mugsy’s first 2 paras are spot on. Make sure you get paid. Bear in mind many employers assume high staff turnover is the norm and have no incentive to keep people.

The chips in Bistro des Sports are delicious. The food is great in Petit Kitchen tho the portions a little small for hungry bikers. Everywhere’s expensive. The staff in Super U are the grumpiest and rudest anywhere.

French people on the whole tho are superb, they have a level of personal respect we don’t have in this country.

Riding: Le Tour / Col de Balme over to Switzerland is OK. There are 2 routes, one directly over the Col past the refuge we used to call ‘Le Trogs’, the other bear left looking at the col, traverse high then follow your nose (stay high).

Go see the dinosaur footprints behind Col de la Terrasse.

Morzine is only an hour away. Never bothered to go though!

First of all I need to find some accomodation. I’ve looked on the Mairie’s website and Cham74 and ChamSocial. Any other places I should be looking?
Also thinking about cars – How long term can you get away with having a british registered car in France? I know plenty of seasonnaires do it, but does this cause potential problems?
Also I’ll need some locals knowledge of the trails, so it would be good to meet some of you lot for a bike ride!

Physically, the notices at the back of the mairie on Friday mornings I think it is. The good stuff goes quickly. Best to be there.

Be discrete about the car and you’ll be OK.

It’s nigh on impossible to earn a living wage in tourism.

Great beer in MBC, best time is early before it gets crowded. Never go on a “Gary Bingham and the Crevassholes” night. Trust me.

I never did much bike riding in Cham, it’s all a bit body-armour-lift-assisted-rocks-and-and-drops for me, I’m more a single track & forests guy. There’s an OK XC loop around the valley floor but it gets a bit dull after a while. A few nidges of ST in the woods north of the PGHM helipad. In all honesty I think’s it’s over-rated for riding, the terrain is just too severe, but the local tour ops are sure to disagree. But there’s masses of sport climbing for summers and the skiing is fantastic. In a good year you can climb from Feb to November and ski from November to May. Awesome.

I think a group of free-riders ride out of Le Vert at Les Gaillands quite often.

Fill your Camelbak from the spring on the Les Peccles back road, down towards the Gaillands climbing wall. Best ever.

You can ride your road bike up to the Col des Montets, down to Vallorcine, that’s about it. Stay off the roads July & August, death traps for a cyclist.

Cham’s something of a bubble, you’re insulated from the rest of humanity, in a box with closed ends and an open lid. It can be claustrophobic, it can be fantastic. I always think it’s a bit “Space 1999” – pinged off into the galaxy on your own. I ‘spose you’d have to be over 40 to get that reference!

Cham Sud is cheap for a reason. Lock your gear securely.

It wore out for us after 6 years but we had a cracking time.

Rock it. I’m envious of you getting to discover it all over again.

A workstand makes life hugely easier. Well worth it.

@saladdodger are you anywhere near Surrey? I’d like to try your medium, if you’d like to try my small (ooh err)

I’m 5’8″ 32″ inside leg, have a smalkl with 90mm stem and risers.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-xt-m786-10-speed-double-front-derailleur/

Works fine on my SRAM 2×10

5’8 (32″ inside leg), I have a small (Soul) with 90mm stem, personally I think anyone taller than me will need a layback post. I reckon I could happily ride a medium but haven’t tried one.

A tad above level they seem to come out for me. Get the saddle right first then mess about with reach and bar height after. Go ride for a while before changing. Just rolling riser bars a couple of degrees back or forwards can make a big difference.

IMO Trailraker is a mud tyre not a winter tyre. For Dusk til Dawn a few weeks ago, which was basically an 11 mile long 1 metre wide ribbon of gloop, Trailraker would have been perfect. But for general winter riding (wet roots and so on), it’s not the boot for the job.

Despite it’s name, Mud X looks to be a better all round winter conditions tyre.

Update: I slept on it and had another crack this morning, my Crest rim is currently happily holding 35psi with 24mm tape without sealant (tyre: Bontrager Mud X 2.0). If you’re a bit klutzy like me it’s probably easier to use 24mm tape then trim it after (this gives you a bit of a margin of error during the install if you don’t get it totally straight) than use 21mm tape and have to get it bang on straight during the install.

I didn’t try to centre the tape during the install, instead I concentrated on getting one edge of the tape bang up against the point where the ‘bench’ of the rim meets the wall on one side only, this will mean at the opposite side of the rim the 24mm tape will stick against the wall as well as the bench.

I used my thumbnail and a tyre lever for pressure, one time I split the tape with my thumbnail so took it off, trimmed the nail, and did it again.

Once the tape was on all around, I made sure it was tight and flat on both benches and trimmed it at the bench/wall interface on the ‘opposite’ side.

I did it sitting on the sofa with the wheel on the floor, this made it easier to grip, and work on from above for better grip and weight for the stretch, rather than from the side with the wheel installed in a frame or spinny thing going all over the place. A few cm of tape at a time, and taking my time as 5 O says. Don’t try and copy the guy in the video who does it in 60 seconds, it took me a few minutes.

At one point during the install I could see I had weakened the tape over the gutter at one place (too much pressure with thumbnail I would think). So once it was all done I trimmed and stuck a small second layer of tape over that area, it seems to have held.

