Probably lovely till the love escapes!

Don’t forget mike sustained 200 miles per day for 92 days last year!

He is only 97% titanium now, he lost the other 2% when he had his pain barrier removed!

The idea is to carry virtually nothing, read mike halls blog! A urging you carry weighs you down so basically you ride, eat and sleep for a few hours! No change of clothes etc, just a tiny tent and sleeping bag and a few spares

I reckon mike has got fed up of him hanging off him, he will drop back and let him think he has the better of him and in a couple of days time do a 400 mile stint and blow him apart!

He will be bored of small talk, he’s there to race, not socialise, 10 miles isn’t much and mike doesn’t need much sleep, in fact he perfected sleep riding on the nullabor last year!

We’re off! Mike starting an early pace, thought the plan may have been to hang back then pass everyone in the night but he has clearly decided to wave goodbye to everyone and ride it lone the whole way!

Expect some 250 mile plus days off mike. I wouldnt be surprised if he pulls out one or teo 300 mile plus days too! From speaking to him in the past he can do 14 days of crazy miles fine, more than that and his head srarts getting the better of him I think so I imagine its going to be head down, job done!

Another gem is saint Pierre de chartrouse out the back of Grenoble, again more of a locals place like lac blanc so guaranteed to be quiet and more technical than the main resorts. Lac blanc is great as you can get there early with a 2am ferry ride and then drive on to bourg after, sleep is just detail! Have a look on big bike’s French website as there is a guide to all the resorts. To be honest go to any though and for the first day you will have fun!

The fenicular is open on Saturdays in bourg you know, and the lift from 1600

Can we all just agree that the mountain bike reached the optimum with square taper BBs, 1.25″ headsets, 8-speed cassettes (though I’m sure some will point out that was at least one too many), 26″ wheels and hydraulic discs? Everything since then has been marketing led rather than to actually make our riding better. Suspension also peaked in about 2005, with no real significant improvements since – about the only new technology since then which has made any difference to the way people ride is dropper posts (I’ll give you that one even though I don’t use one myself).

All very true and that’s why we are where we are at today! Bike sales were grinding to a halt so a new wheel size meant new bike sales, simple. Only 29ers are boring and who would want a 29er dh bike? Cue no growth of sales for companies like norco who sell in the AM market. The halfway house size offers some fun while still delivering fresh bike sales!

So long as people buy them they will keep selling them, so simple, just buy an old prophet from early 2000’s which is near identical to a 2013 orange 5 and have done!

You choose, speed boat or canal boat! I know what I’d go for!

FBK no worries, I can send what I have but a lot is map based however I was going to photograph it for someone else and you can copy it onto your map if you like

You beat me starting a post on the TD.

Really gunning for Mike being an old mate and all and I think this is what he needs to get his head straight and refocus! I’ll be glued to the blue dots for the next two weeks for sure!

And good luck to everyone else partaking in the race!

You don’t need a seat slammed all of the way down, you have just got used to it as thats what you do, I’d find that horrible

It would last you longer as when it gets worn you would have three sets of worn chains to use! But its still going to be worn!

I had a gravity dropper and drilled a third hole in it 1 1/2″ down which was the perfect set up! Now I have a reverb which works loads nicer, but never seems to be in the right place! A reverb with presets would be amazing, you don’t need infinite adjustment at all, its just a pain!

Morzine is like the Trafford centre on a wet Sunday!

Why not travel about and just camp at old closed lift stations and do a different resort each day?

Guide v’s no guide boils down to £850 for 5 days v’s £450 for 8 days for us which is a big deciding factor

and nothing wrong with riding them, they aint foot paths per se, they are just trails, different rules but obviously you are polite to walkers as you are at home when on wednesday afternoon bridleways

bear in mind only trail addiction and white room can guide in les arcs this year, the others are just chalets that cater and offer advice due to french clamp downs on guiding!

There are pros and cons of guided holidays. if you have the sole use of the guide for your group then great but if not then its a lottery as to who you will get in teh group. Some we saw last year were so mixed it was painful, which means you aint going to get much riding in and a lot of sitting around.

A lot of research and you can cram more in for a lot less, ride more, get more days there riding and have your own freedom.

We used Steveo from the white rooms last year onhis day off and it was great to have a van and trailer assisted lift to the top of teh Col D’iseran to ride HEIDI, but then there were only 4 of us and it was just one day

La Thuile is a great day out. We rode down from the top of the col du petit saint bernard which is a good warm up and different riding to what la thuile offers. All id say for la thuile is the long marked up trails are accesible from the col du petit saint bernard, but to get to them from the top lift involves a massive ride up and then a crap roll down to the road, so dont bother doing that.

Its basically a hand crafted trail centre for 6″ bikes, the K2 trail is awesome and has something of everything in so make sure you do that. Not enough there for more than one or two days but definitely put it on the list to do

We are out the 19th to 28th July and camping in Bourg if that fits in, more than welcome to join the group.
Are you camping at Ley Versoyen? We’re there from 13th-27th, might have to raid your map knowledge to add to my covered-in-highlighter IGN map if poss?

Sure are Rondo, look out for an Estate Accord and an estate Astra, come and say hi, there will be 8 of us in all.

Last year was hard going and trying to plot routes form a map in advance was hard going. This time round looking at the map and google maps makes sense so i can see what is where and picture how to get to it. Im hoping to have all teh trails on a GPS so if we get a bit lost (mostly in the woods beneath arcs 1800) trying to find the start of trails it should come in handy. Hopefully all of the leg work in advance will pay dividends this year

I have a mix of the old IGN map

and this lot

Overview of Les Arcs Riding

La Varda

Marked Trails on the piste map
Red 7 pt 1
Red 7 Pt 2
Red 7 Pt 3
Red 7 Pt 4

Black 8 – Pretty cut up, most used trail but you can race the fenicular so do a run every 30 mins – Challenge is on!

