Pila, Near Perfect

Posted on 30th August 2013

Nina: Wooden berm on the IXS downhill course

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 and Nina only once or twice.  Parking is easiest in Aosta town then access to the main bike trails is by a long gondola, with day passes costing €18 plus €5 refundable deposit for the lift pass card.  The cafes up the hill are reportedly pretty good, but being cheapskates we brought sandwiches which we left in the car so that we could just split one backpack between us and make a run down to the car at lunchtime which worked out pretty well.

Mechanical problems? No problem!

Things didn’t start off well with Spence somehow coating his rear disc in lube while tending to his chain, but luckily the mechanics at midstation were pretty friendly and gave him free-reign of the tool station to change his pads while coke and window cleaner got the disc cleaned nicely.

Spence: Setting off on the more natural trails, rider's right of the lift line

Up the main chairlift, we quickly realised what’s so special about this place.  Imagine Morzine with less bumps, less crowds, more interesting trails and far more variations on the way down.  There was a bit of everything to ride, from tall tight berms, singletrack, gaps, drops, northshore, the works.  Rider’s left of the lift line and directly underneath it were pretty manicured trails, while far rider’s right had a much more natural feel but built up just enough to ride smoothly and the odd kicker scattered around and any bigger features very well marked with JUMP or DROP.

Spence: Making good use of the built features on the more natural trails

The photo of the map above shows the upper mountain trails, but if it included every little variation there would be twice as many lines marked (especially rider’s right), but with everything leading back to the chairlift it was really fun to find our own variations and regroup when the trails merged.  We had one run down the IXS Downhill run which is all rideable for mere mortals such as ourselves, but it’s pretty scary to think that racers ride the whole very technical course flat-out without a break!

Nina: Powering through the more natural trails

Laps off the top lift took us about 35-45 minutes depending on which variations we took, so we did 3 run up there before riding down to town for lunch which is an 18km run of not overly built-up trail with a lot of different variations through the wooded sections, excellent stuff.  Staying left near the end on Nina’s recommendation gave us the best exit back to town then a 10 minute ride on the road back to the car – best to ride this with someone who knows the way to avoid getting lost.

After lunch, pretty much the same again finding new variations up high and getting to know some sections better so riding them much faster.  The first few minutes of the trails rider’s right before everything started splitting were definitely my favourite; technical but flowy, exactly what I like.

Spence: Drop on the home run

So, definitely some of my favourite riding I’ve ever had.  A very different feel to La Thuile, possibly overall better but unfortunately we didn’t make it to La Thuile this year so it’s hard to compare them directly.

Some sections were quite loose and dusty despite 36 hours of rain finishing two days before we were there, so best to ride Pila in moist conditions if possible with fresh tyres.

It’s pretty amazing that Pila isn’t talked about more or isn’t more popular with tourists – we only had to pass a few people all day and never got overtaken, but it was still easy to watch riders from the lifts including some very good locals.  It’s definitely not a beginner-friendly resort though, and I wouldn’t take a hardtail anywhere near it.  Some sections had quite bad brake bumps but Nina and I got on fine with 150mm all-mountain bikes; in early-season this wouldn’t be an issue at all.

Unfortunately Pila’s lifts stop running next weekend (8th September) so we might just have to take a return trip next Thursday!

Posted in Road trip , tagged , , ,

Last minute panic lift riding/local races for local people

Posted on 21st August 2013

Timing, UCI offical & photographer. Something had to give...

“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 GONDOLA & CHAIRLIFT: 22nd Sept

BELLEVUE: Never really opened…

TRAMWAY DU MONT BLANC: 29th Sept

 

Nearby

Grand Massif, started closing on the 25th, all done by 31st Aug

La Thuile, 1st Sept

Portes du Mont Blanc, 8th Sept

Tignes / val d’isere 1st Sept (still FREE up till then!)

Pila, 8th Sept

Portes du Soliel starts closing the weekend of 1st September and is mostly closed by the 9th, except Champery which keeps going to 6th Oct

Verbier, 27th Oct (if weather’s ok, and sometimes only at weekends)

 

And have a google for

St Luc, Dorinaz, La Saleve, Aosta Valley Freeride….

tick tock tick tock, it's against the digital timing device

The eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed that the pictures here have absolutely nothing to do with lift accessed riding. This is because I stretched the ulnar collateral ligament of metacarpophalangeal joint (or hurt my thumb as I previously knew it) a few weeks ago and am in a cast for another few weeks yet. So instead of riding my bike, I helped out Chamonix Bike Rentals in the latest of their Tuesday evening mates races.

