MMM....Blog

The Alpine Bike Taxi

2013-04-29T12:04:00.000+02:00

As some of you may know, there are a lot of English run companies here in Morzine. One of the most popular businesses is transfer driving. Two friends of mine who run transfer companies (Fleck and Dicky) are branching out this summer. They will be offering a whole range of services to cyclists (mtb and road) here in Morzine. Have a read on for more details and get in touch with Fleck if you have any questions.

Winter is over Summer is coming....

2013-04-24T21:00:00.000+02:00

...yes, it's spring time again. The snow is melting, the mountains are changing. Summer talk has started already and one of the main topics is the Pleney.

As many of you may or may not know, the Morzine tourist office has an announced that work will start on the new Pleney telecabine this summer. As a result, the Pleney will be shut for riding. The tourist office have put together a plan to keep the link to Les Gets open. Here is the latest press release -

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Summer is officially here!

2012-05-25T21:04:00.001+02:00

Summer is officially here. Well strictly speaking, it isn't. However, Les Gets is open for a long weekend and we all know that Bikes = Summer!

In case you haven't been able to find this (it's quite hard to find), here is the timetable for lift opening this summer for the whole of the Portes du Soleil.

Wideopen Mag

2012-03-15T18:15:00.000+01:00

Wideopen Mag is a great online magazine that is also FREE to read. They have been going a few years now and I've been reading it for a while. It's completely homegrown and includes reviews, interesting articles and great images. The newest issue came out recently and it includes a lot about Morzine and the Portes du Soleil. Luckily for us, editor Jamie popped by for a quick interview, and you can read it right here -

Grab yourself a Maxxis bargain

2011-11-03T14:24:00.001+01:00

Hi folks, we know it's well on the way to winter but we still have tyres leftover from the summer, taking up space for our snowboards and skis. As such, we are going to offer them to you for a mere 35€ per tyre. They retail at £47.99 (55€) and are £38.99 (45€) on CRC. So that's a whopping 20€ discount on the RRP! Remember, they won't go out of date so get them now and you'll be ready for next season.

Roost DH

2011-09-07T22:02:00.000+02:00

We all love a good roost as you hit a loamy or dusty berm at full speed. Unfortunately, the conditions in the UK aren't always ideal for such fun. So where are the conditions right? For one, right here in the Portes du Soleil. Another place you may (or may not) know about is Mijas in Spain. It's about half way between Malaga and Marbella on the Mediterranean coast, so you know the weather is going to be good.

Worlds!

2011-08-28T22:24:00.000+02:00

The worlds are on this week so there have been plenty of people milling about. Many famous faces have been spotted in and around Morzine, on the slopes and in the clubs and pubs. It's great to see all these famous people from our sport on trails we ride. It really puts into perspective the speed at which they can go. I've not posted many photos for a while so I thought I'd put some up to show you some of the faces I've seen. I've also got a new camera so that has inspired me to shoot a bit more.

Picnics and sun

2011-08-15T18:30:00.000+02:00

Just thought I'd post about that classic summertime eating activity: the Picnic. More specifically, a French Picnic. Us Brits now how to throw a good picnic; triangle sandwiches, plastic plates, scotch eggs, and fizzy pop. The French do things differently, they always do.

The weeks just fly by

2011-08-06T22:57:00.000+02:00

It doesn't seem that long since I last posted, but it was over 2 weeks ago. The time has been flying by here, due to all the fun we've been having. The weather has been a mixed bag over the last couple of weeks. I'm sure I've used that phrase far too often this year, but that's how it seems to have been this summer season. The 2010/11 winter was a bit odd weather wise, and it looks like it's affected the summer too. It has been drying up nicely recently, so fingers crossed it'll stay that way until the end of the season.

Here are some recent snaps for your perusal. We've seen a few interesting things over the past couple of weeks, enjoy!

I think this bike is an Orange. It looks pretty retro. Any ideas on the model?

It's all about MUD....

2011-07-20T18:24:00.000+02:00

So far, the weather has treated us quite kindly. The trails were getting dusty and fast, and there were smiles abound. The problem with living in the mountains, is that the weather can change quickly. Also, it can stay the same for days on end. When it's sunny it's good. When the rain starts to pour and doesn't really stop for a while, spirits get dampened.

I think that one great thing about being a mountain biker, especially a British one, is that we are used to a bit of mud. In fact we really rather enjoy it. And when you are on holiday, you need to make the most of your available riding time. So it's great to see Brits out and about on their bikes on days like these. The lift operators think we are all crazy, but I feel quite proud when Brits are the only ones out in all weather conditions.

It's been raining for the past 4 days, with a couple of drier afternoons mixed in. Here are some snaps I took up in Lindarets to get you in the mood.

This is the lovely Alex from Mamo's Cafe, she's the one that cooks the burgers.

MMM....echanics

2011-07-11T21:15:00.003+02:00

It's almost a week since the last post, so what has been going on here in the PDS?

Well, it was busy at the start of the week as people stopped by before going on to the Mega. Tuesday was especially busy, and then Wednesday, dead. It was pretty much the same for the rest of the week, with a few more people about at the weekend. Now that the mega is over, it's busy again, as people stop by on their way home! It's good to see people out and about with big smiles on their faces because they are riding bikes.
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Chatel Mountain Style

2011-07-05T18:25:00.003+02:00

As I'm sure a lot of you will be aware; the results, videos and pics are already up of the Mountain Style contest held at the weekend. It was a busy day in and around the Chatel bike park, with around 1200 people passing through the Lindarets Express lift. I went in the morning to watch so only caught a few of the early runs. Sam Pilgrim was first man down and stayed ahead for quite a while. Gareth popped over in the afternoon to have a gander, and got stuck in a lift queue for hours on the way back! Cam Zink won in the end, with a good mix of tricks and some really smooth riding. Check the videos online to see some crazy back flipping of the massive step-down and double jump at the end - Cam Zink's winning run

Here are some of my shots, hopefully they give you an idea of how steep and gnarly the course is:

The Mountain Style event is part of the Freeride Mountain Bike Associations World Tour

Friday Round Up

2011-07-01T22:08:00.001+02:00

It's Friday afternoon, the sun is shining and here at MMM it's been a good week. It started off with blue skies and sun for the Passportes at the weekend, which was a great success with at least 5000 riders attending. The first half of the week was a bit slow for us up in Lindarets, there was sun and a bit of rain. Thursday and Friday brought more sun and therefore more riders over this way. The tracks dried up nicely and were running well.

