Got mine done at the same time as a well needed service. Looks good, no difference in performance as far as I can tell.

The stuff from the top of the second lift is mostly DH. It’s alright for a blast but the braking bumps are a killer on your wrists.

The run down from the top of the cable car is good for a few runs. There are lots of variations at the top & in the middle which mixes it up a bit. If it’s been dry expect piles of dust. Take goggles if you’re likely to be riding behind someone.

Interesting that Rockshoxs’ much-lauded internal redesign doesn’t seem to have addressed the sagging issue from some of the reports above. I counted 11 bleed kits in my bike room drawer from 4 bikes with reverbs, so an average of almost 2 warranties per post.

I’ve just ordered a Fox Transfer as my Stealth is now over 2 years old & can’t be warrantied again, but deliberated over the redesigned Reverb. Hopefully I’ve made the right choice.

Have you followed the guide on the Fox website?

http://www.ridefox.com/help.php?m=bike&id=802

I guess it comes down to what you want to ride. For me, Les Arcs provides some of the best ‘natural’ riding I’ve experienced. I’m not really interested in smooth bike park riding, but then having broken my arm and smashed myself up pretty badly at speed, I prefer slower (although not slow) trails. To make them interesting for me, they need to be technical and the tarentaise provides that in spades. Still plenty of options for flow but not tables and gaps on groomed trails.
I’ve been out in Les Arcs for the last 1.5 weeks. The weather last week made everything a real challenge (not least needing 6 layers and winter gloves); I can understand how wet off-camber roots on ‘consequency’ trails can make it unenjoyable and I did my fair share of walking last week. As said above its a bit of a blip, but that’s mountain weather. If you like natural riding and all that that encompasses, Les Arcs should certainly be on your bucket list. If you prefer groomed bike park, it’s probably worth giving it a miss.

Not defending dog tag in any way here, but it always pays to do a little prep with insurance before you go away, as I know from experience.
Good advice for anyone heading out to the Alps is to Always have your ehic on you and try to remember to show it when you’re admited. Lots of insurance places expect you to call them within 24 hours of your injury, so make sure you’ve got a note of their emergency number and your policy details. Part of this is that they don’t want to pay for private clinics, but there’s much to be said for having someone understanding on the other end of the phone. Airlifted with compound fractures, the last thing on your mind is sorting insurance, never mind trying to explain where you want to go to a heli pilot that doesn’t speak English. A little empathy goes a long way; another vote for snowcard here.

Lardons vs back?

I’ve run Flow Ex pretty much since they came out (2/3 years?) and haven’t damaged any rims yet.

Thanks for recommendations all. Will look at the DT Swiss options. I note that Moonglu have switched to using these over Stans which was one of my reasons for starting this thread.

We’re off to White Room on friday.

Tubeless, 2.4″ minions on Flow Ex, 72kg rider, full sus. Around 27psi rear and 24psi front.

Haven’t damaged the rim or burped the tyre yet, but i’m not one for getting sideways. Have destroyed Crests and dinged an Arch previously so i’m not the most graceful rider on rocky terrain. Most of my riding is steep & technical roots & duff rather than flat out bridleway.

http://www.vitalmtb.com/features/Red-Bull-Announces-Several-Changes-to-Rampage-for-2016,1404

Timely

Double Header is going to be interesting in the wet!

Meteociel forcasts quite a different picture http://www.meteociel.fr/previsions/27334/bourg_saint_maurice.htm

Bumping for any further input.

Anyone else got any recommendations for insurance where they’ve got experience with a claim?

Has anyone ever looked into April multisport insurance?

The policy document lists “mountain biking” as covered & doesn’t specify any type of cycling as excluded. You’d also be covered for Dog Dancing. At €49 per year it’s pretty cheap, dog dancing or not.

*Edit* it appears medical cover is only up to €5000, but this shouldn’t be a problem for ehic card holders.

There are plenty of people on here who have had claims successfully handled by Snowcard & Dogtag, myself included. The last thing you want when you’ve broken your arm or leg is to have to argue on the interpretation of small print & given my experience of insurance companies for other claims, I know exactly what they can be like. Is it worth the risk?

Threads like this should ask for input from people that have actually had to claim, rather than just asserting that “so-and-so is pretty cheap & seem to be good”. On that basis I’d recommend Snowcard as making my 2 night stay in a French hospital less traumatic than it could have been.

I don’t bother with the swirling/vortex method as it’s no good for more than 2 eggs.

Use a large-based, shallow pan & fill with water high enough to cover eggs.
Bring to the boil, adding a couple of drips of vinegar.
If possible, in the interest of speed, pre-crack your eggs into ramekin dishes.
Take pan off the heat, gently place the eggs in the water.
Cover the pan, time 5 minutes, remove eggs.

I have next sl cranks in a bsa frame and I installed a hope bb. Raceface crank instructions (I actually RTFM) tell you the require width and tolerance of the bb and with 1 spacer it came up a little short. I think the bb cups are a touch narrower and the cinch bolt leaves the threads before adding tension. I just added another spacer to the nds, checked with calipers and it sat in the required tolerance so gave it a go. No problems so far.

Be warned; 30mm BBs seem to all have proprietary tools to add to the cost of testing.

Avoid:
Buying 2 pint jugs of beer on Las Ramblas (€20 each)
Harbourside for food unless you want formal dining
The cable car across the harbour

Do:
Spend time in El Born for tapas & cocktails
Walk around the old town
Visit the bit up on the hill by the observatory
Enjoy the laid back atmosphere!

nhs vs private

NHS diagnosed mine as tight hammies & hip flexors. 3 months work & little improvement to pain (despite noticeably improved flexibility). I was really quite despondent by this point & ready to accept a life of constant pain.