Obligatory 'milling about at the paddock/start/finish line race' shot

The courses are generally downhill oriented XC in style, though I’m hoping to be back on the bike for a pump track challenge evening, and your 5 euro entry gets you a beer in the Pub afterwards and a random chance to win a prize for the shops shelves, Nukeproof bars, grips, energy gels and body armour all featuring in the after-race giveaway. Give Spencer a shout in the shop or visit the website for more, contrary to the post title, you don’t need 6 toes on each foot to enter. Congratulations also to Nina from the shop who took part in her first “real” race at the weekend there, the Les Menuires Enduro, and came second!

Winners podium. Cham-style

Posted in Chamonix ride, Trail conditions , tagged , ,

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

Posted on 10th August 2013

Everyone loves a new toy

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 more reliable than shifters, that it looks more gnar. Which is all true, but for my old bike, I wasn’t convinced. Someone then got a XX1 equipped Intense and the silence and efficiency had me sold straight away. I was going 1×10 with no chain device.

Enter the Works Components 32 tooth thick/thin chainring.

thick thin thick thin thick thin thick thin thick. You get the idea.

For a full and fair test (and absolutely nothing to do with the bike arriving before the chainring and me wanting to sell the front mech and rings as unused…) I had a few days “control testing” on the bike using an old Shimano 32 tooth middle ring, complete with all the fancy ramps and filed teeth to aid the chain falling off (or ‘shifting’ as it used to be called), and nothing other than a Shimano XT clutch mech to hold the chain on. This worked surprisingly well. Quiet and efficient on the ups and, riding an assortment of Chamonix and the Grand Massif’s smooth/rough/rocky/dusty/treelined/alpine trails, I only dropped the chain occasionally plus it’s really not much effort to pop it back on. Certainly not much compared to digging the chain out on the, admittedly infrequent, occasions it’s got stuck in a chain device.

Once the very nicely machined and finished7075 aluminium thick/thin chainring arrived, the old one was off and out the workshop door like a ninja throwing star and the new one bolted on. The chain needs to be lined up correctly with the appropriate thick or thin bit of the chainring, but beyond this there’s no difference to fitting a “standard” chainring. I also fitted a Blackspire bash guard which may slightly help keep the chain on, but most helps me not destroy chains & chainrings on the tech rocky trails we’re forced to ride around here.

Detail view of the teeth

Once I had the chain & chainring lined up, the chain dropped into place sweetly and hasn’t left the chainring since. Over 3 weeks of Chamonix riding, flat out on DH runs at Le Tour and Les Houches, 6 foot + park drops, braking bumps, rock gardens, 1300m+ descents. Not a single dropped chain. Even with the clutch mech switched off, there was not even an indication the chain was going to derail. I even tried back pedalling over extended root sections and all I managed was to get smacked by the saddle.

Throughout all this the pedals spun smoothly without any of the friction you notice, even from a single device below the ring to complement the derailleur as I used to run. And above all, it’s completely silent, no rumble or squeaks at all.

Chain and chainring in perfect harmony. Perhaps I should have cleaned the bike first though.

As I really need to provide some negatives for a review I would say that Works Components didn’t reply to an email asking to check they had the correct delivery address, as following paypal payment my delivery address synced with my billing address (it was delivered to the right address though). And it did take a couple of weeks to arrive but then that was made completely clear before I placed the order, and I even received a discount code for a future purchase as compensation, so no complaints there. The ring is £35, which is cheap compared to the other after market rings, and virtually free compared to the SRAM original!

So I can summarise that the thick/thin concept in general, and the Works Components chainring in particular, is good. Very good. What of 1×10?

Not one dropped chain since fitting, no matter what I ride. And all in the name of product testing....

 

 

I’m convinced (but I should put in my usual caveat of riding mostly around Chamonix, mostly on very steep trails). As my friends tried telling me, when coupled with a light pedalable bike the 32-34 ratio is low enough to get up most climbs, and those I can’t are quicker and easier (though not as satisfying) if I just get off and push. Talking of light, I weighed the assorted parts before swapping, just to see how much weight really is saved by 1×10, so from the kitchens gramme accurate baking scales we have:

Works Components 32 tooth Thick/Thin ring: 40g

1×10 total:  40g

Shimano XT LH shifter unit (& cables):  168g

Shimano SLX direct mount front deurallieur :  123g

Raceface Turbine 36 tooth ring:  63g

Raceface Turbine 24 tooth ring:  21g

Assorted bolts etc for 24 tooth ring:  19g

2×10 total:  394g

Which is a total saving of 354g. Not a massive amount, but you’d be spending plenty £ to knock that off most components, so to save it AND for it to be cheaper, all good. Just for comparisons sake, the old Shimano 32 tooth ring I fitted weighed in at 42g, so the Works Components ring seems a reasonable weight, not too light, not too heavy.

