Looks like a metal post it folds around. Or snaps around, if you would.

Marshy had it rebuilt in 45 mins for quali run apparently.

Greg hobbles around on his ankle for a bit then signs and autograph for a kid. True pro!

Aftermath is here if you haven’t seen it https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uxleoHwMjqo&feature=youtu.be

Bike park stuff in La Plagne hasn’t been great in the last few years. They don’t seem as sorted as Les Arcs in that respect, but as the liftpass prices have risen perhaps this year is different. The footpaths stuff is on a par with, if not better than, Les Arcs imo, especially the stuff down to Champagny but you need to negotiate the lift system wisely or risk being stranded miles away from your base. I think there is some climbing involved to get back to the main valley from this side; I’ve probably erased it from my memory.

La Ros is Ok, nothing amazing. The Black “dreamtime” or “dreamforest” is good. I believe the more interesting footpath stuff down to Seez is off limits. I won’t be visiting this year. Just keep driving over the Petite St Bernard to…

La Thuile is phenomenal, way better than Pila, but possibly too difficult for an 8 year old especially after the Superenduro blew out the corners last weekend. Pila is lots of DH lines up top and one very long “enduro” trail down to the valley floor. It gets pretty boring after 3 or 4 runs.

They are still the male fashion accessory of the moment, so if you like to be a sheep then keep

Stubble’s where it’s at, fam.

Which is just as well as that’s pretty much what the OP has.

Air King: same watch except dial and a a set of 36s cheaper. Waiting list around 2 months when I last checked.

My wife has ridden all the places you’ve listed on a SC Solo, which is 27.5 & 135mm rear, 140mm front. There are some DH trails in Val & Tignes, but the enduro trails are good fun if park is your thing. The singletrack trails in Les Arcs are my favourite in the area & can be navigated if you’re good with a map & strava heat maps. Official trails are fun for a couple of runs. I wouldn’t take a DH bike to any & have ridden all on my Bronson.

La plagne has a frankly bizarre arrangement with lift opening days. If you’re only there for a short while I’d stick to BSM & Espace killy.

^10-12 weeks in the alps. Depends your interpretation of “long”.

Fox recommend 100 hour service intervals for lowers. So every 2 weeks, give or take a day. Pikes on my wife’s bike with 50 hour service interval, so every week.

Hope brakes on mine which I hope not to have to do anything with other than change pads. My wife still uses shimano which seem to experience worse lever-to-bars moments the blacker the fluid. Expecting to need to flush them a few times.

Reverb. Enough said.

And then the chance of ripping hoses out in crashes.

Trailwagger- I live in Bristol. Storing bikes in the house is a necessity if I want to remain a bike owner.

North wind – I’ve tried pulling it back a little bit, storing the plunger and tube separately and cleaning to little avail. Maybe I need to be a bit more rigorous with the soap & water.

Thanks for the replies all. Will look at glass ones and miximiser. Typically the latter appears to be US only…

I had the problem Northwind refers to with my Next SL whilst in the Alps last year of all places. Thankfully I’d packed a spare set of SLXs. Replaced with SixC under warranty and no recurrence so far but not sure I’d buy again.

They look great, are really light but aren’t as reliable as shimano.

Thanks TW! Plan to stick to the Alps to keep car/trail ratio at an acceptable level, although Wallop is angling for finishing in San Sebastián and getting the Santander ferry home…

Anyone out there ridden much in Austria, Germany, Switzerland? There must be bike parks worth a visit?!

Swapped my XTR warranty refunds for Hope E4s. Haven’t regretted it.

Taking a break from Les Arcs this year with a trip to Verbier instead.

Still got lots of holiday left though, so a last minute end-of-season trip to Whiteroom is always possible…

No FCA blanket compensation scheme for ISA invested in share etc.

Post-Lehman bros collapse, the FCA have significantly boosted regulation around segregation of shares & equity investments with asset management firms. It means they have to keep your investments separate from their own and they can’t be used to settle debts in the event of their collapse.

In principle this means you don’t need a guaranteed compensation level (as with cash at banks) in the event of an asset management firm failure as you’ll get all your shares back.

The fundamental risk with investing in shares or equity is that the market value can fall or rise and less so with the firms that hold those shares on your behalf.

FWIW I’m moving all my cash ISAs into stocks & shares.

Having had smoke back out into the lounge due to poor draw on the flue, on the advice of someone on here, I use a chefs blowtorch to heat the flue before lighting and then to go at the firefighters.

Works like a charm and good for creme brûlée too.

Moved from XTs to XTRs to E4s last year. XT & XTR were both used in successive year’s alps trips. Had too many “oh shit” moments with the lever pulling back to the bar and moved to Hope, having got a refund for the XTRs under warranty.

Have only used Hopes in the UK so far, but like that they’re more progressive and the power just keeps on coming the more you pull the lever. My local stuff isn’t a patch on alpine runs so can’t compare, but no reason to believe they won’t match up. I’m about 73kg.