Sports physio (keen cyclist) diagnosed facet joint arthritis & was I relatively pain-free & able to get back to deadlifts & squats in the gym within 6 weeks. Cycling over 2 hours still results in pain, but not as severe. Prescribed improved core strength, but targeting a very specific muscle group first rather than just firing out planks & crunches.
He also performed accupuncture which gave significant results.

Edit – should also point out that before this I also attended Chiro & Osteo to little success either. Persevere OP; someone will have the answer!

Our company made some decent money from buying shares then selling them off when they were higher in value. But we had personal knowledge.

Also known as insider trading?

Options are highly geared so you could lose everything you put in.

CFDs trade on margin & carry the higher risk that you could lose more than you originally put in, as well as being highly geared.

Oil companies’ pricing varies according to oil reserves (falkland oil & gas), environmental disasters (BP), dodgy governments (Sibir Energy) & general market sentiment. The bigger ones will generally give you a yield in the interim period.

Best way to invest in pure commodities is ETFs, but beware of management fees from your platform & AMC from the fund manager. Cheaper than storing 1250 barrels of oil or 3 tonnes of lean hogs though.

You should also bear in mind that oil is priced in USD, so you’re also exposed to a bit of FX risk.

Final tip: don’t take investment advice off strangers on the internet.

I bought the axis as it has a spottier beam that the joystick which has become more floody. The suits me as I use it for road and helmet

Other way round, surely?

The lens on my Axis is diffused which gives a flooded light pattern. I thought joysticks were the spotty ones?

Red-devil one-time

You need to look for stoves that are rated to heat the hearth to 100 degrees or less.

There is a term you need to search for, which I’ve unfortunately forgotten, to find the right stove. I didn’t know this first time round & ended up with a very basic one as it was the only one I could find with the right rating (Stovax Stockton 5 ML). It burned through wood at an alarming rate!
In the new house we took advice & discovered there were loads of others. This time I’ve got a Morso 04, which is much better.

Both my xfusions spewed oil from the collar seal within 6 months’ use. Replaced under warranty and then refunded as the retailer stopped holding stock.

Weighing up the cost of a Thompson vs buying a new frame in which my spare reverb will fit.

2014 Rajis were made in India or Thailand, apparently to different designs. One version is ok, the other unwearable. Buy with caution.

£25 a month, Bristol.

I’m going out on a limb here, but reckon there’s a correlation between jeans & haircuts. How many of the sub £10 haircuts buy their jeans from Asda or TM lewin? And how many >£20 know what chronic crotch blowout on raw selvedge means? 😉

Have you done the hard reset?

Power device off
Press and hold Lap and Start/Stop
Power device on while still holding both buttons
Continue holding buttons when the Garmin “splash” screen appears
Release buttons when Garmin “splash” screen disappears

Much like the pulled-pork craze of 3 years ago, the last 2 year’s rise of “gormet” burgers is essentially a license to print money. Cheap ingredients, cooked well, charged at a premium. That said, some places do get it very right; If you’re ever in Bristol, Chomp (round the back of St Nick’s market) is the place to go.

Mexican is where its at now…

+1 Stoner.

The wife & I booked a later flight back from skiing one year to spend a few hours in Geneva before our flight. They were a long 4 hours walking around. Unless you’re in the market for an expensive watch, avoid.

I’m using an external Hope 30mm BB with my Next SL cranks instead of the Raceface one. Had to use an extra spacer (one each side) to get the width wide enough for the cinch bolt to work. This might mean that the Raceface BB would be too wide for Hope cranks, but can’t confirm.

bump for the friday pm crew

Udderly Smooth used to be my cream of choice, but something definitely changed in their recipe. Now use a locally made one called ‘Bristol Butt’r’ which is better than both the old and new Udderly Smooth imo. Best solution for me was to get a bike fit resulting in no fidgeting on the saddle throughout a ride, and no sores as a result.

Have any of you used the magic Mary too? How do they compare?

If you need a map, the iPhone app iphigenie is excellent. You get a week for free, then subscription costs either £11 for the year or £4.50 for a month. Obviously not a replacement for a paper map but helps enormously if you’re exploring.

Can’t quite get my head around it, but a season pass for paridiski (both La Plagne and Les Arcs) from La Plagne appears to be €90, whereas the same pass from Les Arcs is €175. For 9 days you aren’t going to get cheaper, but it would involve a drive to somewhere with a La Plagne tourist office, assuming my understanding is correct.

Apologies to bump an old thread, but my replacement pikes have done 9 days’ riding in the Alps from new, with no washing or anything else on them and they’ve started clicking/creaking. Can’t be anything to do with muck off in this case. These are 2015 rct 3s, received from the lbs 3 weeks ago to replace creaking 2014 pair. Is there anything I can do other than return again? Headphones in and ignore?!

It wasn’t in the National Park, it just ran very close towards the start, but I’ll agree there’s plenty of other good stuff around.

Have you tried discogs?

http://www.discogs.com/Carl-Cox-FACT/master/44414

As I understand it, the vehicle uplift isn’t running and a ski lift is instead. However it only gains around 200m vertical, finishing remarkably close to a local politician’s restaurant. Convenient. Essentially the trails can’t be accessed. 😥

OP: get the ign map for Les Arcs bought & do a bit of research. I’d be looking at 2 days in Les Arcs, a day in La Rosiere and a day in La Thuile if I were you.