Steel in the dishwasher is okay, aluminium not… at least not with most dishwasher tablets. You could try something else I suppose.

Tyres on a rinse cycle in the washing machine is also said to work quite well.

Mini carabiners: eBay

Cheapest I could find last time I needed to ship a boxed bike was on eBay for £18.

The Crack-n-fail was a single ’90s frame, I believe.

Thanks @Garry for the assessment.

Given that I would probably want to swap out a fair few parts anyway, including the fork, I am now erring towards a CCDB-equipped El Guapo frame to build up myself. Most reviews remark on how well it climbs, which is one of my bigger concerns with a 150mm bike.

Yeah… FFC Centres are all over the place in France, generally on ‘existing’ trails which are mostly all open access over there.

Some of the Peille routes are on their website:

http://www.peille.fr/index.php/sports-de-pleine-nature/v-t-t

Unfortunately, the FFC website doesn’t give you the trail maps. Those have to be picked up from the local Tourist Information Office and are usually pretty naff and need to be backed up with IGN maps. However, if you’re lucky, some kind soul will have put a GPX of some of the trails on a website somewhere. Again, http://www.vttrack.fr/ can be useful in locating them.

If you want to know where the FFC VTT centres are, here’s their web link:

http://www.ffc.fr/a_VTT/a_SitesVTT/index.asp

The “Grandes traversées” (“Major Crossings”) link on that page will take you to a list of eight long distance point-to-point routes.

None are signposted

Many trails are signposted. If you get the 1:25,000 IGN maps, you’ll also see that many signposts are numbered, with the numbers marked on the map, e.g. the yellow boxed numbers here:

http://www.geoportail.gouv.fr/accueil?c=7.455427358741321,43.89193383271196&z=0.00003477825725136404&l=GEOGRAPHICALGRIDSYSTEMS.MAPS.3D$GEOPORTAIL:OGC:WMTS@aggregate(1)&permalink=yes

However, the signposts point towards named destinations, not the number of the next signpost.

If you want to research routes in the area, I suggest http://www.vttrack.fr/ as an excellent resource in conjunction with Google Translate.

oh and yes hecan’t speak english for sh1te

His English is certainly a lot better than my French… at least in the emails I’ve exchanged with him.

If you want route guiding in the area, contact Greg Germain:

http://www.1001sentiers.fr/en/guiding.html

…or Ash ‘Trans-Provence’ Smith:

http://www.trans-provence.com/sospel.shtml

You missed it. That was last week. Keep on track…

Link to thread please?

Can someone please explain why you would need a dropper post if your bike fits you correctly?

*** Sound of can of worms opening ***

I had exactly the same question until I did the Great Rock TP skills course in France last year on my Inbred. Without a dropper post, I either had to take the ‘Grand Old Duke of York’ approach (neither up nor down) or I couldn’t descend properly.

The Duke of York approach was fine for descending but meant I had knees too close to my ears for the pedally stuff. And believe me, you don’t want to leave your saddle all the way up and then be hanging off the back of it for those kinds of descents. The ones I rode weren’t really that bad in comparison with what the region has to offer.

Perhaps it’s just down to the gnarliness of the terrain, how much up / level stuff there is on the ride, and how fast you want to descend?

I’ve never understood wanting to go out and get muddy: to me, muddy means wet means cold. It also means parts are going to wear out more quickly and they are expensive enough as it is…

Bikes and various moving bike parts are so well built these days that unless you’re submerging the whole bike into a swamp for a while then getting a smattering of clart on a regular basis doesn’t make a whole heap of difference to longevity of components

This may (or may not) be true in those parts of the country with clay soils, but in places where it’s more sandy or gritty, you have got to be kidding. You end up running the whole drivetrain and suspension system in what is effectively lapping compound, which will kill it very quickly indeed.

Source Widepac bladders all the way for me. Easier to fill, easier to clean, detachable hose, and the valves are at least as good as CamelBak these days.

BB30 is the worst introduction of ‘technolgy’ to the cycle market in the last 5yrs. Utter pish and avoid at all costs (PF-BB30 is only marginally better)

In 1990, we had field-serviceable, grease injection bottom brackets that would last ages if you looked after them. Cup and cone was then replaced by sealed-unit BBs which would ‘outlast frames’ as a friend of mine put it.

Then came external bearings and it’s been downhill ever since.

This is exactly why they’ll be prising my square-taper cranks off my cold, dead feet…

I remember reading somewhere that BB30 / PF30 BB bearings tend to basically come with no grease in them. You might therefore get better life out of them by carefully popping off the seals[1], pumping the cages full of a decent waterproof grease and then replacing the seals.

Same goes for many sealed bearings, I believe, as the standard amount of grease is basically useless.

