Super_mil

7. Collar bone canyon. The jump that claimed ol' Patches. Also, a quick thanks to Patches for the loan of his 300lbs spring, bike lock & front brake 8. My destroyed rear axle . She rattled out at Les Gets and the wheel twisted in one of the final berms leading to the lifts. Had to hacksaw the bugger out! Fortunately the guy at Intersport had an old 150mm x 12mm Maxle (with no QR portion) which he let me have for free. It did the job for the last 2 days of riding. 9. Kath heading through one of the smaller berms on Serpentine at Chatel. Seriously some of the berms were like a full wall. The braking bumps here weren't too bad as the rain the previous day had softened everything up. 10. Me sticking it to old Peach . This is the jump that claimed his arm. Admittedly there was no bridge when he did it and I had done the jump twice before the pic was taken. Good times.

Here are a couple pics from our outting. I never took too many pics but these are some of what I have. 1. Dave & Kath heading up the Super-Morzine lift. 2. My trusty steed & the only way to get a bike up a hill. Shuttling sucks 3. A slight push uphill. We did a DH tour one day, heading to Morgins in Switzerland. This in on the way back (following the slowest lift ride in the world!) on the ridge above Champoussin. 4. Dave and Kath pushing over a slight rise to gain the trail back down to Lindarets 5. The trail down into Lindarets. The route to the lift was bumpy as all hell, so we opted to take the fire road down (at high speed ). Were also running out of time so had to hurry to get the lift up to Avoriaz 6. Dave hitting the mini road gap on Zore, heading back into town

Braking bumps are over rated. I wouldn't travel here for the bumps, but they are unfortunately part of the package. That said there are loads of trails that have very few braking bumps on them, you just have to stay off the main lines.

Well the trails were very wet (but still fun) today. Got some good practice in riding in muddy conditions. I personally haven't seen any missing bridges & in general all the wooden obstacles are well maintained. Les Gets was still full of braking bumps today, but the damp conditions took the edge off a lot of the bumps. All in all, aother great day out! Now for some cheap Ed (Dia) beer. Cheers!

Peach n Patch fly out tomorrow, so not a huge loss. Peaches bike was going to be written off anyway, but he would have liked to salvage some components. All the other Euro's here lock up their bikes everynight and signs at our accommodation suggest you lock up every night.

We have indeed. Only done 2 in a sitting, followed by a couple of Grolsh drafts. The Scot couple here say the record is 8 from Bar Robinson (only open from 4 to 8) and holding it down. I still hope to manage at least 5. Peach has had further bad luck. Their spot got broken into and his bike got swiped, along with 2 others. Patches bike at least survived that one. Not sure why they chose his busted up rig? Plans for visiting Champery have been put on hold due to rain...

We got a tour with a German guy & a Pom on some unmarked trails on the Pleney hill. The steepest trails I have been on in my life (to date). The good thing is that there were no braking bumps Bad news is that Patches took a spill and broke his collar bone. No op required, but he'll be in a brace for a couple of weeks. Get well soon Patches & thanks for showing us around. Much appreciated.

So,news from Patches is Peach has broken himself. 1 x broken arm (6 screws & 1 x plate). Green line at Chatel. Nose cased a double that he thought was table. We head out tomorrow. Woo hoo.

JB is back on Monday 13th. He does have someone working for him while he is away (Dave). He built set of DH wheels for me recently and the build seems great.

Yup, Sydney's ex-beast. I was playing with the idea of putting the 888 on there for the trip, but I don't want to bugger about too much as I only get the bike on Saturday & we leave Tuesday... I'll see how much time I have and what I'll be building across. It has Elixir Cr's on there so I plan just to do a rebleed and run with them.

Well I'll be learning to ride a new bike on this trip. Couldn't say no... Morewood Makulu (Cane Creek DB shock & Boxxer Noodle). It save me a lot of weight over the Gambler (like 4kg's) I guess France is as good of a place as any to learn. I will certainly partake in the Mutzig.

Make sure you have beer ready for me when we arrive! No beer, no brake pads Travel safe chaps.

Morewood Makulu

The Husky & the ATM stay!

Shot, thanks. Starting to get quite excited about this trip.

The Makulu only 17kg's... Nice. I have no idea what the lady's Devinci weighs in at. From loading it on & off bakkies I'm guessing similar to mine. Our group is fortunate that we can split tools 4 ways, so we should be okay on that front. The R600 per kg of extra luggage scares me. I guess my one T-shirt & set of jeans my have a slight odour by the end of the trip

The Gambler ready to roll in the Alps She is unfortunately a heavy weight, weighing in at 21.2kg's I'm going to have to pack ultra light

A lot of sealants are ammonia based to keep all the constituents in solution. Over time the ammonia diffuses through the tyre and the sealant drys up.

The full 4.5min teaser up on PB! Looks pretty cool. http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Where-The-Trail-Ends-4.5-Minute-Trailer-Unlocked.html

It was a great evening out until my chain popped off and I ate **** in front of an intersection full of cars. Eh, it was even good after that.

I hear Tracey Hannah has already been flown off the hill.

Wow, Richard Lord ride DH bikes now. I only know of him through climbing folk lore. I climbed a lot for 10 years before I became a full red neck and got into bikes & dirt bikes . Jabberwocky is a very classic route and brick hard, his other classic at Boven is Snapdragon which I heard he used to run laps on to get the necessary endurance for Jabberwocky. Snapdragon is also not a give away, but ultra classic. That said Jabberwocky has seen a good couple of local repeats recently and got a downgrade, that said it stood untouched for a long time and at the time of the FA it was probably the hardest route in the country. There was a relatively big lull in SA climbing standards for a while, but recently things are on the up n up. Small country we live in...

Were they drinking demis or pints?

http://www.vitalmtb.com/videos/member/Riding-Champery-World-Cup-DH-Track-with-One-Arm,14538/sspomer,2 " Tom Bannister, a disabled mountain biker who paralysed his left arm in a horrific mountain bike crash in 2007, single handedly rides the Champéry world cup track. Footage filmed with a go pro hero 2 and edited on an iPad using iMovie. Credit: Tom Bannister " Wow! That is pretty impressive.

Aaaah, Mutzig. The beloved beer is such an institution in this area - though not everyone would agree the morning after! There are so many myths attached to the Mutzig name; some say it can vary between 4% and 12%, some say it is stronger in Morzine’s Bar Robinson than anywhere else. But what is the history behind this amber nectar? Mutzig was initially brewed in its namesake town in the Alsace Province in France on the border with Germany. The brewery in Mutzig was founded in 1810 by Antoine Wagner and continued to produce the beer even when it merged with the three other breweries in the Alsace province. This formed a company called ALBRA (Alsacienne de brasserie), which was bought out by Heineken in 1972 who continued the production of Mutzig. The original group also continues to produce a beer under the Mutzig name but it is now made in the Fischer brewery in Schiltigheim, in north eastern France. Did you know that apart from in Europe, Mutzig is also extremely popular in Africa? It is brewed in at least three countries across the continent; Rwanda, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo. There are two different types of Mutzig; the regular one and Mutzig Old Lager, which is the really potent one! Mutzig may vary in strength but all we know is that it will most likely affect you in a way you are not used to so be careful when you drink it. There’s a very clear reason why most people choose to drink this fantastic beer in demis not pints!