http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_vLzsG2TCU Planet RocK

Dont seem to be able to link direct to the vid

Happy

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Sad

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November has been amazing 3 days of rain in the whole month!!!!

Not on the french side it wasn’t, went down early November. Biblical thunderstorms, flooding, horrendous. Got trapped in a carpark for 3 days because the water level rose so much it blocked the exit. 😥 . Totally wasted trip as after a week of s..t weather I gave up and came home.

As an aside, Nasher. How much would a week with you be in Jan (just uplifts/guiding) no accommodation?

Calais Reims is probably the least stressful but its 2 lane for a lot of it and mid week you can get stuck behind trucks overtaking trucks which slows stuff down a lot. Its also a bit longer in distance.

The alternative, which is probably quicker but with a bit more traffic around Paris, is Calais>N104 (just south of Charles de Gaulle)>a6 direction Lyon. The N104 is the outer ring road of Paris and is much less hassle than the perepherique. The tolls seemed cheaper as well.

8-8.5 hrs from Calais not gassing it too much.

26″ is such an arbitrary number – its not the be all and end all of defining what is and what isn’t a ‘mountain bike’.

You could say the same about 700 for road wheels but what would be the UCI reaction if a team rocked up with 720’s or 750’s? No way would it be accepted.

The thing that interests me is how the UCI has pretty stringent rules for road and track bikes and has different categories for different wheel sizes in BMX and trials. Yet it basically says “do what you want” for mountain bikes.

If 29ers are so much faster than are they not effectively cheating when used against traditional mountain bikes?. I cannot understand why they ever allowed them in competition in the first place.

29er DH bikes can run 170mm upfront easily – it’s already been done!

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Skinsuits were banned because they looked crap, I hope they do the same with 29ers in DH as a 29er DH bike would just look wrong. IMO and all that.

If you are worried about weight. My mate has a Kali and it is VERY light.

This summer I shared a lift in Andorra with a really arrogant bloke who went on about his surfing and how easy the trails were. Going back a few pages I recognised him: guess who??

how small is the saddle

The saddle is a junior bmx one, it gives better standover as my lads is still a short a**e.

Looks like a tad more than £60 mind…

Yeah, its amazing how costs add up, even with the majority of free and second-hand components.

Christmas present?

Bikes don’t count as presents.

Someone posts a picture of their new bike that costs the same as a small family car and will get used at way less that its capability once or twice a week max yet no one says anything. Expensive bikes in the classified in almost pristine condition (ridden twice or whatever) and no one says anything. Yet someone asks about a present that costs less than 10% the value of said bikes (and will be used much more) and there’s uproar. 🙄

Laptop, the ipad might look nicer but there will come a time when she will be using windows products at school and home access will be very beneficial. If you buy the ipad, you would probably end up getting hassled for a laptop as well in the not too distant future.

Following my son down a trail, watching him go sideways round corners and big over jumps. This is awesome.
Riding well
Waking up to a sunny morning
Rocking techno
Meeting up with friends I haven’t seen in years

As breaker said, that statement sounds more like hope than confidence. I hope nasher is right though.

I have been told that it’s best to start somewhere other than morzine/les gets as you will be less likely to get stuck in queues. It might be worth thinking of a different resort for your base, chatal maybe?

I think its a bit crap to just judge the bikes on weight. The Isla bike is just a hybrid that can be pootled off road. The Scott and the Spesh are way more capable.

I’m so very tempted to buy some 55s or 66s in RC3ti flavour now, while I can, even though I haven’t yet sorted a bike to put ’em on

Wait till they are being knocked out cheap on CRC.

I just don’t agree that she was seen as the wicked witch and the source of all ills

nice shiny apple for the barrow boys (matched their braces), poisonous interior for the rest of us.

Not read the whole thread but, any one who lives in the North of England and sees the industrial desolation ,caused by policies that came from her belief that Britain should be a service economy, would be pretty misguided not to hate her IMO.

She has done more for the uk balance of payments deficit and social division than any politician ever AND the current lot seem to be following her template to build further on that legacy. Bitch.

Marzocchi are being taken over by Sram. They’re moving part of the production to Germany and abandoning the rest. Not sure what effect this will have on the lineup though.

Would love to think the brand will be saved but would hate to think that the product will just be rebadged rockshox.

Closing their MTB arm, sounds like they’d still be producing the ‘power sports’ stuff which is the money making part of the business.

Not that long ago the american guy who heads the bike arm was boasting about the much higher margins in bike suspension than in the automotive stuff.

