To get this when you're not french and you don't have work in France previously is quite hard and involve several trips to the "securité sociale".

still waiting… only the 5 years….

We're full – but try the hotels.. there should be at least one spare bed in town…

we've got one – flowmtb – take a look at the B+B chalet. Happy to work something out if you want to self cater and it's free when you need it..

Couldn't find an oil height / amount – so did some experimenting.. too much oil just means you don't get full travel. no effect on the damping (i.e. still none) – there's a slight notch on my 'Glide ring' – not sure if I put it there taking the damper out or it was there in the first place – could explain it. Ordering the damper service kit with a new glide ring – so will see if that makes any difference…

Both damper adjustments seem to be working mechanically (i.e. I can see the low speed valve open and close, and the high speed spring getting stiffer – so it must be a leak caused by the glide ring – or some other sort of fault with the damper..

good tips.. shame there's no medium Finisterre tops in stock 🙁

I love my Vail – will probably get a couple more. Worth the price IMO as they last for years – way more than twice as long as a smelly helly or the like.

I'm with Grum. If there's an adjuster (i.e. air valve), you'll play with it – if not, you'll get on with riding.

Van = Fit the right spring and go ride. Float = set the pressure, ride, fiddle with pressure, ride, etc.

I also went for the basic VanR for the same reasons!

Internal servicing is also quicker – i.e. you don't really have to do anything to the spring!

Either the bolt up or the 10mm bolt through with an axel from elsewhere.

It's for my Nomad – fashion dictates that a hard hitting 160mm travel bike should have something better than a road bike style axle to attach the rear wheel… wondered if fashion = function!

I was only wondering as I'm finding my current QR skewer keeps loosening off… so need to replace that… so may "upgrade" to something stiffer…

Its because the Pig isn't officially designed for a 160 fork like the other two.

but then it does work with a 160…

we use foreign currency direct http://www.currencies.co.uk/%5B/url%5D

much cheaper than our bank (barclays) – better rates and quicker.

you should definitely notice a difference

that's what I thought.. once I find out the oil level needed I'll take a look and see what's going on…

rebound is fine – adjustability is there – super slow to super fast and all levels in between.

vikingboy – can you easily spot the difference between the compression being wound right in or right out? I was expecting it to be super stiff when wound all the way on – but can't really tell any difference… is it subtle? or is there something up with my fork? Rebound goes from super quick to super slow – but compression is almost not detectable in the carpark!

at the moment I'm wondering if there's enough oil in the damper – I don't want to open it up until i know how much there should be. There's very little detectable difference between fully on and fully off compression damping – hence my first post – but i do like them.. however they are blowing through the travel pretty quickly.. but that may be an oil level issue.

and I can only comment on the blue pig – ace bike 🙂 Think it's a bit slacker with a 140 on there than the alpine (not sure though!). You'd best ride them both to be sure. Strength isn't really an issue with either I don't think – you'll be hard pressed to break either!

I also have an 853 prince albert – can also take a 140 fork – but it's a bit more XC in it's angles and feel than the BP –

Ash rides his alpine in the alps, I ride my BP in the alps – I doubt you'll be disappointed with either.

both! otherwise it'd be boring just doing the same old same old..

BB speed here (Morzine area) is 8meg – perfectly possible to work in the UK and live here.

Saw Le Tour near Mulhouse near there a few years back – thought it looked really good for mountain biking around there. It seems I was right! Now I need to go back there. Within striking distance for a weekend from here as well….

We moved to Morzine 5 years ago – started out thinking that I'd 'jack it all in' – but now spend the winters Skiing and computer programming, and the summers mountain biking, running flowmtb and now this summer running a bike shop.

Time will tell whether the shop works out or not. But 4 years of flow, with year 5 coming up can't be bad.

Never going to make our millions, but it funds a nice life: Yesterday I went skiing all morning. because I could. On Saturday I went downhilling with a nice cable car taking us back up because I could. Today I worked, tomorrow, who knows!

not to mention trade price bike parts… 😉

its not too easy to do without a car…

however, I may have room in my van – most likely driving down on the sunday night or early Monday morning.

– I can't promise anything just yet, but get in touch nearer the time if you still need a lift. Some petrol money will do.

contact me at flowmtb

Saleve is great for a day – as is Montreux – Rochers de Naye, then Bex and Villars a bit further round.

we've done it – it's ace! although we parked a van at Taninges so we could drink beer in Samoens!
Here's the write up[/url]

There is supposed to be an agreement between UK and France, But I can't see anything happening. We've had parking tickets (outside the STW offices no less!) in our French car that haven't come to anything.

There's a ridiculous statistic like 70% of speeding offenses are caused by foreign drivers in France – who take up 5-10% of the road users.

IME – since moving to France 5 years ago, when driving in the UK I now feel slow if I'm 'only' doing 70mph – in France, if you do 130kph you feel like the fastest person on the road. Except on the 'Route d'Anglais' towards / away from Calais where the brit cars bomb past you! Perhaps they think the limit is 130mph!