All hail the mighty thick thin chainring!

I do wonder if it would be possible to run a thick thin chainring in conjunction with a 24 or so tooth granny ring, and just have to either manually move the chain at the start of a climb (don’t look so horrified, remember when you had to use a QR to change saddle height…), or accept much slower shifting. It would give you a chaindevice esque hold for the across and downs, with the option of a sit down and winch gear for the up. This’ll be something I’ll try in the future, and I’ll report back complete with longer term review in the autumn.

Posted in Review , tagged ,

Awesome. Le Tour and more.

Posted on 2nd August 2013

Famous 5, Cycling 6, Secret &. One of these is not by Enid Blyton

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 it with. Awesome.

Riding trails this good in a train with your mates, awesome

It started with the potential to go either way, meeting for the 0925 bike bus up to Le Tour. When they work well the bike bus is amazing, but when the driver seems more keen to load it up with walkers than riders, leaving you at the bus stop, or the UCPA gets there first with 20 odd stormtrooping pupils and you can’t fit your bike in, not so good. Today, it all went smoothly and we were on the lifts for 10.

Got to love the God view. No idea of the rider, but s/he's on the upper Le Tour trail

Looking down from the Autannes Chairlift you could see the new section of trail built into the upper VTT trail. It looks pretty good too, but we had plans on the bigger descents into Switzerland and, as the Vallorcine gondola closes between 1230 and 1345, there was a schedule to keep to.

Luke above the Catogne chalets, awesome .

Unsure if we’d be quick enough on a full Trient lap, we started up with a shorter lap from the Col de Balme to the Catogne chalets and down to Vallorcine. Of course when I say shorter, you still get 1000m vert over 9km of the finest riding in the alps. Alpine pasture, dusty singletrack hugging the side of gorges, some fast fireroad to drift about on and a finish down rock rooty singletrack through pine forests with that dappled light that makes it so infuriating to photograph!

Sandy on said infuriatingly unphotographable trails. To ride though, awesome

Some time, and much amusement, later, we’re getting back onto the Vallorcine gondola. A short pedal over the Col des Posettes and a blast across the hill and we re-set on the Autannes chair. This time though at the Refuge de Balme we stay in Switzerland and head up towards L’Arolette. There’s still a few patches of snow to negotiate round the back here, no apparently the hill doesn’t know it’s August, but they’re all pretty easy to cross. Except for Luke…

Heading for the col, dodging the snow.

We reached the col by hot o’clock, so stopped to drink water, eat a bit and shoot the breeze. Sated, we dropped into the descent across the bowl. You can see 90% of the trail snaking across the hillside here. The bit you couldn’t see turned out to be another patch of snow across the steepest and rockiest section of the mountain. Everyone stopped in time.

Just follow the signs, can't go wrong.

From here the trail just keeps giving. There are better natural trails out there, but not many. Like the Catogne descent that it runs near to there’s every sort of riding covered on your way down. Well, every good sort; I didn’t notice any tussocky grass, brake bumps, motocrosser ruts etc.

Eventually we cruised sweaty and dusty into Trient, another 1000m lower and immeasurably higher. Even better, the trail ends but 20m from a(n ice cold) water fountain. Less good was the switch from trail to road for the next wee while, but even that wasn’t too bad. A fast blast downhill to nearly the border then a 20 minute or so pedal up hill to Vallorcine, with the baking hot sun cooking you from above.

Ally nailing the rolling endo corner with awesome backdrop

Once again we head up the Vallorcine gondola, up to the col and across the mountain, but this time we keep heading down on the ever excellent lower Le Tour DH track. The construction of the new upper section’s obviously taken a fair bit of the shapers time as the trail was running quite loose, you can complain, or you can get on with it and learn to drift. Or your bike can have a tantrum like Ally’s did. It started with a quick stop to fix a puncture (not mine for once, and the only one of the day). Then the fixed wheel couldn’t go back in the frame. Closer inspection revealed that the disk brake return springs were performing more of a braking duty than the pads. Undeterred by the lack of material, Ally affected repairs, and we got going again, headed for Petite Balcon Nord.