[1] …for some value of ‘seal’.

Sorry to hijack thread, but how deep are the threaded sections on the PF30 to BSA adapter?

SSCX all the way

Nah, the plan is to turn the ’92 Xizang into a singlespeed :wink:

I have a Peugeot cyclocross bike of indeterminate vintage. On the verge of being re-hashed into an on-off road ‘cybrid’.

You HAVE to go back and get a photo with a decent camera :D

Have a look at these, which are used by Ski Esprit in the winter, but not the summer. We stayed there for skiing two years ago, and the chalets were great:

http://www.espritski.com/resorts/peisey-les-arcs/

Ooooh… Instagram link please :-)

4- or 5-bolt?

…when I came across this

Bloody hell, someone’s abandoned a Carrera in the woods…!

Traversée du 06 – http://pages.citebite.com/j8c1q9o9oqjt – 3-4 days of mountain biking with great trails, mountain atmosphere and shuttles, between the col des Champs and the sea.

Greg is a trail guide, guide book writer and MTB journalist for Velovert in France. I also believe he helped Ash out with the trail scouting for Trans-Provence. He knows that part of France better than almost anyone else, I’d hazard, and will put together custom trips for you if that’s what you want. Top bloke, speaks English, BEESAC qualified guide and the only MTB guiding company on the Riviera to have the “Tourism Quality” label.

Greg is running his “Traversée du 06” twice next year: 28-30 June and 8-11 August with slightly different trails and a longer ride in August.

How about this then? Fly into Nice, and get Greg Germain to take you on his “Traversée du 06” route, for three days of trail riding in arguably one of the best corners of France with initial uplift every day:

http://www.1001sentiers.fr/en/guiding.html

You’ve then got the rest of the week to lounge by the pool / sea, or drive up into the mountains and get some more riding in. There are a couple of smaller resorts with bike parks and lifts within an hour’s drive of Nice. Stay away from the coast if you like things cooler / cheaper than the Riviera.

Are you after a weekend event around which to base a holiday, or are you looking for ideas for week-long riding for one or both of you?

If the latter, riding some or all of the Chemin du Soleil route might be of interest:

http://grande-traversee-alpes.com/chemins-du-soleil

Not so much biiiiiiiiiiig mountains as lots of ’em and loads of riding an scenery…

Has this fault bee rectified for the 2012 models?

We had a blast there at the start of October, it was a lot drier than the video, but I understand it’s rained a bit since…!

Got round the long loop with my 10-year-old on his rigid Orange in under the five-hour suggested max adult time… was knackered after that (and CyB the day before) I can tell you.

I’d not travel to AC/LW very often if they weren’t on my doorstep.

Quantocks are great if you can pick someone’s brains about where to ride.

Cwmcarn and Forest of Dean mean you have to pay to go over the bridge, but it’s worth it. They form a triangle of about an hour’s driving time on each side with Bristol on the third corner. I’d do Cwmcarn red loop, then FoD read and blue… or just one or the other depending on how much you have left in the tank.

Fair enough, maybe the DH runs would be a bit silly :wink:

Would make a nice change from skiing/boarding all the time, especially if you’re there for a fortnight…

What about XC courses? It’s happening in the US:

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/fat-bikes-on-ski-trails-35924/

@ampthill – generally agree with what you’re saying.

Had a lot of fun on my ‘cross bike in my Calderdale days, but they’re not quick descenders. These days, my back won’t take drops very well, and I want better braking than cantis can offer, so I’m building it up with swept back flat bars and V-brakes.

I give you: The Cybrid. It IS the new niche.

The problem was caused by the factory that made the frames and it is only in the paint/top coat

So ALL of the issues above have been cosmetic and not structural? How can you tell the difference, though? Or is that the point? If you see a crack you can’t tell and have to get a replacement in case it’s structural?

Wow, that’s got to utterly rock for the money…

I asked the same question over on the CTC Forum the other week, and unfortunately, it appears that the clearance is too tight.

Why can’t you get a proper hybrid / commuter bike that’s this light and will take mudguards and a rack for similar money? Seems to me that the market would be at least as large…

My first thought is that if the factory are paying for them, what’s the quality / quality control going to be like? :?

Can’t believe no-one has mentioned the ’94-’95 FSR as ridden by JMC. I have four… oh, and a ’92 GT Xizang too…

BiTD, I used to buy wheels as cheaply as I could to save me the hassle of lacing them, and then check the tension and stress-relieving had been done properly myself. Often got a couple of extra turns on every spoke…

I use a thin smear of copper grease on threads and seatposts. Though there are those who say it increase the chances of corrosion since it can conduct, I’ve never had this problem.

I’m about halfway down a tub after more than a decade of maintenance.