As Wallop says, paridiski season pass was only available from La Plagne last year for €90 but could only be used (on either side) for length of La Plagne summer season (which was slightly shorter than LA’s). Les Arcs season pass (not valid in LP) was €115. Made sense for the 2 weeks we were there as both resorts were open. We bought ours from Montchavin. You’ll need a passport photo each, assuming the terms are the same this year.

Even if you are only going for a week, if you’re planning on doing 2 days in LP the paridiski pass might make sense as it’s €30 more than a week’s pass in LA and LP day passes are €15. Gives the opportunity to pop over the Vanoise and finish a day’s LA riding on miner’s strike.

Isn’t wear and tear reduced as everything is kept lubed if it keeps moving?
My dad bought me a barrington for my birthday. Seems to do the trick but no experience of others. Quiet, which is good if you’re putting it in the bedroom.

If you’re ok with reading subtitles (or can understand Italian), then Gommorah is worth a watch.

Once you’ve used Laithwaites expect to be hounded on the phone if you don’t keep up with the ordering!

We use naked wines when we’ve built up enough money, then a mixture of supermarket and local off-license (Corks in Bristol – highly recommended).

Principles of composition and lighting apply just as much to photos taken with an iphone as those taken with high-end SLRs. Agree with rule of thirds comment above.

I’ve taken some photos I’m proud of with my phone and even won a competition with one. It’s only when you look at it large that you wish you’d used a bigger camera!

I also don’t have a problem with a bit of post-processing; emphasis on “a bit”. OTT HDR images look crap imo.

Same as most others; we’ve done a day in Pila and that was enough. We based in Les Arcs for 5 annual 2 week holidays and did trips to Pila, La Thuile, La Rosierre, La Plagne, Tignes and Val D’isere. Plenty of riding in La Plagne and Les Arcs, could do several days in La Thuile. The rest worthy of a day trip only imo.

Same as above. Bronson from Pike rct3 to 36 RC2. Big difference, much better support in the mid stroke with pretty good small bump sensitivity. Certainly don’t regret it.

I had a similar problem & the CTRL+F “[” didn’t work.

Turned out it was data validation for a drop-down list, where the data had been linked to another spreadsheet when copying from one sheet to another.

*edit: too late!

Rachel Atherton, winner of every round of the DH world cup this year, and currentt world cup holder & world champ. Yer know; mountain biking…?

Are you after in-ear or over-ear?

What is a spiralizer ?

A means of creating your courgetti at home, obvs.

Regular use of CCleaner should sort. My money’s on a combi of recycle bin, temporary internet files & temp system files. Cleared 4gb off my mother’s laptop at the weekend & she’s not exactly a big user of teh interwebs.

I’m trying to teach myself to do both. Preference to lead with left and it becomes an apparent issue on tight, steep RH alpine switchbacks, but is probably holding me back a bit in the uk too. Discussed it with Stevo at Whiteroom this year and he said he’d taught himself to lead with either over his first year guiding (obvs he got plenty of riding opportunities) and that it made riding alpine tech much easier.

I got my 2.5 minion DHFs from Bike24 before anywhere in the UK had them.

If that dirt line is where they’re sagging to you need to add more air.

I did my 36s with nail varnish & 1200 W&D. If my wife had bought the right shade of gold nail varnish you’d have never known there was a scratch afterwards; you certainly couldn’t feel anything.

She wants a new bike. In your size, natch.

The new Hope rim is due out November I think.

We don’t ask for references until we’ve offered them a job. Offer is subject to satisfactory refs, obvs.

Recently had XTR m9020s refunded under warranty & bought Hope E4s, on the basis that i’ve experienced the “oh shit” lever throw issue on every set of Shimano brakes I’ve owned since M775s. I burned through crazy numbers of pads in the summer’s 2 week alps visit as i was having to ride the brakes to maintain lever feel. LBS told me they’d seen lots of Hope seal failures & shimanos were better, but haven’t read this anywhere. Bought them from a non-local bike shop instead.

Been impressed with the Hopes so far, but not used them in proper mountain 15+ minute descents. Loving the ability to avoid locking up with enhanced modulation and the lack of “oh shit” moments.

Assuming you’ve got a BSA threaded BB, clean the spacer(s) and the bits where they interface with frame and BB cup. That was the source of my creaky hope BB. Did my head in for ages.

Any idea when the carbon bars are available?

There was a Facebook video post by STW where I think it said January next year.

This one: https://www.facebook.com/singletrackmag/posts/10154149142068612

Gimbal mount on your chest. No one wants to watch shakey videos any more!

Our two joined the household under similar circumstances. Found them dumped by a river. At some point in the journey from the river to cats home “we” decided to keep them. They’ve destroyed carpets, smashed glasses, pissed in my tool box, and shed hair everywhere, but they’re good fun.

Just waiting for Mojo to get stock to my LBS. They’ve been pretty popular from what they’ve (my LBS, not mojo) told me.