She will grow out of a 20 inch in no time. Go 24 inch.

It’s about 130 euros if you just turn up and buy a ticket at the port. Best to book even a few hours in advance to save a packet.

Waveform transmissions 1, jeff mills
New electronic architecture, Christian varela

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

Sospel, 🙂 day before yesterday

What about jeff mills or mike banks (underground resistance). Banks is a really influential and interesting character.

Algarve with freeride Portugal. Pretty tech tracks, stinkys for hire, nice apartments next to a beach at olhao.

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Felix, Thomas, Alex tignes[/url] by ianvincent[/url], on Flickr

The lad in the middle was amazing on a bike, 8 yrs old, fast and fearless.

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Try looking at the southern Alp resorts: rubion, le grand puy, chabanon. All open early June. Also, grand valira in Andorra opened 3rd June 2011. There is also van uplifts around finale and st remo in Italy. Swiss cable cars and funiculars tend to run all year as they service mountain villages, the Valais area seems to have plenty

http://vtt.librairie.vtopo.fr/vtt.html

The one for bourg st Maurice (in French though) is:

http://vtt.librairie.vtopo.fr/vtt-savoie-tome-2.html

Scott Spark, seemed OK when I tried one and the light weight and big discount was attractive. However, the more I rode it the more I grew to hate it and the more it seemed to self destruct. I was happy to see the back of it.

Pyranees

Andorra is excellent, would stay longer in that part of the world and take in La Molina, Ax les therme and Les Angles as well. There is also Cauterets, St Lery and Artoust that are meant to be good.

Alps
Montgenevre is good if a little small. Around Gap/Enbrun you have: Chabanon good but small and weird opening times. Les Orres, small but not the best. Var (not been but the bike patrols at montgenevre said it was a bit crap). Orciere, excellent. Pra loup ok for a day. Val d’allos, meant to be good.

If you are going to be near Les Arc, keep going to Tignes.

6 weeks seems a lot but doing the pyranees and the alps will make everything a bit hectic. Personally I would do one or the other.

I would stay in the alps if I were you. Other areas to look at however would be the Vosges (bit of a detour though) or Bugy (between the alps and Bourg en Bresse). The North of France is pretty uninteresting really.

I tried to find somewhere to go with my son ( 7 at the time) I was looking for an uplifted trip. It’s hard as most places are worried about the potential difference in speed between a youngster and the rest of their clients. Places that seemed willing were lavatrax and riviera bike. You are unlikely to find anywhere that has decent 24 inch bikes to hire.

Last year the lifts opened on the 18th June, so I guess it will be around the same time this year. All the other resorts like alpe d’huez are later (first week july).

There are shops in deux alpes that sell pretty much every thing (expensive though) but if you have room to bring stuff I would say: brake pads, spare tyre, brake fluid, rear mech and hanger. You probably will not need them but its worth it just in case.

1600 ish

Prades, has good riding out the front door, a big local club, 40mins to lifts at les Angles and La Molina (1.30 to Andorra)a Freeride scene at ile sur tet/corbere les cabanes. Loads of culture incl a music festival. 40 mins to Perpignan.

all that muscle is giving the impression of a teenyweenypeni’

Bet you wouldn’t tell him that to his face 🙂

Biceps and Pecs need a bit of work.

Really like the look of these.

The dales will be sopping now, I can’t think of anything that would be much fun. Calderdale might be a better bet and probably closer to baildon.

Tried it one winter, f….ng hated it. Cold, miserable, big walkins, dodgy rock and protection. The only satisfaction I got was when I sold my gear.

Really??, Are they free every summer to attract off season visitors? *rummages for passport*.

Yep, free for the summer season. 10 Euro deposit gets you a pass for as long as you like, refundable when given back. There is also free canyon bikes to demo, and a free air bag to play on. Top place for a cheapskate!

If you really want to do it on the cheap, go to tignes. The lifts are free and you can doss in the car park at the top of the resort where the motorbikes overnight.

Porte du soleil is probably your best bet as there is lots of XC stuff as well as lifts. Otherwise, deux Alpes/Alpes d’huez for more dh orientated.