Not PBN, but more Catogne singletrack train action instead, 'cos it's awesome.

PBN doesn’t get ridden at this end of the valley anything like as much as it does lower down, which is strange as it’s my new favourite section of the petite balcons. Not going to complain mind, we all had a blast down to Argentiere and the Grand Montets lift.

Josh had to keep going for home here, so it was only 5 of us that boarded, probably just as well given how grumpy the other passengers were at our presence, ho hum. Another quick break to drink and eat and we were off on the last descent of the day into the Lavancher bowl and then on to Le Bois. This is another anomaly of the Chamonix bike ban, being a totally natural trail, fairly tech in places, reasonably popular with walkers, and yet we’re encouraged to use it. Not going to complain mind, it’s a grand way down the hill. Once in the trees the light was useless for taking photos, so the camera afflicted amongst us were able to just keep going and going and going, as was everyone else having been freed from “wait there a second” “ok, ride now” “can you go up again, I missed it”…. Though the flip side is that it’s a very long way down and you better have strong fore arms if your brake fingers are going to survive.

Ok, so I stopped once on the way down from GM to take photos, Luke obliging infront of the lens

Eventually, 5 riders rolled into Le Bois and collapsed by the water fountain. These granite and wood vats of ice cold drinking water are up there with tea and bikes in my “things that are great” list, and the Le Bois one is definitely in the upper 10%, especially on a day like this.

My new bike is awesome!

Sunshine, friends and over 4km vertical of dusty alpine descending. Awesome.

See that trail, that'll be the way down. Aye, awesome.

Posted in Chamonix ride , tagged , ,

Proper planning prevents (long climbs). Grand Massif

Posted on 30th July 2013

Can you just trackstand a minute longer, need to adjust the exposure...

Half way between Chamonix and the Portes du Soleill sits the Grand Massif ski area, and it’s sort of ½ and ½ PDS & Chamonix in the riding too, with Chamonix’s queues and busyness combined with the PDS’s rolling terrain and bike friendly attitude.

After scratching the surface there last year I was keen to return and explore more, with the descent from the top of the Flaine lifts at 2480m down to Sixt at about 750m being top of the to do list. Arriving in Les Carroz a quick look in the direction of Flaine was enough to guess that there is still, at the end of July, too much snow. Maybe next month.

Grand Massif Views

Instead our plan became to hit the Les Carroz bike park for a few laps before riding over to Samoens whilst the lifts were closed for lunch, lap Samoens & Morillon for a bit then head back to the car. Sorted.

The Les Carroz bike park hadn’t changed much from last year. Some maintenance keeping it in order, a bit more signage, a few new features, but still the same trails and still fun.

Les Carroz bike park

With the lifts closing for lunch we started the trek over. Armed with no maps, a reasonable sense of direction and a mix of bikes ranging from superlight enduro race rig to DH monster bike, we figured to begin with “up” and see how it worked out.

The previous year we’d ridden the “La Vieille” trail for part of the way over, which was good but unfinished. This year we managed to find it again, and it was finished. Unfortunately it involved a fair bit of contouring, but no complaining from Richie & Alex on the big bikes.

Starting the trek round to Samoens

Eventually we made it round to the Samoens trails and let gravity do the hard work again. There’s a maze of trails coming off the main Grand Massif Express lift here, both official and locals. We managed to avoid repeating anything from last year and found some amazing riding, a day could easy be spent on this one lift without getting bored.

Whoever built the Samoens trails knows how to use the natural terrain

My afternoon started to get a bit worse at this point, with the discovery that my shiny new Spicy 516 had been spec’d with cheap inner tubes too small for the tyres. After 2 punctures, 1 of which happened when the bike was lying on its side, I was getting quite grumpy.

The mood wasn’t improved with discovering that the second Samoens lift, the Chariande Express wasn’t running. This was the lift we needed to get back to Les Carroz. And the car. No problem, we can use the Morillon lifts for only a bit more effort. They weren’t running either. Moral of the story, check the Grand Massif website to see which lifts are running on which days before making the trip.

Rock-slab-berm anyone?

As we were armed with the pedalable bikes, Lorne & I set of to ride back over the hills to the car, whilst Alex & Richie grabbed some more laps of the Samoens trails. It wasn’t the worst riding back over, but in the humid afternoon it would have been nicer to be sitting on a chairlift with a gentle breeze.

