[bdamschen]

My wife and are planning to go to to europe for a few weeks this summer. She's never been and I've only gone to Austria and Germany. We want to see some sights for a few days of course, but we both want to get in some sweet riding as well.

We were thinking about heading over to Morzine after seeing the sights, but neither one of us really know where the good riding spots are. We are also not bent on going to any one country. What are the must ride spots?

Criteria:

-Would like it to be accessible by some form of mass transit.

-Must be able to rent bikes around there somewhere or have a friendly place to ship ours to. If renting, bikes can't suck.

-Lift assisted a plus, but not mandatory

-Must have good places to drink beer afterwards

I think that's about it.
-

 

[William42]

PM buckoW. The dude is super rad.

 

[frango]

I think BuckoW and Damo will be able to tell a lot
Do You mean specific chalet? Hotel? Or which village of Portes du Soleil to choose?
Morzine is the biggest and in the center of region.
I think there are buses and, of course, train which connects some villages.
There are at least 5 shops where You can rent bikes. There are Commencals, Scotts, GTs and of course, on the main street, You can rent Intense, Rage on BOS stuff and some other cool bikes.
I think You could try to ship bikes directly to the owner of the chalet.
Is 21 or 24 lifts for bikers enough?
Most famous is Robinsons bar in Morzine on the way to church.
Good luck, have fun!

 

[slyfink]

What's nice about the Portes du Soleil is you can use the lifts for trail riding as well as pure DH. You can do some massive day trips by connecting villages and valleys with chairlifts doing most of the grunt work.

I'd say Morzine is a pretty safe bet. I'm partial to Les Gets caus' I have family there, but Morzine is a little bigger and has a bit more night life from what I gather.

 

[IH8Rice]

i loved Morzine when we went there. i even got to ride with Damo

we went in mid June before most of the area was open, but still had tons of fun

 

[bdamschen]

Morzine isn't set in stone, but we were looking at riding in the general area. Is a full on DH bike required? Or could I get away with renting/bring something with a little less travel like a 6" bike?

Also, that whole area isn't really a for sure, just somewhere I had heard most about.

 

[frango]

6" bikes are still OK. It just depends on Your skills and the speed You want to reach
Braking bumps on some tracks may be painful on 6". But mainly in Morzine - Planey/Planai, I think.

 

[IH8Rice]

Braking bumps on some tracks may be painful on 6". But mainly in Morzine - Planey/Planai, I think.

there were a pain even with a 8" bike...especially in Les Gets

 

[Damo]

If I weren't racing DH and had to choose one bike out here, I'd go for a shorter travel all mountain bike...

A full on DH bike is great to have out here for sure, but an all mountain can do so much more.

If you come this way, drop me a PM. Ben (BuckoW) is just over the hill from me in the next village and he's usually good for a hook up too.

Rental bikes can be expensive (around 50-100 euros a day and cheaper, depending on make/build etc..), but may be worth looking into comparing traveling with a bike.

 

[buckoW]

I like riding a 6" bike sometimes but I prefer the 8" bike overall just because you can get going pretty quick and the big bike slows down better. I think staying at Damo's place would probably be the best bet for what you described. Otherwise, I think Chatel is the most central with a bit less nightlife and Champery and Morgins are a bit more calm. Get in touch when you come over and I will show you a couple trails on the Swiss side.

 

[Big-Dave]

Buy the latest edition of Dirt Magazine.

It has the top 50 European spots in it with a small write up...

Ones that leap out are

Schladming
Pila
Crans Montana
Verbier

 

[buckoW]

Buy the latest edition of Dirt Magazine.

It has the top 50 European spots in it with a small write up...

Ones that leap out are

Schladming
Pila
Crans Montana
Verbier

Pila, Crans and Verbier are all close to Champery. I can give you directions and info for those spots. Morgins is in that article as well.

here is a shot of Crans Montana

Morgins

Champery

Chatel

I think the Portes du Soleil will be plenty of riding and you will not be able to ride all the trails in one visit. Those other spots are sweet too but they are just one resort where the PDS is lots of resorts linked up by the lifts.

