well if you want stuff that is two to three year old..

Not really the point in what is supposed to be a gravity fuelled sport.

You probably confuse enduro with dh then. Enduro is mountain biking, and mountain biking is pushing the crank all the way up, and try not to be the last of the group to finish the descent in order to avoid to pay the round. Although number wise I think EWS whistler was more on the par with a trans-vesubienne, don’t forget it’s a World series, therefore made so that the pros can compete at their best.

Er, am I missing something?

Yes you are a few good points actually
Cheaper,
Nicer,
More ingenious,
And you have the added bonus to give the dosh to Joe next door.
And lets face it KS should make this a free option from now on.

I think that unless you aim at improving your skills to bebetter at racing, or you’re a beginners, it’s pretty useless.
Hop and your bike, ride it an just enjoy it.
I am sure I am shite and you can pick up plenty of “wrong” habits in my biking. But I don’t care I just love to ride my bike.
But I am curious to learn your feed back if you try it.

I tried one and just did not liked it.
I have a meta AM 26” and the trance feel wrong in the respect that it’s almost the same position on the bike, but the bike is nowhere as good DH as the meta is. HA is not slack enough and BB way to low.
!If you liked the old meta, you’ll like the new meta/
HTH

If I was in my early 20’s I’d be over there myself guiding, the last thing on my mind would be scrimping together a deposit for a mortgage, I’d be getting pissed every night and trying to snake into as many chalet girls as was humanly possible. It’s hardly something that is going to support a wife and kids back home so I dare say a majority of the folk out there are doing it because they want to not because they have to ?

Well now I am sure your clients will feel quite safe now knowing that they”l be guided by hangover piss-head.

My sweeping statements are based purely on my own experience, others no doubt have theirs. I like to base my thought process on life itself and not what it says in the good book,

So hardly a generality then.

As a French guy living in the UK I find the above comments very nasty and uncalled for. Yes I agree with TA that the french guides are trying to protect their interests but that is the same everywhere. Live with it or do something else.

Well as I said in my first comment it is exactly the same in the UK.

Although have you forgotten that France has banned wearing the Islamic Hijab in public?!

And possibly anything that will cover your full face.

As an ex-guide working outside of Britain but mainly guiding Brits, I think the real reason that companies employ such people, is that the locals aren’t stupid enough to work for the wages that these companies pay.

Apparently wage seems to be fine for FA but not the corrupt government.

I don’t know who pays for the course if you are a French Citizen

everyone, Universities are free in France? If you have a legal french business set up as part of the taxes you’re payig for your employees training through funds too.

Whats not particularly clear to me is whether being a VTT guide is officially a regulated profession

Well there is no such thing as ‘vtt guide qualification’ in France.
You either hold a coaching qualification that allows you to take a group up to 12 people on trails to coach them. Or you hold a ‘guide de moyenne montagne’ with a specific qualification in MTBing.

Damn I just got trolled. I guess there is no such thing as bad publicity.

THANKYOU! You have just demonstrated the REAL root of the issue here – which is as follows:

I am a tight harse and I don’t want to pay qualified people the price I should pay them. I prefer under pay other people.

IFTFY

I just do hope nothing bad is going to happen to one of your guest, because you’re just going to be screwed. Sensible course of action will be to have your guide trained for very little through FONGECIF.
It will cost you almost nowt and your guide will still be paid while training.

My most senior guides – I’m not ashamed to publicly declare here – get 350 Euros per week (5 days guiding) and guaranteed work for the entire summer season. They also get a lot of perks such as a free Nukeproof Mega AM, wholesale price on parts and clothing, season lift pass, free food when working etc. And they can usually expect to earn between 100 Euros a week or more on top of that in tips.

So basically you pay (because that is what I asked you) your guides 10€ per hour (and I am making the assumption that they only work 35 hours a week here). That is a very poor wage. Minimum wage people with a BE get paid is between 15 to 24€/hours. Maybe here lies a part of your answer. Perks and tips don’t really count as wage, as you can’t really tell a bank you have 100€ of tips a week when you want to get a mortgage. Plus French worker will be able to deduce at least half of all he bike related purchase from his tax declaration.

Another question how much per hour do you pay your staff?

It would not solve the issue for many of my best guiding staff who I know really enjoy their job – and who are also VERY good at it. Some of them have more than 10,000 hours of guiding experience, all have at the very least, completed at least a full season of training with trailAddiction (in house). Unfortunately none of these guys have the time or money to commit to 2 years back at “French Guide University”, especially not to “learn” something that they already know.

