How did you manage that ian?
The only other Islabike I’ve seen in that state was driven into a low bridge on a roof

6 yr old messing around on his bike, nothing ott.

No

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fin 2010 – mai2011 162[/url] by ianvincent[/url], on Flickr

I broke my scaphoid years ago, getting the wrist moving again was the main problem.

I found that working the wrist in hot water allowed flexability to come back a lot quicker.

I would probably class myself as a downhiller now. I hardly ride XC any more, miles are done on the road any other riding is on the big bike or at the BMX track. Spend 5 weeks every summer in the mountains and last year I was in France for the whole of the summer season.

Got my son started early as well 😀

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Felix in Andorra[/url] by ianvincent[/url], on Flickr

Sospel and peille are close and excellent. Pretty much drive 20 mins inland from any of those places and you will have excellent riding.

http://vtt.librairie.vtopo.fr/vtt-alpes-maritimes-inities.html
http://vtt.librairie.vtopo.fr/vtt-alpes-maritimes-experts.html

Further east you have Esterel (some good stuff near Mont d’Ors?? Theoule sur mer) and Petit Maure near frejus (where the Roc d’azure is)

Bouldering is the way to go with youngish kids.

Did it on the sunday, the weather was awful (wet, muddy and zero visability) so cant comment on the scenery. I thought the trails were generally pretty boring though(a lot of fire road) apart from the one down to torgon.

Mondial du vtt week in 2 alpes was better.

That’s a properly crap line up for the orbit reloaded thing. I bet nige walker hasn’t touched the decks in 10 yrs and Dave angel and marco zefferano were always pretty average. Could have been so much better.

There is a shop on the corner just as you enter the town (under the cable car) that hired scott voltages. You cant miss it as the bikes were lined up outside. It might be worth booking in advance though as there seemed to be a lot of people hiring from them.

Les loueurs de VTT :

SKILYS : 05 62 92 58 30

SKIMIUM : 05 62 92 17 80

SPORT 2000 : 05 62 92 56 28

Think it was sport 2000, but not sure. Skimium is a decathlon thing so they will rent their own bikes.

I wouldn’t buy another. Yes they might keep their value but the geometry is pretty weird for anything above the 16″ (super long back end that makes them really hard to wheelie, manual or jump properly) and the lightness comes at a price (not up to much abuse and no suspension make them rubbish in the mountains).

My son had a Cnoc 16 (which he snapped) but after that I steered well clear. Scott and Specialized are way better.

I always thought that early Gibson had brilliant ideas but never really managed to write a good ending. His later stuff, spook county, pattern recognition and zero history are much better.

Noton is probably the best vfm

If it was me, I would go for a Scott voltage 24.

[/url] 96[/url] by ianvincent[/url], on Flickr[/img]

Really liked this one, from Trigance dropping down into the Verdon Gorge.

Not episodes but these are quite funny:

Not episodes but pretty funny

I hear you’re a racist father………**** Greeks…….

The x fusion is not burly as the 66, but its going to be more rigid than a 32mm fork.

Good secondary schools
Expensive commute as outside W Yorks subsidised rail travel

63 apparently

You’re very true, however I have always wait as I know it’s the importers fault.

Ironic that.

Allos, haute verdon.

Nicer riding than further north, better climate and the bike park is very enduro biased.
Local company, peps spirit (met them at the allos bike park and they are pretty cool)
Bit further though 🙁

Spain probably, switchbacks.

how good is the xfusion fork that comes with the Evo?

I cannot comment on fox but, the fork feels quite like older marzocchis. IMO thats a good thing. It tends to be pretty plush for the majority of the travel and ramps up a bit at the end.

In terms of reliability. I bought my evo in January I rode it a lot in all sorts of situations and it went for a service a week ago.

juan – Member
Well last time I checked, France was crawling with very good local bike shops.

I seem to remember a post from you complaining about how your local bike shop couldn’t get the parts you wanted. Can’t be that good, infact a perfect example of why people shop on line. If French sites, shops choose to work on bigger margins or are not able to carry the stock people want then it is perfectly reasonable to buy elsewhere.