Black 8

Walkers trails not on the Piste map

Walkers trails

Double Header Finishes at the camp site pretty much

Double Header

Very close to double header – finishes at camp site

another walkers trail[/url]

another walkers trail

and another

These are the next hill down via La Plagne

Roche De Mio

This is to the furthest rideable point and it will mean a climb back up of about 300m

Back side of Roche de Mio

More La Plagne

These are up the valley

Ridge above Val D’isere[/url]

The Grand Sassiere, the highest rideable peak in the Alps. We can do a ride from 3750m to 800m and it will probably be over 50km long with only a tiny bit of climbing in one village.

Grand Sassiere

PILA

Starts with the death ridge

Starting with the death Ridge

Then goes down stuff like this (well it doesnt if you do it in one run, but this is what the main trails consist of – Well this is the extreme)

Pila woods trails

And then the legendary Pila to Aosta run which has a good few variants and is a killer 11km

Pila Aosta Run Pt 1
Pila Aosta Run Pt 2

LA THUILE

Awesome place

One of my favourites

The K2 Trail

Les Arcs offered the best riding ive ever done in the alps, ok the first time there it was a bit trial and error in some cases but its worth it. You just have to ask about and find the walkers trail.

Oh and avoid the purpose built stuff as its generally pants in comparison.

You can link la plagne and all the way down the valley to the 3 valleys if you so wish

Drop me a line Loddrik, were out for the second year on teh trot and i can give you loads of maps, gps/mmo files for trails and point you in the right direction.

Lots of the guide companies cant guide this year anyway due to the french laws, white room and one other can but thats it.

When are you going? We are out the 19th to 28th July and camping in Bourg if that fits in, more than welcome to join the group.

You wont regret it, email me and ill send you all you want/need!

eBAY CABLES

Its these im talking about, look and work every bit as well as shimano ones which cost £12

Have you thought about putting one of the shimano rubber covers on the cable to stop the gunk flowing down the cable under the seat where the cable exits?

SP41 outers with Shimano SS PTFE inners, sealed ferrules at each end.
End of thread/
POSTED 11 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

Just done exactly the same and the best and cheapest way is to get SP41 gear outer from crc as its £1.99 for a 600 m&m pre cut length with furreuls.

Gear cable, get the grey shimano stuff off crc, £3.99 per m

And inner cables, shimano Teflon coated are £12 each, no way!!! Look on eBay at ptfe coated cables, someone sells them for about £2 each and there is no difference to shimano at all!

My ultegra/105 brakes feel amazing and gears are the most positive they have ever been, damn cheap way of doing it too!

Halifax have gone and changed their policy meaning I’m either stuck with an old policy I can update and pay hefty amounts for, or go to their new policy which has a cap of 2.5k but no cover away from home. This was nearly 1/3 of the price though!

They are obviously starting to get hit from bike thefts

And if you go to moraine the pleney lift is closed this summer so you will have you ride some. You have no transport you say?

Igloo!!!

The vignette can work out cheaper than the tolls sometimes depending on the route, plot it on the viamichelin website and it will cost tolls etc for you!

Big recommendation is stopping off at lac blanc bike park in the Alsace on the wsy, its great fun and damn technical, quiet and often means you get a days riding that would otherwise be lost to driving! Look it up

Yes as in a lot of less trodden parts it actually helps keep them passable!

The heat map is interesting in some ways but not very informative in others if you get me! Interesting some of the stats that are coming out. Would be interesting to compare trail centres, maybe second or third segment in to see how visitors compare.

Am bike, only one DH track in vallorcine at the top of the valley and the best stuff is too tight for triple clamps. Get an is map, mark up lifts and then look for tracks back down, there are plenty. The bike book isn’t actually that good, I can email you the best bits that don’t involve massive climbs if you want, drop me an email

La thurible is well worth a look if you like single track forest downhills

Thinking about watching the final Saturday. Will be getting you bourg on fri evening and sat is crap there as only the funicular and 1600 lift is on so may go over to annecy and have a mooch up the mountain!

I prefer the out of sight out of mind approach as it seems commonplace for people to get followed home. Plus they don’t rust with salt spray in winter. Friend had a carbon rush and every steel bolt was orange after a few winters!

Hose for rear goes under the BB, rear cable goes through the swing arm.

Think they will be the same from my experience of owning one

Riders in the peaks tend to use steel chainrings! Well the ones I ride with do!

I had a specialized with 105levers and shit callipers on, replaced them with ultrgra and while better they still weren’t great. Just swapped the frame and put new inner and outers on, massive difference!

Get XTR Brake outer from crc, £1.99 for 600mm length
Get Teflon coated cables off eBay for about £2 each, they are just the same as shimano’s £13 ones

Try this first before you get the callipers, that’s the best cable set up you can get for a decent price, believe me! Xtr cable outer just does wonders to brakes and its grey!

I once had to stop a mechanic in EBC who was trying to remove a set of forks from a cannondale Xc frame by hammering the top tube with a mallet while the forks were held on the workstand!

Unbelieveable

717’s and 2.4’s don’t go together all too well, rolled mine off a few times the other year in the alps.

Magic have never changed their rim diameters, like ever! They obviously are happy with them.

Let the backing plate clean your rotor and then bung some new ones In

Just get over it as it’ll make the square root of F all difference