So you pay the 60€ fee for the uni for each of them, they only show at the exam, pass them with obviously flying colours and solve your problem.

A couple of things from reading the blog.
Trail addiction could train the guide fro free. Book the a Two year course at any sporting university (which are free in France) with a speciality in cycling.
Or they could enter the exam as free-entrant(apparently it should be dead easy for them).
Furthermore the guide will have to go through first aid class (funny how trail addiction fail to mention that) which are hardly useless.
However if the owner is as professional as he pretend to be, I am very sure he will get this sorted.

Founding principle of EC – “freedom of movement of labour”.

So basically, any student who holds a master shouldn’t have do another one to graduate as a Phd student.
Funny that is not the case.
I think if the blokes thinks he is right he should bring the case to the EU court. However, I doubt it will work, as there is no such thing as ‘guiding’ diploma in France for MTB. It’s a coaching diploma, which requires indeed to study at the uni for a couple of years. Hardly something inconceivable.

Think of it the other way round, if you take all that stuff out then what’s actually left in your toolbox…?

Most of my spanners, my socket kit, my hammer, 4 of my pliers, adjustable spanner and basically all the stuff I use to dismantle my motorbike, do the usual DIY in the house, fix the kid’s toy.
But some good idea so far cheers.

OP, anything Above Avignon is the north?
Plenty to do. Basically anywhere in the 06 or the 83 (departement numbers) will have some good trail near by. Careful though, biking is “forbidden” in national parcs, and plenty of locals départementals parc have restrictions, however is you know some locals you might get away with some of the “forbidden ones but not so”.
IIRC Auron will still be open in september. Roubion sure will be.

I just own bike and I have a massive tool box with all the tools I need, but I can’t be bothered to empty most of it each time I need something. So I want to spilt it in two.
One with the most usual bike tools and another one with the rest of my tools.

Or you could always loop Agay-cannes through the castanier and then the sea front.

all Ratchet hubs from DT besides Dicut hubs can take shim or campag and 0 or 11 speed freehubs;

Ref you need is the one ending with 1296

east bound of the massif de l’ésterel there is plenty of trail from previous version of the Razorbike enduro, careful not your typical English enduro, doable on a SS but as I said very hard.

welmtb and SS is going to be hard indeed. for routes you could always look at the FF website, but be careful we are in ‘red period’ so plenty of tail are meant to be bike free, where are you staying exaclty?

125kgf vs 110kgf

Even 1100N is more than most spokes can handle.

Artemis Fiol serie, bartimeus trilogy.

well nick some of us actually venture far from the car…

cheers everyone, I shall add that I sweep for several Enduro races through the year, so I must be able to carry 2-3 kg worth of signs.

Extra weight is a no no for me

Well One waterproof Jacket
One fleece
Two spare tubes
On pump
One multitool
Set of tyre levers
Knee pads (shin and knee)
Usually 3L of water.
Food for the day (sandwich and some bars).
Just looking for something to replace my Salomon XA20

I usually use air too but I can’t fit the pump onto the bleeding screw. I’ll try to get another pump though. Cheers anyone

Bump for the week crowd.

A quick note about the brass/alloy nipples.
Nipples are the same shape/size irrespective of the material (at least with us). So it won’t make any difference on the build itself.
However to tune/tension a wheel with alloy you need a very good nipple spanner.
With a brass nipple you’ll need to double check your tension immediately. With alloy you need to check it on a regular basis over the first few weeks as they tend to stretch a tiny bit.
HTH.

My question are :
do you know the tolerances of both the rime and the hub?

well looks like I’ll have to get black tires then :'(
Ok what cheap and chearful 25-28 black tire then ;)

Well Gary road is road and I won’t be commuting in the wet ;)
I’ll post a pic on my FB page so you can see why I want tires with blue :D

Vélo bleu in Nice

Well bike is green with touch of blue CFH, and you know damn well I am a very classy person :D.
As for reliability I know but I feel tarty :D

ok cool thanks everyone, now onto tires :D

I have just ordered a 38 t front ring at the LBS

Basically I am building a frame-set fro commuting and I like the idea of running a 1*9 or 1*10 the simplicity of it and the fact that I have one less shifter/mech.
Such gearing (38/34) will be just fine for my commute, I them will adapt the road riding to the gearing.
It’s to save some cents too

Waht is this wheel standard you’re all mucking about?

Long gone are the day when I knew all lordswood users.