If you’re not going to ski have a look at Megeve for a prettier town with better restaurants that’s roughly the same distance from Geneva

If you’re out early, I thoroughly recommend the road climb to the Merlet “safari” park and footpath decent de retour down to Galliands in Chamonix. Cheeky, but ride it alone, say “merci” and you’ll be ok.

Oh, and ignore the “Very Dangerous Path” sign at the start….

Is it very exposed or something? I might do this next week and am happy with technical but tend to steer clear of the cliff edge stuff

Are you going for a week? If so has to be PDS or Grand Massif otherwise will be too small and get boring. Les Houches will get boring but the bus into Chamonix will be too much effort. Download the piste maps and look at the smaller villages that are still connected by lifts. If you’re going for less time look at Megeve or the other villages linked to it

In defense of using a gopro it does make you ride quicker and push yourself more. If you only use it for that and never actually watch any of the footage you’ve taken you’ll get the best of both worlds

If car drivers get annoyed at bikes going through red lights that’s their problem not mine. I think red lights should mean give way rather than stop for cyclists and so that’s the rule I follow. If enough people feel a law isn’t right it’s a legitimate form of protest to break it en masse. I’m more than happy to just pay the £20 fine to any policeman that disagrees, but that has yet to happen in 1000s of red lights jumped which makes me think they take it about as seriously as I do

What’s the actual problem with the BB where changing the frame is one of the repair options? BBs should be cheap and easy to replace. Are they saying the BB shell needs rethreading?

Yup, just did it for the 2nd time. Came 25th in my qualifier so frustratingly just outside the main race, but was at the front of the Challengers which was lots of fun even if I did mess up the snow section really badly and got dragged back into the pack

There was a crazy amount of snow this year though and it seemed to go on for miles. Lots of skiers were going down as we were waiting for the start too which made for an odd mix

It’s a great event with a fantastic atmosphere and if you’re even slightly thinking about doing it just go for it!

Yeah, to be a true ‘superbike’ I’d want to see XX1, carbon wheels, ti bolts throughout etc. No expense spared basically

DOn’t worry they’re not going to go through the hassle of scheduling it just to cancel it on the day because they’ve decided they’re happy with how it’s healing. A ‘medical reason for you not to have the operation’ would be they discover you’re allergic to the anesthetic. Your doctor didn’t want you to have the op because if you don’t you’ll still be 99% as good as new but if you do and get an infection it’s really bad news

I’ve cycled on the A30 doing LEJOG and it’s genuinely terrifying being passed by HGVs at 60mph. I’d be very surprised if anybody ever cycles on it twice

Once you’re on it though the trouble is even if you realise you’ve made a terrible mistake you’ve probably booked 10 B&Bs for the rest of your trip to John o’Groats and arranged to meet people on specific days along the way so because there’s no alternative route that will get you to wherever you have to be that night you just have to suck it up and stick with it

The most important advice is to get to the lift that takes you up to the quali early, like 2 hours early. If the quali route isn’t on the moonscape this year though they might be using a different lift for it and it could be better. Has the quali route been posted anywhere?

Also, do we need a doctor’s note this year?

Er, I never drop my seat. I just sit on it at the proper height & let the rear suspension do its job.
Some people might have a problem with that concept.

Not at all, nothing wrong with a good pounding in the arse. Whatever floats your boat I spose

Ripley SL?

I bought one online having read good reviews and was a little disappointed as it was bigger than I was expecting. It takes nice photos but I’d take it out more if it was smaller

I reckon it took me a couple of months to get over it once I stopped drinking coffee, or having any caffeine at all in fact. I don’t think there are strong health arguments but it’s definitely worth it for better sleep and waking up feeling rested and ready to go without having to drag yourself to the kitchen for a coffee first

Or just fit all your own parts and keep the savings for yourself. There’s nothing complex about bikes.

If you don’t have the right tools there are some jobs that get complex

If you go during the months when you can ride the walking trails Chamonix has more ‘natural’ singletrack without jumps, berms etc.

Bars are getting flatter as wheels and fork travel are getting bigger to keep the front end down. Outside of that a riser bar and flat stem does exactly the same thing as flat bar with a stem with a rise or a long steerer and bunch of spacers. Just go with whatever you like the look of

These look great. Can you get a decent one that would carry a gopro for under £100? Do they come as kits or do you have to buy all the parts separately?

Wow, how tall are you?

Not exactly competitively priced either

A medium Big Mac meal costs £9 GBP so I’d recommend you stay out of McDonalds

http://www.mcdonalds.ch/fr/carte-menu/menus/big-macr-menu

Your links don’t work, but if budget isn’t a problem I wouldn’t be looking in Argos

Lower resale value if 650b doesn’t ‘catch on’

I didn’t really like the shops in Hatton Garden tbh. The salespeople acted and sounded like used car salesmen. Expect to hear a lot of the standard sales BS about whatever size/quality of diamond you’re interested in being particularly rare at the moment and how lucky you are they’ve got one in stock and that you should put a deposit down as soon as possible. Whatever style of setting you like will be their personal favourite and your girlfriend is going to have the most beautiful hands they’ve ever seen etc.

Go and have a look but leave your wallet at home in case you get pressured into doing something you later regret. Take a lot of notes and then compare to what you can get online

Also check out iMacros. It’s a plugin for Chrome, Firefox and I think IE too. The syntax if very easy but it helps to know a little bit about the structure of webpages (i.e. what a div is)

Yeah, chesty and helmet in that order. Bar mount looks terrible if you have to move the bars much

Honestly there’s no reason to be intimidated by the Mega. They have a qualifying race on the Friday and so you’ll end up doing the main race with people of a similar pace

You can ride it in training in the days running up to the event without entering the actual race I reckon. If you did it much before or after though you might struggle to work out what the actual route was. If you’re going all that way just do the race though. If you don’t qualify in the top half or so you don’t get a mass start anyway so are effectively riding it on your own

It’s fine to criticise this stuff because it’s a pro ad trying to get you to buy their bike. When people post their amateur homemade vids then it’s dickish to slate them but in this case I don’t feel bad at all for saying the riding reminds me of the kind of stuff in vids from 5-10 years ago. I’ve yet to try a 29er but if that’s the best a good rider can do on one then I’m in no hurry to

Virgin’s generally nicer but check which model of plane the flights are and go with the newest planes

If you’re just going into Geneva from France you’ll easily be able to avoid any motorways and save yourself 40 francs

If you could make it light enough it would be interesting to have a helmet with a hinged face guard like some motorbike helmets have

The same trails would feel slower and hence less fun in the wide open

Have had Juicy 3s and 7s for years without any problems. Never had to bleed them and changing pads isn’t that bad once you look up how to do it online

Clapham? Both the Clapham Junction and Northern line side have nice bits and are well connected

Definitely rest it for longer than you think you need to stop all the juices running out when you cut it:

If he does well at college he already has an ok work ethic. I’d be much more concerned with his choice of degree. If you want to encourage him to do anything outside of college it should be to make some simple games – e.g. mods, iPhone apps. If he finds out coding isn’t as much fun as gaming he might rethink his uni choice before its too late

Easyjet fly there from Gatwick. They can be very cheap if you’re willing to fly at funny times

How about a fitbit or withings scale?