 

[Damo]

Pila is sick:

 

[Cordsport]

Bourg Saint Maurice. It is more accessible for mass transit (trains) than Morzine, and also cheaper to stay. The town itself is quite big, plenty choice of hotels/bars/bike hire etc. There is a funicular railway that runs up the mountain so you can ride Les Arc. There is TONS of riding in Les Arc, everything from DH race tracks to miles of single track, I've been on both DH bike and 6" trail machine. (and a 15/20 min descent back into Bourg at the end of the day!!) Also there are a few other resorts near by to ride if you have transport or don't mind catching a bus, Tignes, Val D'isere to name a few. If you can get a lift to the top of the Col D'liseran (sorry, no idea how you actually spell that!) There is the best 35 mins of single track descending that I've found anywhere in the Alps.

The whole area is less used than Porte du Soleil so less braking bumps and no quese for lifts.

 

[bdamschen]

Good to know cord-

I'll look into it.

All you PDS guys- where's the best place to stay that won't put me in huge debt?

 

[scottishmark]

if you manage to get someone to show you the trails then i would start with www.mozine.com (self catering chalets, apparements, etc)

 

[bdamschen]

ah.... I don't think that link works so well...

What's the best way to get there from Paris? I can't seem to find a train that goes there, is renting a car better?

 

[AngryBeaver]

You will not go wrong with morzine and the surrounding areas.
However, if you can I would highly recommend Verbier for its amazing trails and the views are nothing short of stunning! Crans Montana, Switzerland is probably my favourite place I visited last summer in my months stay in Morzine. Tracks were soooo fun!
They are both a 2 hour drive from Morzine, as is Pila!

 

[bdamschen]

You will not go wrong with morzine and the surrounding areas.
However, if you can I would highly recommend Verbier for its amazing trails and the views are nothing short of stunning! Crans Montana, Switzerland is probably my favourite place I visited last summer in my months stay in Morzine. Tracks were soooo fun!
They are both a 2 hour drive from Morzine, as is Pila!

Good info! Keep em comming!

 

[scottishmark]

ah.... I don't think that link works so well...

What's the best way to get there from Paris? I can't seem to find a train that goes there, is renting a car better?

that would be due to my typing skills! try www.morzine.com instead or http://www.resa-morzine.com/index2.php?langue=UK to get straight to the accomodation booking stuff

 

[scottishmark]

Also the train would get you as far as Thonon (half an hours drive away). You would be able to book a shuttle into town from there, I'd guess there'll be a public bus doing the route too but not sure

 

[slyfink]

From Paris, you can take the TGV (high speed train) to Cluses or Geneva, then get a bus to town.

As for your previous question re trail bike vs. DH bike, I think there are plenty of awesome DH trails in the area, but there's even more trail bike trails in quantity. In other words, you don't have to bring a DH bike to ride there, there's a ton of pedal powered trails to be ridden too. Now, whether you and your lady would rather pedal than take the lifts up, is up to you.

When I went, I took my trail bike, and rented a DH bike on-site. I found I got better value for my money that way caus' I pedalled 4 out of 6 days, and DHed two.

 

[Damo]

Find your way to either Geneva, Thonon le Bains or Cluses and let me know when and where and I'll sort something out for you.

 

[SupaTone]

Why not take an objective view and have a look at all the BikeParks across Europe - each one is different and good for its own reasons - here is an independent guide... www.GravityMountainBike.com

 

[Damo]

Sorry Tony, I forgot about that site...
Great information in there for anyone coming to Europe for mountain bicycling.

 

[SupaTone]

Not a problem Damo - besides your amazing accommodation is on there...

 

[Banga]

Find your way to either Geneva, Thonon le Bains or Cluses and let me know when and where and I'll sort something out for you.

You're a GC Damo, hopefully see you guys in June/July!

 

[^joachim^]

Norway for sure. Best mountainbikecountry in Europe.
With a radius of 400km for Oslo you have acces to all type of riding on beautiful landscape. Liftaccesible or not.
The bad thing is that the pricelevel is a bit high

 

[Cordsport]

Just had a look on www.gravitymountainbike.com some real good useful info on there.

