Wondered if you’d chime up Northwind. You always do when Enduro2, Trans-Savoie and TA are mentioned.
Oh right, you stayed with a rival company, it makes total sense that what you heard was not positive (gossip never is right). I’m not sure why you’re so bitter about it, as from what I can gather you were never directly involved. Time to move on fella – The last 2 Enduro2 races went down real well (despite what rival operators tell you)

Does any non mtb (kayaking/climbing/mountaineering) coaching/guiding experience count towards the requirements?

Did for 6 years.
Have some good memories but wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, ever.
Unless all you want to do is earn money.

Here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Avid-Pitstop-Dot-Assembly-Grease/dp/B002SQZ1H6

I never bother on mine.
I like to show the next owner what the bike’s been through, so I’m not hiding anything. That way he/she can see where its been hit (especially important with carbon because you never know what its like under the first few layers after its taken some beatings). At least there are some visual clues without the tape

It also helps that I only keep bikes for a year so they don’t depreciate too much.

Personally I’d never buy a bike thats been taped up, there’s just far too much unknown. Yeah it might look nice but beauty is more than skin deep. ‘d rather spend my time on keeping it all working than trying to hide blemishes. I do use touch up paint on the odd occasion though 🙂

Do the people who **** up get sacked?

Yes
There was a news story a few weeks ago about one of the developers whose daughter took a picture of his dev iPhoneX. He got sacked after she put it on FB…

Batteries generally don’t like the cold anyway 😉

Nah, not the race organisation… hell even the guiding is pretty straightforward, as long as you’re fluent in French for non your French speaking customers. haha.

The rest of it is based too much in politics and depends more on who’s palm you grease than anything. Its amazing what some companies/people get away with while another gets fined and jailed because his customers take their beer glasses back to the bar for refills.

🙂

ProWheelBuilder – Spoke length calculator

Didn’t mean that anyone was operating outside of the French ‘law”… only that it seems to be increasingly difficult to do so

Definitely a few places I’d like to check out in Europe, outside of France
There’s still amazing opportunities in France though, but it just becomes harder every year (even when you’re fully legal)

I worked at trailAddiction for the last 4 years, so I do know a bit Ash, yes. 🙂
Didn’t mean that you were jumping on any bandwagons by the way

Actually @John_Key Ash was part of the original trailAddiction partnership.
He just wasn’t part of it at the end because they both fell out a few years earlier… best friend in business barley works well unfortunately. A real shame because they had something really great.

Ash will be back with something cool but I don’t think it will be in Provence… there’s a lot of people jumping on that bandwagon.
I have no doubt that Ali will be back with something too.

The guys at bike academy were always going to be involved in some way (originally just in man power and a vast local knowledge), so they should be pretty capable of pulling it off.
Most of the hard organising work has already been done so it should just be a case of running it on the day.
Depends who they ask to help I guess.

Yep, the Specialized Zee is really good.

Look. Bravo for running a business in France for 10 years but just because trailAddiction went into administration does not mean that there was wilful misdemeanour. You’ve read 1 or 2 threads/articles and are not in possession of all the info/facts, but you’re more than happy to throw around accusations of tax dodging and law breaking. How does that work?

I worked for trailAddicition for a good few years and can tell you that isn’t the case. I can also tell you that its not my place to tell you how or what I know…. Only that its not really any of your business. I’ve said as much as I’m able and unfortunately that hasn’t satisfied your need for gossip and to rejoice in the failures of other.

There are few people here that have actually met Ali other than just in passing and even fewer that have worked with him. Working with anyone who has a passion is damn hard and if you can’t deal with that then its your own loss. I had a great (and often bloody stressful) few years and have lost a job that won’t be easily replaced… and wasn’t as poorly paid as some here would have you believe.

I remember now why I rarely visit this forum. Enjoy it, I’m off for a ride.

Exactly nickc… thats sadly the British “daily mail” mentality at the moment.

People assume Ali was dodgy because he drove a Porsche and put his Yeti on the top. (Someone on this thread even criticised him for putting it in the back – where the engine is. Really!)
He just made some mistakes and has been massively and unfairly penalised for it… the company should have and could have operated this year and still paid off the fines (over time)

Well I managed all the bookings and race entries

Are you aware of the rules in France? They are ludicrously complex and ever changing.

One of the previous fines was for the ceiling height in a staff bedroom. It was in apex of the building so had about 12ft height in the middle and 3 1/2′ where the bed heads were… Guess which part the inspector measured?

