alps on a hard tail?

joe boy

Hi, a group of us is thinking of a late summer trip to the alps i have a reasonably light XC hardtail the others have more trail specific bikes like lapierre zesty and similar.

Am i going to be at a huge diasadvantage, shake myself to bits and come home with a broken bike?

fyldesmurf

well I've just got back from les arcs on my 100mm hardtail. It's tough to say really. if you're doing downhill then definately not, i tried on mine, came off far too many times and snapped a brake lever, however my brother has a ragley blue pig with i think 140mm of travel and seemed ok. However i think the cachette run at les arcs is considered 'quite easy' for downhill

For alpine singletrack you won't have any problems, if you can get it round a trail centre black you should be ok. To me it seemed like the hardest, techiest (most fun) bits of a trail centre but for about 10km, if you're confident you should be ok. It improved my riding so much and by the end of the week i was overtaking people on lapierres and oranges etc.

The worst thing about riding a hard tail was the arm pump for me personally, so many rocks just wear them out. I had to take a day off after three days because it was just too bad (I know MTFU).

At the end of the day i still had a freaking awesome time and saved myslef about 40 euros a day by not hiring and didn't feel at too much of a disadvantage. If you're a decent confident rider go for it and i think you'll be fine

Anonymous

Depends where you're going.
If you're heading to the Morzine area and are going to be doing the DH tracks, then for god's sake do the right thing and get a DH-capable bilke.
It's the "real deal" out there.

Radixmatrix

I agree, just because it can be done, doesn't mean it should!

Depends what you're going to be riding but overall, I think you'll have a more enjoyable holiday with more variety if you have a bit more travel, slacker head angle, shorter stem and wider bars etc.

mrfmilo

FS is you want to do it ''comfortably'' and don't want constant arm pump - but it is perfectly possible to do it on a HT. As an example...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv7TyakE8qw

Anonymous

That's not exactly a light XC hardtail though is it?

mrfmilo

yeehaamcgee wrote:

That's not exactly a light XC hardtail though is it?

Oh, didn't see that. Hmm maybe not then, unless your only riding the XC trails

peter413

What bike exactly is it you have?

joe boy

A self-built scandium frame with 100mm reba forks, hope hubs formular brakes and a mix of xt and x9. Picture at bottom of post.

JohnBass1992

If youve got over 140 up front you will manage ok in Les Gets, I found that in Chatel it was much less rutted so would probs be easier on a hardtail

MarkLG

It really depends what sort of riding you're doing. If you're doing not so steep xc trails like you do at home then it'll be fine.
The trouble is a lot of the stuff over there is steep in the extreme - an xc bike with a steep head angle will be a bit tricky on some of the natural trails I've ridden around Chamonix for example.
If you're heading to the bike parks and doing lift assisted riding then you need to think about getting something more appropriate, or hiring when you get out there. A long travel hardtail would be OK, but something with 160mm travel front and rear would be ideal. You're lightweight XC bike will be totally out of it's depth if your mates are planning to hit the red and black DH runs at any of the parks. Forget about weight and go for strength - especially in the wheels, and get some 2.5" Maxxis DH tyres.

joe boy

Thanks for the replies, its seems that it's a case of go big or go home!
The problem is that i'd love to invest in a long travel bike but am i going to get much use out of it at home. I know it's wierd but i quite like riding uphill! I think if i'm going to spend some money it woulld be on a high spec cross country bike. Think i'll take my hardtail, and on the big days i'll rent a full sus.
Thanks again for the advice.

Anonymous

I have to say, I just don't understand why you'd even WANT to go on a lift assisted DH holiday in the alps, if your bag is XC.

joe boy

I never said it was a downhill holiday i just said we were taking a trip to the alps. I'm sure that it's possible to go to the alps and ride up the mountain rather than take a lift. Don't get me wrong i can believe that there are runs you wouldn't dream of doing on a XC bike, but can i enjoy the holiday without spending the days too separate to people because of the travel i have. It's not like the others are riding full on downhill bikes i'll be happy if i can ride faster up the hills and take the downs nice and steady, just wanted to know if that's possible?

Anonymous

Fair enough. There are a lot of people out there hurting themselves on the DH tracks on XC bikes though.

CycloRos

joe boy wrote:

The problem is that i'd love to invest in a long travel bike but am i going to get much use out of it at home.... Think i'll take my hardtail, and on the big days i'll rent a full sus.

or alternatively if you've got some spare cash buy something more suitable second hand take it over to the Alps and sell it when you get home.

Anonymous

CycloRos wrote:

joe boy wrote:

The problem is that i'd love to invest in a long travel bike but am i going to get much use out of it at home.... Think i'll take my hardtail, and on the big days i'll rent a full sus.

or alternatively if you've got some spare cash buy something more suitable second hand take it over to the Alps and sell it when you get home.

Quitte a few of my friends do this, and some of them even make a bloody profit on the bikes!

sarkmeister

I'd say its possible, having just spent a week in Morzine/Les Gets on a 140mm travel hardtail (Orange Crush). The XC trails aren't a problem, but you'll have much much more fun on the downhills on a proper freeride/DH bike.

I managed to make it down the runs, but much slower than everyone else. I hired a DH bike for a day and it was a lot better.