I didn’t do the first inflation with a tube in the tyre, with this combination a tube simply won’t fit.

I had to use a tyre lever to complete the tyre install: I’m a keyboard jockey and don’t have the finger strength more practical folks would. That’s a time to take care to not damage the tape install.

The valve is the other potential problem area, do it nice and tight.

I’ll probably install the sealant through the valve rather than take the tyre off the beading. Update later.

Ta, I had my wheel installed on the bike in a work stand. I’ll take it off and have another go tomorrow, perhaps sitting down may easier actually. I’m just doing the front for now as I can drop another wheel in and still go riding if it doesn’t work out, kinda like cataract ops I’ll not start the rear until the front is up and running!

That guy on the video makes it look so easy. But I bet he’s done hundreds.

So far all I’ve made is a twisty bobbly mess. I could never wrap presents properly either, my mum did it for me. Perhaps I should ask her to fit the rim tape too.

OK, thx guys, does the tape need to go right down into the central gutter where the spoke holes are, rather than bridging across it? (I guess that would make sense actually).

OK I ordered the 21mm tape from Wiggle now. The CRC page product name for the kit that came with 24mm (with no options) is ‘Hope Tubeless Kit for Hoops on Stans ZTR From …’ tho the body text does say Flows and 355s without mentioning Crest. Grrrrrr.

They’re not going on tonight then!

Nope I don’t buy it, it’s never going to work. Checking with the shop (CRC) …

OK am abut to tape up my Crests with 25mm tape – looks too big for me. Here goes, back later …

@10p my feeling is they’re still on Youtube with a punky soundtrack and ‘Leith Hill’ across the titles. If I was someone from a special interest group looking for evidence biking should be restricted, I might use that, it’s grist to the mill.

But I’m not trying to make an issue out of it (& I’ve seen far worse). & I love my riding too, I understand enthusiasm …

likewise the vids if I’m honest, it’s hard to see who benefits from more publicity

deadkenny +1 – discretion will pay off in the long term, by helping there be a long term

The tape I measured is yellow, as per the CRC pic.

24mm I have it in front of me and measured it.

Thx all, @dukeduvet yes pls do update ta. My knowledge of alu is Thomson, I think I just figured not all others are so stiff.

(or Ti, or just an alternative alu?)

Can’t speak for grit but I wouldn’t run them in damp forest (ie wet roots, clarty mud, cambers) or chalk.

Fine in the forest in dry.

So my answer is no, for the conditions I ride which is North Downs/Surrey Hills.

Newlands Corner, Dorking – they are having a laugh if they think that’s a great descent.

I reckon they just got a few maps and stuck pins in the places they’d heard of.

I did Ventoux west to east in 2009 (not the Tour route which is from the south and didn’t look much fun really). If I went back I’d reverse that, the eastern road is gradual and scenic, the western (the drop off is actually north from the summit) had a new surface and was steep, it would be an absolute scream. Less cars that side too.

I forget the names of the towns but there are only 3 roads. The southern and eastern routes join a few miles before the summit so you’d still get to ride the white desert, Simpson memorial etc.

Newlands Corner is fairly short and too busy to be much fun. It’s the only one I know on the list but doesn’t give me confidence in the rest.

Locally I’d pick Dorking from Leith Hill (Coldharbour), or Headley Village to Juniper Hall, ie the back of Box Hill, that’s just lovely, some people call it ‘Little Switzerland’.

For anyone out doing Ventoux, also do Gorge de la Nesque. It’s a roller not a blast, but my what a road.

In Majorca, the descent to the village of Sa Collabra on the north coast is epic, but be careful it’s **** busy, I nearly got smeared across the windscreen of a Thomson tour bus, I slowed down from that point. Early start maybe a good idea! From the same col back the other way in the direction of Puerto Pollensa was less scenically awesome, but more fun for me.

Bear right with the youth hostel behind you, then leftish after a bit. Since you’re wanting the summit, keep going uphill, it’s not rocket science …

I wouldn’t go up Tele the ‘wrong’ way, a head-on wouldn’t be pleasant.

Try buying one in France. Makes England seem like an easy-peasy process.

Try selling one in France. Estate agents want 6% commission, on top of the 7% taxes you paid when you bought, so a 13% increase is needed if you want to break even.

And watch out for the extra 1% “insurance premium” you have to pay the French government to insure them against you not paying your capital gains tax. Even if there isn’t any. And only if you’re a foreigner.*

* can be avoided if a French tax payer will stand guarantor.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shopshop-shopping-list/id288350249?mt=8

http://mattgillam.posterous.com/pub-bike-ebay-1250

Crud Catcher and Spokey-Dokeys models own.

that said, Si @ Progressive, if I wanted Shimano I’d buy that.

frame manufacturer told me Shimano 2×10 chainline possibly too short, SRAM is OK, that’s why the q was which SRAM not SRAM vs Shimano. Plus I fancy a change.

(not really a winter-abuse bike, all weather perhaps a better description. We get our fair share of damp down here but no rocks or resulting paste, so no SLX needed)

lunchtime bump

So the Alice Roberts thing, it’s not just me then.

thx guys

(or, if I was feeling extravagant, XX?)

Best quote I heard at the transition area: “watch out for the toads”

(Enough about the passing).