Monthly Archives: August 2013

Pila, Near Perfect

Posted on 30th August 2013
Spence: Making good use of the built features on the more natural trails

Well, Graham is out of action for now with a thumb injury and currently 72km into his 100km ultra marathon (yeah, sounds no fun to me either), so he asked me (Lorne Cameron) to do a spot of guest blogging of any big biking days for the time being.  I’m not as good with the biking words as Graham, but here we go anyway for yesterday’s roadtrip to Pila in the Italy’s Aosta Valley, just 45 minutes’ drive from Chamonix through the Mont Blanc Tunnel.

A few friends here rave about Pila, but Spence and I had never been before … [Read full post]

Posted in Road trip , tagged , , ,

Last minute panic lift riding/local races for local people

Posted on 21st August 2013
Winners podium. Cham-style

“The nights are fair drawing in” I’ve heard no-one say recently, but it doesn’t change that at the end of the month, most of the alps’ lift operators start to stop putting the 50 centime pieces in the chairlift machines and going down needs you to consider getting up first.

Here’s a list of the closing dates for our nearby lifts, along with a couple of beacons of hope for us:

Chamonix

VALLORCINE: 1st Sept

GRANDS MONTETS: 8th Sept

PRARION: 15th Sept

BREVENT: 15th Sept (then Oct 19th to Nov 3rd)

FLEGERE: 15th Sept

LE TOUR … [Read full post]

Posted in Chamonix ride, Trail conditions , tagged , ,

Works components thick/thin chainring review (and 1×10 mutterings)

Posted on 10th August 2013
thick thin thick thin thick thin thick thin thick. You get the idea.

During the winter I fell in love with a new bike. Over several months I worked on the arguments and rational that I actually NEEDED, not merely wanted, said new bike. Finally, after the application of considerable amount of man-math to reduce the purchase price to something only very large, I bought the bike. And it’s amazing in every way, not needing anything changed, except to go from 2×10 to 1×10.

Why? Last summer several of my riding mates went 1×10, arguing that if you’re in the granny then you might as well walk, that chain devices are lighter and … [Read full post]

Posted in Review , tagged ,

Awesome. Le Tour and more.

Posted on 2nd August 2013
See that trail, that'll be the way down. Aye, awesome.

I like tea me. There are few things in life better than a cup of tea, but even better are those 10% of cups of tea that just push up to the next level of tea. Awesome.

I like riding bikes me. There are few things…. And this ride was one of those 10%. It’s not as if the average ever drops that low about here, but that combination of some of the best of a good crop of trails, perfect weather, dry ground but only a couple days after a good soaking and a bunch of mates to share … [Read full post]

Posted in Chamonix ride , tagged , ,