My fave place to stay in the Portes du Soliel is www.winterandsummer.com You are always made to feel welcome and the staff really look after you!

 

[Kevin]

Norway for sure. Best mountainbikecountry in Europe.
With a radius of 400km for Oslo you have acces to all type of riding on beautiful landscape. Liftaccesible or not.
The bad thing is that the pricelevel is a bit high

Norway is one of the most impressive countrys in the world, but you would need an outrages amount of money, especially if youre from the US...
Portes du Soleil would be your best bet as said before, and maybe a quick visit to Todtnau Germany if you want to ride some hardcore Euro Downhill

 

[AEvans]

I heard Damo's other half is hot hot hot. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[bdamschen]

Thanks for all the help guys... I think we'll hit up PDS for sure. We might also just rent a car rather than take the train. For all the places we want to go, a rail pass is actually more than just getting a crappy little car.

Still torn on renting a bike vs bringing my own. Don't really want to lug our bikes everywhere we go, but renting a pair of bikes a 100 euros a day for a week comes out to about $1400 US.

Has anyone ever just shipped their bikes to a friendly shop over there? Any websites I can go to that list bike rentals in Morzine? I' trying to decide if the bikes there are even going to be worth the money to rent them. I know in the US some of the rental bikes at resorts are BEAT.

Found these sites, but some don't have prices..
http://www.morzine-mtb.com/

http://www.endlessride.com/php/bikes.php



Final question- we'll probably get there either the last week in June or first week in July. Will everything be open or is later in the season better?

 

[slyfink]

Thanks for all the help guys... I think we'll hit up PDS for sure. We might also just rent a car rather than take the train. For all the places we want to go, a rail pass is actually more than just getting a crappy little car.

Still torn on renting a bike vs bringing my own. Don't really want to lug our bikes everywhere we go, but renting a pair of bikes a 100 euros a day for a week comes out to about $1400 US.

Has anyone ever just shipped their bikes to a friendly shop over there? Any websites I can go to that list bike rentals in Morzine? I' trying to decide if the bikes there are even going to be worth the money to rent them. I know in the US some of the rental bikes at resorts are BEAT.

Found these sites, but some don't have prices..
http://www.morzine-mtb.com/

http://www.endlessride.com/php/bikes.php



Final question- we'll probably get there either the last week in June or first week in July. Will everything be open or is later in the season better?

I think renting a car is probably your best bet. I find it gives you the liberty of going off the beaten track and go places not everyone goes to. Just one word of caution, be aware (very aware, especially in small towns and rural areas) of "priorité à droite". It's often used as a traffic calming measure to slow people down. Don't assume that because you are going straight you have the priority over someone turning into the road you are on. There's a road sign indicating those intersections - learn it and watch for it.

Have a good holiday, sounds fun...

 

[sethimus]

Why not take an objective view and have a look at all the BikeParks across Europe - each one is different and good for its own reasons - here is an independent guide... www.GravityMountainBike.com

2 errors:

- saas fee is no longer taking bikes up with the gondola, the downhill runs are closed
- bikepark oberammergau is also closed

 

[eater]

check out this place
i stay from 2-12july

http://www.alpibikeresort.com/

 

[bdamschen]

Crazy idea late night idea-

We want to get some AM riding in as well as DH. We don't really have good all around rides that can handle big bike trails and still climb well.

Thinking about building a couple of do it all bikes, like say the new Uzzi VPs, riding them and then selling them there. Saves us the cash of renting a bike for the week (almost the cost of a decent used bike as it is) and once we sold the bikes then we don't have to worry about lugging bike boxes around the rest of the trip or paying the airlines.

So my question would be- is there enough demand for a bike like this around there that it's even worth taking the chance? As long as we're out less than the cost of renting two decent DH bikes for a week, it's technically a savings for us. To my late night, slightly buzzed brain this seems like a great idea, but I've got to be missing something...

 

[eater]

morzine chatel morgins