Tag Archives: DH

Post truth biking

Posted on 12th November 2016
The Plan and a plan.
If US president elect went to Chamonix, rode one of its best trails, then talked about it.... (and a load of golden hour pictures)
Posted in Chamonix ride , tagged ,

Enduro des Belleville

Posted on 16th August 2016
Nina on stage 3. Have I mentioned it was a really good stage?
Enduro des Belleville 2016, the best enduro race in the world? Mibbies.
Posted in Race, Road trip , tagged , ,

Crankworx Les Gets

Posted on 23rd June 2016
This is a big jump and it scared the crap out of me.

Way back in the dim and distant mists of time, when a DH bike had 6″ of travel, 150mm disk brakes, a 69 degree head angle and Steve Peat was only in his mid to late 20’s, I raced downhill.

Back then nobody trained (or at least, nobody admitted it, turns out quite a few were cheating with a road bike), if you were lucky you had a couple of spare tires, but certainly not any spare wheels and, in Scotland at least, you were racing on some of the best DH tracks ever made. Raw, loose and fast.

Then … [Read full post]

Posted in Race , tagged , ,

Finale Ligure is waiting for you

Posted on 9th May 2016
Lorne back on the Isallo Extasy trail. Always try to end the post on a good shot...

“Finale Ligure is waiting for you” reads the tagline on the trail map. Which does kinda imply the next sentences are “Outside the school gates 4 o’clock. Finale’s gonnay pure batter you.” showing the problem of speaking second languages and context (ever flown from Prestwick airport).

Once again the original purpose of this blog, to give mtb trail information for Chamonix, is getting ignored and we’re off on holiday to Finale Ligure where there’s plenty of sunshine, absolutely no snow and it’s not Chamonix.

We weren’t the only ones, ascension weekend holiday meant a 90mins queue to get through the … [Read full post]

Posted in Road trip , tagged , ,

Une Tranche de Tarte Française*

Posted on 17th April 2016
One of those drops that photo smaller than they are. Nina makes short work of it anyways.

Seen A Slice of British Pie yet?

Grand, innit. I’m not completely sure if it’s a good thing or not that the best bit of bike filming I’ve seen in years is so good because it’s emulating edits (or “videos” as we used to call them, what with them generally being actual physical things rather than just interweb) from 15+ years ago, but that’s not really important. It’s mostly grand because it’s a tour of the Uk’s regional accents with some pissing about in the mud thrown in for good measure.

And everyone(ish, probably, maybe, I don’t know) on the … [Read full post]

Posted in Road trip, Trail conditions , tagged ,

Public transport: Dorenaz.

Posted on 7th April 2014
Dorenaz isn't only about steep and rocky

Generally when you think of using public transport to ride your bike, it’s looking sheepish as you trail mud through a Scotrail carriage to hook your bike up by the toilet then sit getting cold on the way back home.

Switzerland is a bit different. In Switzerland the topography lends itself more to cable cars than trains so access to many smaller villages is by publicly run telepheriques. Dorenaz is one such place where the local bus driver also sells tickets and presses buttons on a 670m height gain gondola.

As Dorenaz is at only 450m and the hill faces … [Read full post]

Posted in Road trip , tagged , ,

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 , , ,

A Saleve for the uplift blues?

Posted on 20th November 2012

After 2 weeks of pretty poor biking weather (grand for getting the ski season going though)  whilst the Brevent lifts were open, the skies have cleared and there’s been wall to wall sunshine.

And frost.

It is November after all.

Unfortunately the Chamonix lifts are closed so, always keen to let someone else do the hard work, we loaded up and headed out of town for some mid November lift access mountain biking. Got to love the alps.

45mins to 1hr from Chamonix and on the outskirts of Geneva is the tourist lift “la Saleve” You can buy a single … [Read full post]

Posted in Road trip , tagged ,

Getting cold feet

Posted on 10th November 2012

It certainly ain’t summer any more, but there are still lifts turning and the trails aren’t (always) covered in snow, so there’s still riding getting done.

Folk have mostly been taking advantage of the Brevent lift being open for two weeks. However with the snow line going up and down from somewhere near the top of the lift at 2000m to just above town, the trails around Servoz and down to Le Fayet have also been getting hit, especially since a group of local riders have started work on an excellent new freeride trail near Lac Vert. The mix of … [Read full post]

Posted in Trail conditions , tagged ,

Brevent

Posted on 2nd November 2012

This weeks riding has been brought to you by the word Brevent!

First off, if you don’t live in the valley and are looking for a wee conditions update to decide whether to make the drive over or not, check the webcams. The snow line is wandering up and down the mountain and, if the forecast is correct, will continue to do so for the next few days.

How’s the riding been the last few days? After the snow down to the valley last weekend, it took a few days for it to be worth heading up with a bike, … [Read full post]

Posted in Trail conditions , tagged ,