Could we have a barrier please?

Next time, proper planning and no snow.

Posted in Road trip , tagged , ,

Les Houches, So hot right now…

Posted on 16th July 2013

 

Jus' chillin' in the sun

You might have noticed a bit of a love/hate relationship between residents of the Chamonix valley and the Compagnie du Mont-Blanc. When it involves bikes and the trails for them, then it’s often not their fault, CdMB is just the entity with a name that can be blamed for the myriad land owners barring access for tracks and other interested parties wanting to sell more of their “VTT interdit” signs.

Other times, they could probably try harder.

Well, today CdMB is in my good books. And why is that? Well readers, it’s because the long awaited replacement bike trails from Prarion have started to open. And they’re great!

Lorne on the initial shale section

Currently it’s just the blue run, and even that still has a few sections that are being worked on, however you can see the harder detours have had work put into them and based on how well the blue trail flows, I’m confident they’ll work too.

Smashing berms

The trail’s not particularly well signposted from the top of Prarion. Actually, it’s not signposted at all really. There’s a vauge VTT/Pietons shared path sign pointing you onto the downhill trending 4×4 track. Follow this, through the tunnel and on for a another few hundred meters and there’s the start.

Angus about 300m after crashing and fracturing his scaphoid. The track's so good he just kept going.

From here it’s lots and lots of nice berms, rollers, tabletops, doubles, roots and loam. Lots and lots of loam. This does meant that if it’s wet it’ll be pretty muddy, and the track will probably cut up a fair bit, but for now its dusty, loose, fast fun.

More berms. The track has really good berms!

You have to stay on your toes, there are some awkward ditches that need a quick manual to save your forks and some of the corners are sharper than you expect, but the berms catch you well. It only takes a couple of laps to learn the quirks.

and loam. The track has REALLY good loam.

The track certainly isn’t a secret and was getting hit by a lot of riders, probably as many as I’ve seen on one hill in Chamonix. This makes it sociable, yet because the Prarion lift takes 2 bike in each gondola, the laps were still pretty quick.

If pictures aren’t enough, then there’ll be some video footage soon from Chamonix Bike Rental.

You don't want to over-shoot this one...

Posted in Chamonix ride , tagged

Les Gets. Fast food riding

Posted on 14th July 2013

a queue?

I’ve got a bit of an embarrassing admission to make. I first raced MTB’s 20 years ago, I’ve ridden them on 3 continents, hit some of the finest areas and trails on earth. I’ve never been to Les Gets. Or Morzine. Or any of the other Portes du Soleil resorts.

And it’s not that I’ve had any eliteist hangups about going there, I’ve ridden at Glentress out of choice before and everything.

Some surprisingly detailed signs in Morzine

Anyway, a roadtrip out of town was needed and as the braking bumps were only going to get worse, we thought we’d eschew the draw of Italian coffee in Pila and loaded up the car to hit Les Gets. A quick google for biking at Les Gets gets you pleney of forum posts about “off piste” “locals” and “hidden” trails. But being based out of Chamonix we’re pretty sorted for all that, so just wanted to ride super easy access bermed, jumpy tracks with no stress and hopefully no walkers. I guess even when you get to eat at the best restaurants, you sometimes just want a big mac.

Do you want a berm with that? Angus does.

So we unloaded at Les Gets, marvelled at the number of riders, paid our 23euros for a day pass and joined the queue. The actual queue! We don’t have that here (well, not for bikes anyway) We hooked our bikes over the back of the Chavannes Express (brilliant carrying system, don’t have that in Chamonix either) and once at the top dropped into the main line straight back down. Here we discovered something else that we don’t have in Chamonix. Braking bumps.

An easy solution to braking bumps, make the berms out of wood...

Only Angus had been over before out of our group, and he was the one most disappointed when I informed everyone that due to some car issues, only light bikes with small downtubes could make the trip, meaning his 224 DH rig would have to stay behind. After the 1st couple of berms we could understand why! It’s a shame, but by taking super high lines through the corners, or entering and exiting early you can avoid the worst of them. Or just man up, speed up and get loose….

Nina's Whistler season shows through in her riding! I missed both shots of her falling off the bridge drop, and then going back up to nail it!