It's no so so tough as a general ride, but….

The concentration on the long long descents, followed by some steep climbing (on a hefty bike in clothing / helmet / armor wholly unsuited to going uphill as fast as you can!), all the while chasing / being chased by hundreds of other feckers.

The race is 1-2 hours (depending on ability etc), but if you were riding the course with mates for fun (i.e. not in the actual race), it's more like 3-4 hours – including plenty of stops for views / chats / rest. Just larking about in the snow usually takes an hour!

There's a couple of bits that will make most people think twice, but overall it's pretty doable.

I found riding the course on a hardtail in non race conditions was perfectly OK. The main line is fairly smooth – the Pros do take some ridiculous lines – especially in the qualifier – I doubt a hardtail would keep air in its rear tyre / a rider on board if you followed them!

I do think it's something everyone should have a go at at least once in their MTB lives. It really is a proper MTB race that attracts the whole gamut of MTBers – from proper Fat boys on their DH bikes to skinny race whippets, and the chance to rub shoulders (very briefly!) with the Pros, and the majority being the general weekend warrior 5/6inch mtb rider like, I guess, most people on this forum.

Guy from Flowmtb did the Mega on a Blue pig last year and said it was fine

not quite – I rode the courses on my Prince albert (the blue pig hadn't arrived in time), but raced on my Nomad. The HT thing is fine so long as you have big forks, big tyres and big brakes. I had some fox 36's on my PA but that fecked up the geometry too much – and the 160 rotor on the back didn't help either…

However, it's perfectly doable if you're prepared to take a beating!

I'm (hopefully) taking an 'Alpine Pig' this year so long as the drawings materialise into a frame in time…

My aim is to make it into the first 400 on it. I can comfortably do that on my Nomad so fancy the challenge of the HT. It's not like I'm going to win it, so may as well have a bit of fun / pain instead!

depends on the nipples – you can always get more thread cut on them if there won't be enough to hold the extra 4mm of spoke… it's not like they'll be long enough to effect anything else – bit of extra rotating weight perhaps?

or just buy some more spokes…

or do a fancy pattern!?

You'd be better off making sure your brakes are fully bled rather than worrying about which compound. Sintered do heat up quicker, but not massivly so IME. Brake less / stop more is the answer!

only one or two trails to try to get from one lift to another (which there isn't – there are loads).

true – but there's an IGN map for every possible trail from A to B – I've also not added in any DH trails as there are far too many to put down in something like this – hence the yellow blobs!

yeah – that skimap style one is alright – just having a go at something new.

it is like a map but worse Juan (and others) – in that it doesn't have all the contours / extra features of a proper map, the aim wasn't to replace the IGN map, but to try something different. Just a simple idea that's all.

its like the route planner at the front of your road map. I go here, then here, then here – simple… that was the idea anyway..

cheers for all the feedback.

assuming it's accurate

it's accurate to a point – but it's certainly not to scale!

is it a new road?

nope – upgrading the piste – downgrading the singletrack 🙁 – installing snow cannons.

see you in the shop mate – come and buy stuff 🙂

Cheers for the feedback.

The question of links or lifts is perhaps answered with the fact that apart from a couple of exceptions the trails go down hill, the lifts go up hill. On this map it's only the col du cou which is really uphill – other trails have slight inclines, but can all be done on a DH bike no probs. The uphill trails can be notated differently perhaps – linestyle / colour.

It'll be restricted to signed / official bike routes only as well – (some on here aren't – so need removing!)

I guess I meant it to be an easy way to answer: "What's the easiest way from Morzine to Morgins?" or "Can I get back from Linderettes to Morzine when the lifts are shut without climbing?"

The addition of valley bottom and ridge lines

was thinking that – how to add that without making it more confusing is the trouble!

And GW – it's only really meant to show connections between the lifts / towns. Not really the detail of the trails.. there's proper maps for that.

speak your mind 🙂 I can take it.

that's where I got nine from earlier in the week.

that's just greedy 😉

we've found that selling high end bikes second hand is hard. I think there's a mental barrier around the 1k mark – anything more than that and it's "I could buy a new bike for that…"

DT swiss used to be good – but didn't have hope hubs last time I looked. they got deleted…

Try this one:
http://lenni.info/edd/

Have to say that I used to get this problem, then got some pedals and could not belive the difference in confort, and it was like having an extra gear with the power transfer – really – I could not get over how much better they were.

I've just ordered some lyric u-turn DH's

No lockouts on there – that would be a bit odd on a fork with "DH" in the name 🙂 They're basically mini boxxers.

It's taken a while – but this new shop I spoke of – it's here: http://www.toricomorzine.com/

i suspect he's referring to the old school look of your website…

There are plenty of people who live out here who don't even own a full face. I have one – but it's rarely used…

if you're going to hammer the downhill tracks then sure, use one. but if you're just riding XC with the use of the lifts, then I don't see the point.