Senor J, will be posting more in the coming weeks!

A Gallery of all the images from the trip i’ve uploaded so far is here if you like
[/url]

Oysterkite – I lived in Grenoble for two years! Shame we never met!

Ned – I have ridden a bit around Torino, and a good bit in the hills by the sea but along the french/Italian border and really enjoyed it. I think that Torino nice rally will be seriously good fun! Been following then on Instagram actually.

I don’t get why the page loads fine for some and not for others. It’s the same amongst my friends.

The mattress was great company at night, especially when Jan wouldn’t let me cuddle up to him! Ha ha

I actually wrote a bit of a diary while we did it and took a heck of a lot of photos so I’ll be writing the days up in a bit more detail of anyone is interested I’ll some links when I get round to it!

Thanks! Did the site load ok for you Mr. Cheeze?

Had similar horror story with company called P4D. About a week late for collection, therefore a week late for delivery, no one to talk to and little contact about the parcel. Turns out their Ts and Cs basically give them zero responsibility and explain that there is not actually any guarantee of delivery!!

Never use p4d!!

Ah dammit! I thought I’d fixed it before posting. It’s weird, seems to be slow for some and then not for others. My I.T/web skills and don’t stretch far enough to work out why 😥

Yeah shermer, I read that, but I bet the CCTV doesn’t work or has the image quality of a potoato.

5lab where are we talking for the rear entrance? Can you link a google map location of the stands?

Bump for the Sunday evening crowd

Cheers for some the info guys, some things to look into anyway!

Anyone else?

Only whats necessary shoes!

Or even been to that area?

I used to get two in the back of my classic mini!

Lol the peak is a tiny lightweight piece of plastic, it’s not going to unbalance the helmet on your head!

Cheers Ton, I doubt you remember but we’ve actually met once before.. several years ago on an organised ride from here at Glentress, think we did the black loop and I would have been 18/19 or something then

Thanks, I didn’t ride the first section you can see in the photo but pretty much where the clouds stats I rode from, you can see some more pics from that ride in the link below, i’ll post some pics to some other mad exposed lines in the next post 😉

Le Corio photos[/url]

The mountain is called Le Coiro, it is about 30mins drive south of Grenoble

Map for Le Coiro

Slackly – The template for the whole site is called Photography

Weeks – if only it were that simple 😉

Matt – in about October of last year I did a lower leg service

Trimix – I’ve done it once before and it was pretty simple so happy to have a go again!

So if this is the reason they have gone stiff, can anyone explain the mechanics behind that just so I understand why it has happened. As from what I understood when I did the service last year it was simply a clean of the dust wiper seal thingies and an oil change, how does shitty oil/dirty seals cause the problem i’m having?

ta!

Do you know that on skyscanner you can choose your departing airport and then type ‘everywhere’ as your destination and it then shows you the cheapest destinations from your airport?

OnePLus get all the reviews!

Wileyfox?

H

as above… or I usually just pinch a few from the Pinkbike photo of the day album

Have you considered Ride Slovenia?

Probably not as ‘fancy’ as your other places but the riding over there is awesome!! As is the scenery and the country is pretty dam cheap, €1 coffee, €1 I’ve cream, €2 beer!

Check out their website for some videos, photos etc, also on Facebook and Instagram

Hey! Great photos!

My brother saw this post and sent me it and actually thought it was me posting it at first as we did the GR5 from Briancon – Nice in August! And you two even look a bit like me and my mate haha! Here we are below…

DSC03802 by Willy Gibson[/url], on Flickr

Looks like you guys took similar bikes and amount of kit to us, we decided to go with just sleeping bags and waterproof jacket in the handlebar bag and then the rest in rucksacks which worked out ok, we went a bit more lightweight with the sleeping arrangements though with just a groundsheet and tarp (you can see below) but I guess since it was August it was easier for us, and we actually ended up way too warm most nights!

