saw this nice example in France:

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Must have cost a fortune in fuel getting down to the South from Deutschland.

Tried to get a hope brake onto an SRAM one yesterday, the holes dont line up. Seems like everyone thinks it cool to build in some incompatability.

I always leave my bikes on the rack. Locked together and to the rack, under a tarp they are unlikely to be nicked and most f1/etap hotels have secure parking.

Will be at the andorra round, it should be awesome. New track right down into Massana.

Like a bouldering wall, but for bikes. If I lived in Manchester I would be there all the time during the winter.

I hope it works out.

Otherwise, assuming you’re on a build from a frame only, try hunting down a secondhand set of the Specialized Roval wheels that come on a lot of their bikes- because the rear wheel is 142+, not plain old 142 the rear will only fit Specialized frames, limiting the market for them. If you let the seller know that, and play hardball you might be able to get a pair pretty cheap.

I actually need to replace the rovals. Will standard 142 rear hubs fit a specialised if the 142+ is different?

http://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,22164.0.html

Hope hoops (or build) for service backup forever more.

Double the price of a set of superstars though.

5 days training and conditioning at home is probably to much but she seems to actually enjoy it.

Its not if she really does enjoy it and is motivated.

Assuming you are not being an overly pushy parent. One area I would be looking at is the coach and their attitude as it seems to me that quite often coaching is just a numbers game. Pressurise the kids, expect some collateral damage/fallout in the hope that you find one or two with the mental and physical capabilities to succeed.

It does no one any good to have an average kid forced to be competitive when really they only want to have fun, and will only make up numbers at the back of the field come comp time. Yet it seems to happen a lot.

Edit. That said, to be really good at any sport nowadays you need to start young.

Also worth considering:

The Pyranees Orientale Les Angles, loads of waymarked tracks and a bike park.

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Parking for vans is free or a really nice campsite at La Lagonne towards Mont Louis

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If you have a van, you might not need too many campsites.

Vosges is great, haul up and loads of little tracks back down. There is a number of FFC centres in the area and the riding around Lac Blanc, St Marie les Mines and Greubweiler is excellent.

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The road between the top station of Lac Blanc and La besse has loads of little tracks where you can park up.

Jura, only been to the area around Bugy (another FFc centre). Really nice and quiet with loads of riding.

Haute Verdon, a lot further but beautiful, not too busy, and assured good weather. Allos and down the valley towards Castillane is good. There is a really nice site called the Pommiers in the village just down the valley from Allos, or you can park the van in one of the top carparks at Allos ski station (awesome little bike park)

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Another area worth looking at is the Vercours around Villard de Lans. There are loads of trails (FFC centre)and its really close to Grenoble.

This might be useful
http://www.ffc.fr/a_VTT/a_SitesVTT/index.asp

I have an enduro evo that I use as the do it all bike. Last year I rode it a lot in the mountains (pyranees/alps 1500m+/45km + rides) before the lifts opened. It was pretty good really, slowish on the climbs but you could usually manage them, and good on the descents. For most bike parks the bike was less good than a proper downhill bike but still pretty reasonable.

I really like the bike and feel its a decent compromise if you are riding somewhere that has technical interest. The normal enduro might probably be an even better compromise, not used one though so cant really comment.

Athletes always go through periods like that. If she was my kid I would give her the choice of not competing as performing badly will probably damage her confidence even more. Maybe removing the pressure will then give her the chance to get back into it again. At that age, the majority of kids progress faster if they are having fun.

I live near Malaga where there are roughly 50% riding road bikes and 50% riding mtb’s.Everyone seems to have the latest Fox front forks and many full suspension.Thing is that here people are not all 6ft plus so 95% ride 26ers.In my LBS today he has 21 mtb’s with 26″ wheels and only 3 29ers.As for 650B’s they have never even heard of them.The market for cycles is much bigger here than the U.K so chances are nothing much is likely to change

Very similar situation in France, you hardly see any 29s (apart from some crap ones in Decathlon). I rode a randonee last summer with about 1500 bikes, the only 29s I saw was a group of 6 Belgians and all the locals were taking the piss out of them.

Cant comment of alp d’huez specifically but Xc routes in bike parks are usually just fire roads , marked up to give the impression that there is something for everyone.

Unless things have changed, Alp d’huez has some ( but not a lot) blue/green trails. Deux alpes has more and they are better. If I was you, I would work through the bikes and greens at both parks on your own bikes. Then you can decide if you want to rent something. Bigger bikes are fun though so if you have access to some, take them.
To get to Deux alpes from alpes d’huez, drive into Bourg, go up the valley to and take the cable car up. Saves a lot of hassle in the car.

Thanks folks

Drome, Sisteron and Digne les Bains are the leaders so far I reckon. Loads of waymarked trails and probably decent weather as not too high.