IGN maps are good, most resorts have little lift/xc route maps available (often free), the vtopo guide to the PdS is meant to be good. Camp-sites are cheap. You don’t need to stay with a holiday company for most resorts.

Heckler and Marzocchis

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Felix orcieres[/url] by ianvincent[/url], on Flickr

Orciere

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Deux Alpes

Haven’t done it but at a guess I would say: Flat or downhill to the bottom of the truit lift, big fire road climb up to the top of the diable lift 300m possibly?, pretty much all down to Deux alp, flat to start of the Venosc trail then down. Look at the vids on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMCDBRy02ss&feature=related there are 4 sections

Cant imagine its any harder than the mega, there will be way less brits but french bikers are pretty cool so there should be a good vibe. Its during the mondial de vtt week so there will be loads of people and loads to do and see (ie. crankworx europe apparently)

Dh1 series has been pulled I think.

Deffo rent a car if you can, it would make everything easier and let you ride all the resorts you wanted and more.

Does it require an input of “Body English”?

From what you say I would do the Deux alpes/Alp d’huez option. Head first to Venosc (easier to get to than deux alpes but there is a lift up to the resort) and camp there for a bit. Ride deux alpes, there are loads of easier (but good) runs to get started on. Then head to Vaujany (easiest of the other resorts to get to but with linked to Oz by a cable car and you can ride over and back to/from alp d’huez). The lift pass is for all 3 resorts so you can move around as you wish.

http://www.bigbike-magazine.com/media/Guide%20station%20VTT/img_piste/Alpe-d-Huez_plan_station_vtt.jpg

On the way back to Grenoble you can check out the others.

One thought though, 9-11th July is the Mondiale du Vtt at deuz alpes and I think the mega is the weekend before. They will be busy.

Driven loads all over Europe, never been stopped once, never bothered with Light adjusters / diffusers, just dipped the beams a bit with the height adjusters. From what I’ve seen many people don’t even bother with GB stickers (without Euro number plates).

I don’t even bother with a triangle, spare bulbs and a shiny vest.

In November I was near Nice at the same time as the G20, there were cops everywhere and I got stopped about 5 times for document checks. Not once did they bother about all the other stuff.

The resorts you want to go to are pretty much all ace but I think for two weeks without your own transport it would be too much, you will spend too many days travelling. Better to stick to one area possibly.

You could ride for two weeks in Deuz alpes/Vaujany/Alp d’huez/Os en Oisans and if you got bored head back towards Grenoble and do a few days round Les 7 Laux and Chamrousse (close to the city)

You could go to the Tarentaise and ride Tigne/3 Vallees/Les arc (bit of a drag from grenoble though but there is a train to Bourg st Maurice at least). Tigne has free lifts so thats a winner 🙂

Alternatively you could fly to Turin and do the alpi bike parks (Sestriere/Bardonecchia/Sauze D’Olx and Montgenevre. There is a train from Turin to Bardonecchia for sure.

There is likely to be buses from bourg d’oisans to Briancon but I am not sure if they take bikes. And then you will need to get from Briancon to Montgenevre which is another 15k or so.

Edit: If it was me, I wouldnt do that road trip without my own transport.

It ill definitely work with the nhs though, Dave and Andrew say so. 🙄

Triple-S in particular.

Is that the one in Bingley? Joe from Lamberts reckons they are excellent. No personal experience though.

” Have Blur always been dreadful”
They were always crapper than pulp.

Albarn really can’t sing. Blur have some good tunes but he murders them.

Couple of grand and I will write your report for you. 🙂

If i wanted I could go and spend £7000 (i actually could too) on a bike but i just really dont see the point I could but 3 very good bikes for that price hence i dont see point is blowing 5/6/7K on a bike!

We are in agreement on this. What I meant was, buying a yt or something is the most cost effective way of getting a bike and would probably work out cheaper than an own build.

Plus it’s the kids I am talking about, not the parents.

Holidays do not have to be in a 5 star hotel in a far away land all the time. As grum says campsites, petrol, food are not seasonal. Indeed ferries are not massively more expensive in the holidays.

I am not rich but I can manage to get away in the Summer and Easter holidays. My lads holiday experience has not been noticeably damaged by the fact that it was in the school holidays or that we lived in a van or camped and didn’t eat out every night.