In recent Morzine news....

2011-06-29T23:11:00.002+02:00

the Serma guys are busy with the digger on the Lindarets tracks. Currently they are reshaping berms on the blue track. I rode down today and it's a bit different up top with hugh piles of gravel everywhere, due to the building work going on in Avoriaz this summer. They have reshaped a fair few berms, put some small doubles in and smoothed things out a bit. They have also sorted some of the drainage issues on the red track under the Chaux Fleurie, installing a board walk over the major boggy section about 2/3 of the way down. I'm sure those that have ridden there before will know the section I'm talking about. I'm going to check out the tracks on Super Morzine tomorrow to see what condition they are in. It'll be interesting to see how they are running after they've been ridden in a bit. The Chatel crew have also been busy getting the Mountain Style course ready for the weekend. There are gonna be some big names throwing down, so get over there if you can to watch it.

Here's Mustache of the PPDS for those that missed it!

The week after

2011-06-29T21:37:00.001+02:00

As some of you may know, the weekend was a busy one, so this week is feeling a bit quiet. We've done some brake bleeding and some gear set-ups but not a lot else. So, I've had the camera out to show you the sites -

There were lots of injuries at the weekend, on Monday they had the chopper out.

Passportes Du Soleil - Round-up

2011-06-28T00:06:00.000+02:00

Finally the weekend has finished! I'm sure a lot of us will be sighing a big sigh of relief. It's been a busy 3 days, with thousands of bikers passing through to take part in the Passportes du Soleil - the main biking event of the summer.

Trail Building Video

2011-06-20T20:36:00.001+02:00

I said in an earlier post that Stew Monk from ReelfunMedia was filming us digging the other day. It's true, and he made a video to prove it. Enjoy!

Have a looksy here.

Trail Building on Super Morzine - Day 4

2011-06-16T23:15:00.002+02:00

No one made it up yesterday, I guess the sunshine has been too tempting, so everyone has been out enjoying it on their bikes. Luckily the guys from Serma have to be there, they do get paid for it! Jean-Noel and Nico started work on Hattok, re-shaping the first few corners, here are some pictures:

Trail Building on Super Morzine - Day 3

2011-06-14T18:49:00.006+02:00

A different week, but another day of digging. Yesterday was Lundi de Pentecote, that's Whit Monday to us English, so it was no work and all play up on the Pleney (it's open!). We met again at the usual time of 2pm today, this time at the bottom of the lift as we are over halfway on D.A. Trail.

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Trail Building on Super Morzine - Day 2

2011-06-09T22:36:00.002+02:00

Another good day up on Super Morzine today. Another good turn out of people. A couple less than yesterday but some new faces with fresh muscles. We promptly carried on from where we left of yesterday, continuing across the piste and into the next section of woods. We've left a couple of sections as we hope to get a mini digger in to the hard work (there is a lot of benching to do). More berms constructed, and a few jumps, one pretty interesting one! Got a few snaps today so you can see what we are doing. Stew Monk from Reelfunmedia was also up there to get a bit of footage of the action. Look out for it sometime this summer.

Irish, raking it in.

Trail Building on Super Morzine - Day 1

2011-06-08T19:32:00.000+02:00

So, we went up for the first day of trail building today. After 3 of us scouted the tracks yesterday, 15 of us turned up today to do the hard work. It was a wet and horrible afternoon, but once we had got into the swing of things the time flew by. When you have 30 hands working in harmony, you get corners built quickly.

After about 3 hours of work, we had constructed 1 mammoth berm and about 4 others, cut in the track a bit more a the start to better define the line and cut back the trees to allow a better view. All in all a successful afternoon.

More again tomorrow. I'll be taking my camera as it'll be a bit drier.

Packing up your bike

2011-05-27T16:33:00.000+02:00

The wonderful people over at Yodel Magazine have put up the first in a series of articles that we will be doing for them over the summer. Take a look at the article here.
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Chatel Mountain Style

2011-05-18T13:23:00.000+02:00

Summer is well on it's way, and updates are going on all over the place.

The 5th Chatel Mountain Style is being held between the 1st and 3rd of July this year, and it's set to be a cracker. They have just released a list of some of the confirmed riders, including Darren "Bearclaw" Berrecloth, Steve Romaniuk and Martin Söderström.

Biel/Bienne

2011-05-07T12:53:00.000+02:00

So, we went to Biel/Bienne yesterday and it was brilliant. To start with it's easy to find, just a short little drive off the motorway from Bern (here is a map). Secondly, it's sunny. I've been told by a local that it's always sunny there, and we all love sun.
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Push-up/ride up or get a lift?

2011-05-05T23:28:00.002+02:00

The lifts are closed, it's quiet in town and a perfect time to run uplifts, or even pedal/push to the top. We all know deep down that nothing quite matches a good XC ride here in the Portes du Soleil in interseason. The mountains are clearing of snow, the animals are starting to appear, the grass and trees are turning green and the flowers are in bloom.Read more »