Having neglected to pick up any form of trail map we spent the rest of the day following our noses around Les Gets and Morzine. I’ve no idea if we hit the best trails, but we had fun. Nina consistently out-aired everyone, especially on the jump park under the Nauchets express chair. We all thought the trails under the chairlift after the Super Morzine gondola out of Morzine was the best trail of the day, and that the run under the Super Morzine was the worst (locals were downloading on the gondola, I can see why) and nobody and no bikes got hurt.

It's not all about the gnar, there's some pretty flowers too

Fast, easy, enjoyable. But we went home feeling a little empty, though wanting more….

Posted in Road trip , tagged , ,

To the ends of the valley

Posted on 9th July 2013

Riding under the Tete de Balme chair

OK, it can get a bit insular here in Chamonix. The steep valley walls cut off any sight of the outside world and, as long as you’re only paying attention to mountain sports, then everything you want is on your doorstep.  It’s a bit of a change to look out of the valley occasional and be reminded that the outside world exists, but to do it twice in less than a week, madness.

To cut a long intro short, the bike ban’s started, so most natural trails are now out of bounds thanks to Arrête Municipale (n° 124/2004) which prohibits bikes from all trails other than those listed on it. You can get round this a few ways (click on the “bike ban” tag to see other posts) but pretty much the easiest, most sure fire way is just to leave the Chamonix commune and hit some other trails, hence the trips to Les Houches and Le Tour.

Luke getting to grips with the lack of grip

Les Houches was wet, and as a result, so were we. The trails down at this end of the valley are particularly clay like and things get pretty slippy pretty quickly when it rains. This wasn’t putting us or a couple of Welsh lads on holiday with big Lapierre DH rigs off, you just need to blink a bit more often to get the mud out your eyes.

Not the best shot I know, but when you see this wee chalet, hit the trail that goes past it's back door!

After a few front face laps group-think decided we should drop off the back and down to St Gervais on one of the longer “enduro” style runs. Great for us locals on our “enduro” style bikes, but hard work on a DH bike. Lorne & I had ridden “Hugh’s Way” last summer, getting lost near the top but finding the lower section fine. This time we found the upper trails (see photo above, it’s very easy to miss) but completely failed to get the turn off we’d managed fine last time. Go figure. Either way, it’s a good trail down to St Gervais and great to see some different scenery on the way down.

Some folk are just better at killing time

With 30 minutes to kill in St Gervais before the last tram we went to hit the skate park. If you’re in a similar situation here’s a top tip. Don’t bother. It’s surfaced with a frictionless surface and bikes are apparently not allowed.

From the valleys to the valley, Welsh lads on tour

With the Bellevue lift not running this summer due to cable damage the tramway is the easiest way to get up to that side of the Les Houches hill where the old DH trails started from. They’re in a fairly bad way now, but still worth the blast if you’re up that way. The new trails should be open in a week or so though. Hopefully.

Lorne deep in the Les Houches jungle

Fast forward a few days and Lorne & I are up at Le Tour. The weather is hot and sunny, the trails are dusty. All in all a pleasant change. We head up the gondola & chair, traverse round past the Col de Balme refuge to the Tete de Balme chairlift and are in Switzerland, neutral in the face of war, gold and bike bans.

The Catogne descent which drops down from here is one of my favourites, even more so at the moment as so much of the riding this summer has been deep in the trees, the alpine riding only recently escaping from the snow.

That's a full size Lorne in the shot, not a model

The pictures do the talking again here, narrow singletrack through open alpine terrain, before plunging into the trees. What’s not to like? Well if I’m being picky I’d say the Vallorcine DH track being closed, along with most of the land under the Vallorcine gondola, for the whole summer whilst work is done and that once back up on the Vallorcine gondola and having pedalled up to the Col de Posettes you can’t ride the Aiguillette de Posettes trail due to the bike ban. But that’s just me being picky.

But why be picky when you have trails like this

Instead the Le Tour DH track under the gondola is a reasonable substitute. It’s had some work done on it which has baked in well and it’s riding very well at the moment, definitely worth hitting for a few laps, just watch out for the livestock…

Finally, the bike bus has started back up for July & August, so if you want to save driving up to Le Tour, or just want to be able to ride back down at the end of the day, details are here.

The hills are alive with the sound of...

What next to escape the clutches of the gendarmerie? I feel a road trip coming on.