How he managed to keep his job after effectively destroying the brand in 2008 with the move to overseas production is beyond me.

http://www.bigbike-magazine.com/station-vtt/areches-beaufort

Good start point if you can read french.

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Another area worth looking at (though not the alps) is the Cardagne/Capacir valleys in the Pyranees. Good bike parks (les Angles/La Molina) very good all mountain riding and pretty much assured good weather.

If you don’t want to go with a company the beaufortaine valley is worth a look. 2 smallish bike parks, the best being les Saises, but the bigger draw is the free or cheap bus shuttles that go round the whole area and the waymarked enduro trails that are up to 29 km long. You can ride from les saisies to albeville and get a bus back for 5 euros. The off piste stuff will be as good as the stuff in les arcs but obviously you need to find it or get someone to show you.

It is really easy to overtighten the bolts on MRP chain guides and they are way too expensive at RRP (as are pretty much all chain devices). If I was going to get one like the Lopes, I would get the superstar one: cheaper, works just as well and less prone to overtightening.

Brio in the light for excellent pizza.

yes

DH Gwinn, Hart, Athertons, Brosnan, Nicole
Freeride Semenuk, Zinc, Sonderstrom, Granieri, Messere

Anne caro, Voulloz, Macaskill

Why won’t you say what the actual product is?

Or at least what segment of the market it is aimed at. Without people knowing this, the whole exercise is a bit useless.

This was never supposed to be a discussion about O’Neal, we were just talking about why some riders are sponsored and why some aren’t etc etc, and I was wondering how your opinion on here would differ to some of the more DH specific people.

I know, but I only used that brand as an example of one that appears to spend a lot of money on endorsements but does not seem to get that much return on investment. I spent two months all over the alps this summer and hardly saw anyone wearing the stuff. My gut feeling as to why that is is because the designs are pretty ugly when compared to some of the other clothing manufacturers. Yes some of the other manufacturers make ugly kit but their brand identity in mountain biking is stronger and so they can get away with it now and again.

FWIW I reckon grass roots sponsorship is probably a waste of time and the only riders that are likely to have an effect on sales are those that are highly mediatised, yet still performing at a level to give the kit credibility (whatever the segment the product is aimed at).

Oneal clothing is **** minging.

Exactly, only a very few idiots are going to buy a s..t product no matter how much money you throw at sponsorship.

The brand is important, as is the fundamental quality of the product. The endorsements are useful to make these things more visible. Look at a company like poc, until quite recently they had very few sponsored riders, but as the product was perceived to be good it still sold.

Another interesting case is oneal. They must spend a fair bit on rider sponsorship but you see very few people wearing it cos it doesn’t have the same brand cachet as fox or tld.

It depends a lot on the type of clothes but:
Uk AThertons, hart, macgaskell
World Gwinn, zinc, someone from Germany/Switzerland, someone from France (ragot or pugin or Nicole) the bike patrols of a few bike parks.

I would have thought 26 ins would be massive for an 8 yr old. Better to have a bike that fits and they can ride properly than one they will struggle with until they grow. Ok my son is less than 140 but watching him ride a 26 inch bike is like watching someone pilot a supertanker.

If you are going to build one the konas on crc are good value but the gear cabling is pretty random, eg tabs that interfere with the fork. The funn hooka mx cranks (£25 on crc) are also worth a look as they have short arms.

Jump wheels are pretty heavy though. If you build your own wheels you will obviously get them cheaper than me as I need to pay someone to build them but I reckon for deore hubs, octane rims (£ 16 each at crc) and spokes you would still be pushing £100.

Do not underestimate the cost of building up a bike yourself. I got one of the £60 scab 24s for my son and even with out buying forks and other stuff it will probably cost at least £500 to build. Light/ cheap 24 inch wheels are difficult to come by.

If I was going to buy off the shelf, I would go with the Scott voltage 24.

Depends if it is grade 1 or 2.

1 is a proper PITA as you can do pretty much nothing without permission.
2 is slightly less of a PITA but you will still need permission to do most things.

And any work you do will be more expensive than a non listed building. Any work done by a previous owner that the council deem to be non compliant will be your responsibility to put right.

Since its now quite some time since it happened I probably wouldn’t bother going to the cops. I would however buy one of these to commute in for the next few weeks.

My stance is that school is important & there’s no way my kids are missing it unless there’s a really good reason.

You are right. Taking kids out of school for any reason isn’t good but taking them out to fit in with someone’s social calendar is just ridiculous.

Grumpy roadies
Flex
Stormtroopers