I must say I don’t recognise many of the photos in your write up but then we only started in Braincon and we took the GR5 route not realising before setting off we weren’t allowed through the Mercantour national park with bikes until we arrived at it, by that time we didn’t really have another option and just risked it and rode through.

The only photos I really recognise of yours are the ones near the end where it seems we joined the same path, from the old van onwards, check out the photo below of our camp (and me in my sexy tights), you can see that old concrete structure and the old van up behind up on the hill!

DSC04310 by Willy Gibson[/url], on Flickr

And then that photo we waited so so long for, of us riding down into Nice and the sea below!

DSC04393 by Willy Gibson[/url], on Flickr

I’ve not uploaded many photos yet, except to instagram, but I am planning to do a proper write up on my blog if you are interested i’ll let you know when i’m done!

Anyway, nice photos! and awesome trip, we will have to go back and do the North half from Geneva – Briancon some time!

Where in Sweden are you based? Assuming you are from Sweden…

Hey bajsyckel, thanks a lot for all the info!

Well i’ve been a bit all over the place in the last few years, working in London, studying in Grenoble and studying in Norway, working also in Slovenia and i’m originally from Northumberland and the time has finally come that I finished my masters degree and I can choose where I would like to try find work. I would ideally go back to Norway and find a job there as I really liked the way of life there, the landscape, the weather (yes I know i’m crazy), the architecture, the people I met, the riding etc. I was in Sweden at the beginning of the summer for a friend’s wedding and I met a Swedish girl there (yes it all boils down to a girl) and we’ve been seeing each other since, so i’m still keen on moving to Scandinavia just the location has been diverted a little and who knows what will happen in the future, maybe i’ll continue on to Norway, maybe i’ll like Sweden a lot. But for now i’m going to go spend some time in Gothenburg, this girl is there, I have some friends there, it seems like a cool city architecturally and socially, (after some research) it seems like there’s some good riding around and we’ll see how it goes…

Since I finished my masters in June i’ve been living in Chatel working/biking and then again in Slovenia working/biking and just enjoying the sort of freedom you have when you are not tied down by any job or family and I suppose I need a bit of focus on where to look for a ‘real’ job, that was already Norway (Scandinavia) and meeting someone gave me particular reason to go to Gothenburg. I would quite like to find myself an architecture job there and earn some real money for a while but i’m also quite open to just apply for bike shop/cafe type jobs too until I find something proper, I don’t expect an architecture job will just fall into my lap straight away!

anyway enough of the life story haha, I ended up writing way more than I thought I would!

So I am not swapping Trondheim for Gothenburg but Slovenia and Alpine riding for Gothenburg haha, but i’m always open to something new riding wise! I just like exploring! What you are saying about the jobs sounds great and thanks for the extra info, perhaps you wouldn’t mind if i sent you an email regarding that and I could ask a few more questions because it is also a bit of an unknown for me?

Have this frame and I had this same problem and realised I was just being stupid! Because there is an allen key head on both the inside and outside of the bolt I thought you needed a key on both ends.

You simply need to put an allen key into the end facing out (so that bit you are pointing a)t and turn it anti clockwise, the oval shaped nut will stay in place in the frame and the bolt will undo. DO NOT put an allen key in both ends! The two heads are the same bolt so you won’t move it!

If it helps explain I can go take a video of me unscrewing mine so you understand for sure?

I would love to get involved in both the enduro series in Sweden and Norway next year! I’ve been doing a fair few down here in France (where I live at the moment) and love doing them!

Regarding Trondheim – you could have a flick through some of the posts on my blog for an idea of the riding. There is plenty riding near the city but the biggest hill is around 500m (you can ride to sea level almost), there is a load of riding down in Oppdal which is another 2hrs south if you fancy that. Otherwise likewise, I could probably put you in touch with some locals who could show you around!

Trondheim Riding[/url]

About half of the posts on that page are around Trondheim area