There was also the case of the bar owner who’s regular customers would take their empty glasses upto the bar, when they were finished. He was fined €7k and jailed overnight for undeclared labour.
You can’t fight that kind of attitude.

I also worked alongside a French man in Liecester for a few months with Autistic children. He served in the French army for a good few years and is qualified to the hilt but its impossible for him to return and work there without completely re-qualifying from scratch.

It wasn’t a tax dodge!

I guided for 2 years and accepted the pay and conditions… that was very clear when I applied.
But I’ve had the advantage of working in the outdoor industry my entire career so know when I take a job guiding I’m not just getting paid to play on my bike, but have to think about customers/guests too.

That is one of the biggest issues all seasonal employers have.

@Northwind @Edukator et al…
You’re embarrassingly way off the mark.
I’ve been biting my tongue this whole thread but I can’t be bothered anymore. I worked alongside Ali for the past 3 1/2 years and your accusations are complete BS. There was nothing malicious on his part.
Who gives a toss if he drove a GT3, he had a very good job at Ford for many years so its completely his right to spend his earned money how he wished.
Do you really think he ran trailAddiction and Trans-Savoie without any legal or financial advise (both in the UK and France)? If you believe the answer is yes then you don’t you’re more foolish than you’re trying to make him out to be.
Short term secondment is not illegal in Europe… Thats one of the main purposes of the EU (to allow free, easy movement of labour)

Ali worked his arse off for the past few years to make the companies and races as successful as they were but in doing so they came under more scrutiny and increased pressure. I imagine far more than you ever did in your 10 years Edukator.

Now enough with your couch analysis and assumption.

If can get a deal why not go for the XTRs?
I’ve had mine on for well over a year including 3 months smashing around the Alps… Apart from a couple of minor rocks dings and the usual wear marks they’re still going strong.
Well recommended.
Would definitely buy again if I ever need to replace them.

The new ones are good, but the StarWars story died when Disney took over… they were just too cheap to negotiate with the writers. Non Cannon my a***.
There was some fantastic opportunities for some unbelievable stories, but instead they’re just regurgitating plot to avoid litigation.

mrmichaelwright – hole in one sir!

Yeah get on to ABTOT and give the administrators to bell too

All of tA’s guides were french qualified last year

BikeVillage are good guys, but they do seem to spend a lot of time pedalling up roads when the lifts are so plentiful

This has nothing to do with be able to (or not) legally guide in France.

My real problem with this is that they have been taking bookings for races and guiding, and then suddenly just announced they will not be able to provide these services anymore. Take the money and run…..

Thats 100% not what has happened…. the company is in to liquidation so no one but the administrators will be taking any money and running.

they liked you to think they were. but in reality, they weren’t (i know a few of the people actually involved in it all)

And some of those few you don’t know were from tA… Stop listening to gossip and believing glory seekers. Everyone wants to claim to have done that but in reality it was and still is A LOT of different people all fighting/working for the same thing.

But the specifics of this case are related to UK qualifications, not EU ones.
France is also famous for avoiding the opportunity to work with other EU countries regarding the unifying of outdoor/adventure coaching qualifications

And its actually against EU laws that France signed upto in the first place.

Not really, if the precedent is just guides from other EU member states can guide in France.

As it was a Brit that won the case, then yes that does set a precedence.

That said the French will always (when have they not?) try to give Brits (in particular) a hard time doing anything in their country. Its a sad that they make it so restrictive and hard for us when there are far more of them here working legally and without any difficulty.

Exiting the EU means they don’t have to carry that on.

That will be much harder as this case will set precedence

“local frenchies”

I think you might have read that with too much daily mail influence 😉

I hope your legal team are not instilling unnecessary confidence in you.

It is the same legal team, so their experience with Simon Butler’s case can only be of help here too.

The inde’ that I take my 159 to does not rate the Mito or Giulietta at all.

Honestly I’d put the money towards a sorted 159.

My Vectra is about to clock up 200k but the engine is an Alfa and the gearbox Japanese!

On that note Alfa- The only people that have problems are those that don’t look after them… infact its the same with any car.

You’ll be absolutely fine with that spec.
Stop worrying for nothing.

Oh and always go the Mac forums for advice about it. NEVER here… it will always just degenerate into a thoroughly pointless topic about who’s got a bigger tech willy- Mac vs M$

Make sure the oil seal is not in upside down.
I worked on a set of Lyrics in the Alps a couple of years ago with the same problem and it turned out to be that.

100%, go and see it.
Best movie I’ve seen for quite some time.
Spat my popcorn out several times… glad the max was quiet and no one was sat in front of me.

Going to see it again with my wife soon.