Vosges, great but too far North for September sun possibly.
Prades, great but I know the area pretty well so would like somewhere different.
Luchon, wasn’t impressed. Same with the Montagne Noire.
Chamonix, not really the right time of year for guaranteed sun.
Tende is probably too high as well.

@ ash, are there any other good places closeish to Sospel and Peille worth looking at? Ideally on the French side.

Any other ideas greatly appreciated 🙂

I have ridden in Sospel and thought it was ace, really looking for somewhere a bit more off the beaten track and that I havent been before.

I have a friend who is a pretty senior doctor, he advised me to push for the op when I did mine. Recovery is faster and if you climb or do anything similar the long term outcomes are better.

I don’t recognise what krypton is going on about at all, it was not painful post op and definately got me back riding quicker.

Big bike magazine says mid July till end august.

The French resorts like Montgenevre and serre chevalier are just over the border and will be open early July. Deux alpes is open mid June. pretty much all French resorts open first week July.

Where’s the French national DH track?

Nearest one I can think of is at superbesse in the Auvergne, miles away.

@ the biglad, cheers for that, just what I wanted to hear. 🙂 Will definately check out these two areas.

Anyone ridden in the Coreze area of the Massif Central?

I always forget about the Drome, looks good.

Anyone ridden in the Beuch valley (sp?) just north of Sisteron or around Dignes les Bains and the terre noire?

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2013/04/the-case-for-and-against-thatcherism.html

Pretty good article

Or, go the pyranees orientale or even andorra. The weather is still usually really nice and the lifts are open till the middle of September.

Andorra has some nice places like ordino (there is a camp site just up the valley with a pool) and there are some great walks up towards Arcalis.

Les Angles or Font Romeau have great riding and a lot of kid type activities. There is a hot spring water park not far away at Eyne.

For the Alps, go south for decent weather. The area that footflaps mentions is really beautiful. As is the Haute Verdon even further south. Briancon is a decent town with some real history for a visit and could be got to easily from Aillefroide. Orcieres is nice but might be dead by September.

Pretty much all the lifts in the the alps will be closed in September

Edit> La Clusaz is a nice village but the weather might be dodgy by September.

http://www.geoportail.gouv.fr/accueil

Maybe??

Swiss prices seem stupidly high so I would bring anything that might conceivably break or need changing.

respect for self and others is at an all time low, responsibility and accountability have been replaced with laziness and self-entitlement etc.

That’s the fault of parents, not teachers.

Some stuff @ winstanleys: atomlab or cove sanchez for £99

Less hassle to buy and insure in the uk. I have always used a rhd in Europe (often for long periods) and it has not been a problem.

When your finished with it, leave the door open in a carpark somewher, I sure someone will liberate for you 😉

This was a nice bike (YT industries First Play), but pretty rare second hand!

Hostels will cost minimum 15 Euros each a night and probably much more in big resorts. Buy a tent and camp wild, go south so the weather is nice and 30+ days is easily doable. Stay away from the PdS though as the crap weather will soon have you feeling like s>>t without a shower and somewhere to hide from the rain, Haute Alpes and further south plus the pyranees are ideal though.

That grom on eBay is still a decent price and looks in good nick.

That grom is just like my sons. If anyone wants an ace kids bike, they probably will not get better. Shock is not the best but the frame is ace. Better than the stinky.

My son has had his big hit from 7. At first it was a bit big for tight stuff but on open tracks he went like a train. If you intend riding in the alps, my advice would be do it as the fs means that your son will enjoy it more and be able to ride longer without getting tired. You will be amazed how much better he can ride on steep/more techy terrain.

The one thing that worried me about off the shelf 24 ” dh bikes was that they tend to have coil suspension that may be too hard for the younger rider.if you arelooking second hand you might find an air sprung one though.

FYI commencal do a supreme 24 that looks ace, norco used to do one as did spesh. The big hit grom seems pretty rare though, albeit an awesome bike. Aged 7 @ Deux alpes

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My son has 120 rebas on one bike as has his friend. Both have no problems. He has 150 revs on his other!

A short travel fork (90) would make very little real world difference on a 24″ bike.

Or a 26″ fork? Loads of kids ride 24″ bikes with standard forks.

+1
and the joy of not being in France is that you don’t have to deal with the French.

From experience, they are way easier to deal with than Germans.

If there is truly something anti competitive (ie equal qualifications from other countries not being recognised) why doesnt someone take them to the European court? Surely it would be an easy win, or are foreign quals less rigorous?

Even if the forks arent ace, they make a difference.

First summer in the mountains, my son had a rigid and he got battered. Second year my son had a hotrock with cheap forks and he did way better and managed full days of uplifts.
Last year we met a really good BMX racer (worlds semis 6y) who struggled on his rigid bike.
Even 1.5 inches of (not great) travel takes the sting out of the trail.