It's a hard life

Posted in Chamonix ride, Trail conditions , tagged , ,

2013 Nukeproof Mega AM review

Posted on 3rd July 2013

MEGA

I didn’t start this blog with the intention of writing any kit reviews, but it’s been pointed out that riding 5 or so days a week in the alps for half the year gives you a pretty good chance of finding any issues with gear, and that testing gear’s a good way to blag free stuff, so with this in mind here’s some text and pictures on the 2013 Nukeproof Mega AM…

2013 Nukeproof Mega, and some scenery

The first thing to note is that this review was done in the Chamonix and with riding in the alps, particularly Chamonix, in mind. The bike that works well here isn’t the same bike I’d want for riding back in Scotland. Fortunately the Nukeproof marketing bumf claims the bike is “designed for All-Mountain adventure, Alpine playtime and Megavalanche-style Gravity Enduro events“ so it should be pretty much perfect for about here then aye?

Certainly the kit on the £2600 (3135euro) comp version is up for the job. The cockpit of Nukeproof branded short warhead stem, 760mm warhead bars and skinny element grips is pretty much as good as anyone needs for functionality, even if it doesn’t have much of a bling score. Similarly the Nukeproof Generator wheels seem to be standing up to Chamonix trails well without being too heavy. The Avid Elixir 3 brakes are work fine, though the front could do with an upgrade from the spec’d 180mm rotor to a 203mm to deal better with alpine descents and the Sram X7 kit shifts crisply without needing much attention to keep functioning well. The only change I made to the bike was to put Superstar Nano (or whichever generic import and branding company you prefer) pedals on. Obvious upgrades for the future would be a dropper post, conveniently the frame is equipped for stealth installation, and maybe going to a 1×10 set up instead of the 2×10.

No big brand names, but an excellent cockpit for alpine riding

Enough of the stuff you can work out from reading the website, how does it do on the hill? How does it ride? Will you die if you go single ply?

Chamonix Bike Rentals has a fleet of the Mega AM comps, so as well as getting feedback on how the bikes hold up with lots of (ab)use it’s a perfect way to test out a few different sizes of the same bike, swapping them between riders as we went. I’m 6 foot but have always preferred my bikes on the wee side (probably as back in the day a “DH” bike was a normal bike in the smallest size with the saddle down) so gravitated towards the medium. After swapping between it and the large I’d still plump with the medium for Chamonix riding, but if I was somewhere less steep or technical and where all your downs had to be earned then I’d move up to the large for a bit more top tube length. Saying that, a slightly shorter stem on the large would maybe be the perfect compromise by sharpening up the steering and making it easier to lift the front, who knows.

Just another Chamonix trail, the new Mega fits in fine.

Despite being a bit short for me when sat down, it still climbed pretty well, feeling lighter than it’s claimed 14.5kg (31.9lb)weight. On rougher terrain you can feel the suspension losing a little sensitivity when pushing hard on the pedals but it still seems to track over the terrain nicely enough and it was never the bike that stopped me getting up technical climbs. On long slow sit-down-and-spin road climbs which feature a lot in the alps once the lifts close the Mega is well composed and I never felt the need to lock out the shock to reduce bob as long as I stayed sat down and spinning circles rather than mashing the pedals.

On contouring terrain the middling weight wheels and single ply tyres accelerated nicely out of corners and over small rises, encouraging a sharp pedal/brake style of riding which isn’t hugely efficient, but is a lot of fun. Perhaps because I was having so much fun I found myself pumping the terrain and working the corners a lot more than I would on many trail bikes. For me, the 38 tooth ring was too big for the bike, reducing the clearance through technical terrain and necessitating a drop to the granny for some short climbs that would have been easily conquered at the top of the block with a 32 or 34 ring. Since I’m now doing negatives, the bike is, like its predecessor, a different beast when you sit down, feeling quite staid and a bit short. Stand up and play until your legs give out is the simple solution to this.

Monarch shock works well with the erosion linkage

That’s the up and the across dealt with, and the Mega’s fine at both, if not the best on the market, but what about the direction it’s really meant for, down?

Very good, in summary, though if you want more detail…..for my six foot frame the medium felt just perfect once stood up and on technical terrain using lots of body English to throw the bike around, helped no end by the excellent cockpit setup. I had the bike set up with pretty much 1/3 sag at the back and a little over ¼ sag on the forks. The Monarch Plus and Lyrik Solo suspension units complimented each other well, with the bike having a very balanced action fore and aft. On the most technical terrain, getting more into trials riding than trail riding territory, the bike felt better with the Monarch set to “blue lever in mid” (or an extra 50lb of compression damping according to the online info I ready after playing with it…) which, unsurprisingly, allowed a lot more Chris Akrigg esque hoping about of the bike (well, in my mind I ride it Akrigg-esque) The rest of the time I just left the compression damping in the minimum position, never felt the bike excessively “bobby”, and got to enjoy the full benefits of the shock without the inevitable forgetting to flick the leaver and wondering why the bike didn’t feel quite right.