In response to the original question, all trix was recommended to me as being pretty cheap.

Glorys from the bike park hire place, commencal supremes from the shop across the street. Probably about €60 ish per day, brakes will be set up euro style but I guess they can be switched around.

I just feel the loss of responsibility a bit unnerving after having it hanging over me my whole adult life and wondered how others coped

Slightly different overall scenario for me but I found myself in a similar position of no responsibility and a reasonable financial position.

I took a year off work, bought a bongo and went travelling round France. Its not about coping, its about enjoying the freedom.

One the one hand we have become much greater risk takers – biking, off-piste skiing, white water rafting, rock climbing (does anyone start on diffs and v diffs anymore?) etc. To the extent that I believe that we often under-estimate risks and over-rely on technology improvements.

On the other, we have become absurdly risk-averse in more mundane aspects of life

I sort of agree with this. If you define adventure as doing something where the outcome is unknown and the consequences are potentially dangerous, on an individual level the outliers are probably more adventurous than in the past (think: Rampage, Baumgartner et all). Collectively though, we have become more risk averse and therefore less adventurous.

I am not sure if I would catagorise most biking (even with a map)or even rockclimbing as adventure though. Not massively dangerous and too close to civilisation and security.

I am a big fan of electronic music but honestly it did nothing for me. Too slow, no direction and after about 20 secs the tracks bored me. It does have a musak element to it, Sorry!

The start of “actually I do mind” sounds like the sort of thing Mills might kick off a set with (it also sounds pretty familiar), but he would only use that 20 secs before he started rocking.

My son has Hayes stoker aces on his bike. He can one finger brake with them so they might work (unless your fingers are smaller than a 9 yr old)

If this is a recce for your race, would it not give those rather second rate locals 🙂 a bit of an unfair advantage?

juan – Member
Forger about peuple sospel, riding is sh1te and locale not friendly.

🙄

Brilliant place.

Just over 10 st

Portugal would be nice, can you recommend any decent companies out there?

have been with this lot

http://www.freeriderepublic.com/ride-with-us/

Excellent, close to Faro but fairly downhill orientated.

Don’t know anything about this lot but close to some good riding:

http://www.rideportugal.com/

One word of caution about the southern med. November tends to be the rainy season so although the riding in around the French/Italian border is indeed wicked, you might end up getting washed out. I was down round Frejus/Nice/Sospel last year in mid November and the rain was horrendous. Locals told me its pretty normal for that time of the year.

If it was me, I would be thinking Spain or Portugal (Algarve) as more appropriate (sunny) venues.

It’s my stinky, he rides a 24″ big hit grom. I don’t envisage him getting on to 26 ” wheels till he is 12 or so (unless he shoots up).

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053[/url] by ianvincent[/url], on Flickr

Can he ride it round a car park? Yes, Would I let him ride it off road? No.

I’m with BR on this one, get a 24″ bike it will be much more fun for your lad and he will be able to do much more on it. If he rides a bmx he will no doubt like catching air etc and a bike that is too big will be a recipe for disaster.

Too big, I would say. He might be able to ride it but it is not likely to be a bike he could have fun on.

Id have to ask are you 100% sure you want a full on 8″ bike?

Certain 🙂

Beginning to have some doubts about the YT to be honest. Although the componentry is bling, I seriously wonder how easy it would be to get some of it sorted out if it broke during a trip. WTF will have spares for E13 wheels or BOS in somewhere like Valnord? Also, there seems to be a lot of noise about the reliability of BOS. Then of course you part with your money in December and hope that the bike arrives in time for the summer. Really not 100% convinced any more.

Current thinking is something less bling and exclusive, something like this:

888 rc3 ti evo, rocco shock, currently on pinkbike @ £1700, good deal?

I would say it will be too big unless your son is massive. The reach may seem ok but I doubt if he will find it very manoeuvrable. At the very least, I would be looking at an in-line post and a very short stem, maybe 24″wheels as well.

On the plus side, the forks should work if they are floats. My son is 25kg and his UTurn revs are fine at low pressure.

original land cruiser
impreza turbo
lancer evo