Perhaps the best attribute of the bike was how well it held a line. This could be down to the easily bullied size and cockpit, the well balanced travel front and rear, the torsional stiffness of the chassis or, most likely, a combination of the above. Whatever it was, the bike stayed perfectly true to the chosen line across all manner of trail hazard.

The predictability of the Mega is a big plus when you've got a big drop to one side...

Overall it’s just a bike that does everything (see early caveat for “everything” to mean mostly riding down hills in Chamonix) so well you don’t really notice it, with your own style of riding being complimented by the bike rather than it trying to exert it’s personality on you. After a very short time on the bike the only times I really found myself noticing it was through technical terrain where I was worried about catching the large chainring and bashguard, which is bad, and when through very uneven off camber sections where the incredible torsional rigidity of the chassis amazed me everytime, which is good.

142x12 bolt through axle and lots of material all contributing to the very stiff chassis

I guess this is an increasingly common problem these days, as the 6 inch or so travel all-mountain bike has got so good that you can’t really buy a bad one, it’s just finding one that suits your personality as a rider, your pocket, and that you think looks good!

If you want some moving pictures, here’s Spencer and me taking the Megas for a play up Brevent:

Many thanks again to Spencer for letting me take out his toys and play with them! For anyone in or heading out to Chamonix, you can see if you agree or disagree by popping into Chamonix Bike Rental where you can hire one of their fleet of 2013 Mega AM’s. There’s worse ways to spend a day or 7 in Chamonix for sure….

Posted in Review , tagged

This ‘n’ that

Posted on 27th June 2013

Exactly what it says on the sign

After a spring of moaning about the cold and snow, the sun’s come out and it’s got dry and hot. So instead now everyone’s moaning about it being too hot and dry. On the plus side, the +30 degree temps, blazing sunshine and a bit of warm rain has put a fair dent in the snowpack and things are starting to get a bit easier to ride up high.

Les Houches, this was a piste fairly recently

Conveniently most of the valley’s lifts have opened for the summer season now, which has saved us from having to actually exercise in the heat, instead we can just enjoy a sauna for 5 minutes then cruise down the hill.

This seems like as good a place as any to try and clarify what’s happening with the lifts and bikes in the valley this summer. After all manner of rumours that bikes will only be allowed on this, that and the other lift, official word from Compagnie du Mont Blanc is:

Sandy & Lorne below the Prarion lift

Mountain bikes will be allowed on ALL lifts other that Montenvers, Aiguille du Midi, Index chairlift and the upper stage of Grand Montets. So far so good, but there’s a twist (or 2)….. First, at the Tramway du Mont-Blanc, bikes are only authorised on the first and last tram of the day during low season, and first and last 3 trams during July & August (and at other times if there’s space and you’re nice to the lift staff). Second, the old “Cham’sport” lift pass is no more, replaced with the 17euro “bike pass”, which sounds great, but unfortunately this pass only gives you access to the Charamillon & Autannes lifts at Le Tour (ie, the front 2 lifts, NOT Vallorcine) and the Prarion lift at Les Houches (ie, NOT Bellevue, which is closed due to fire damage anyway, and the Tramway du Mont Blanc) and nowhere else. If you want to ride any of Brevent, Flegere, back of Les Houches, Grand Montets, you’ll have to stump up for the Mont-Blanc Multipass at 54euro. Or live here and have a season pass. Or push. Your choice.

Sandy getting stuck into more Les Houches singletrack

In better news, it looks like the railway is actually going to open on the 29th of June, it’s been announced on the local radio and everything, so fingers crossed that evening riding is about to get a lot easier, as well as getting back from the various routes off Le Tour and Les Houches.

Skids are for kids, but apparently drifting's ok

Enough of the future, what of the now? This week we’ve been mostly riding the lifts, Les Houches, Brevent & Flegere. The trails are still fairly quiet and there’re not too many walkers around so it’s been good to make the most of it, ride some classics and do a wee bit of exploring. The photo’s can do the talking though.

Get out there and make the most of it before the bike ban kicks in at the end of the month!

Brevent. This photo pretty much sums up Chamonix riding

Posted in Trail conditions , tagged , ,