Beer Garden.

BikeVillage Summer season kicked off last Saturday with the official turning on ceremony of the beer fridge. Local celebrity, Oliver 'horny pirate' Jones esq washed a winter's worth of dust from it, crammed four packs of beer inside & then emptied it within about 72 hours.
If you'd like to come and have a beer or two & ride some sweet trails with us here in the Alps then we still have a (very) few spaces free from the 16-23 June, 23-30 June and then from the 25th August until the end of the season on the 22nd September.
Here's to another awesome Summer!

BoatVillage?

What's going on at BV? We're pretty used to the garden being covered in bikes in various states of disrepair, but this week we've got a change of scene. The German kayak squad have set up home here while they prepare for the world champs in June.

You might think that boats would be more reliable than bikes, given they have no moving parts at all. It turns out however that paddlers are even worse at avoiding rocks than bikers are, and punctured boats ruin a paddle worse than a punctured tube...

Mountain Bike Leader training with BikeVillage in May

Want to lead groups of mountain bikers? Like riding in the Alps? We are running a Trail Cycle Leader (TCL) training and assessment and a Mountain Bike Leader (MBL) training course from May 22nd-27th. These are the two levels of the Mountain Bike Leadership Award scheme (MBLA) sanctioned by British Cycling.
 Whether you want to develop your skills for taking mates out riding, work with local authorities in the UK taking out youth groups or even land a spot with a holiday company, this is the award you'll be expected to carry. We're teaming up with Chris Ford from Cycle Active to offer the course. With Sam, they bring almost 30 years of guiding experience to the party, so you'll be benefitting from the best advice and training that there is.
We're offering half-board accommodation at just €55/night for the course (or there's the campsite opposite the BV house) and will run an airport pickup on the evening of Monday 21st May, returning to Geneva for the early evening of Sunday 27th.
If interested just fire us an email here at BikeVillage.

Inspired by the fact that Paris-Nice started at the weekend, we decided to attempt our first bike ride as a family of 5 today. I made a picnic whilst Sam dug out the bike trailer and packed up the Bongo... no mean feat for the first trip of the spring!

With glorious blue skies above us, off we set to Ugine. Not usually a destination of choice, but our starting point today for a little pootle along the (snow free) bike path towards Annecy. Rowan started off on Addie's old Islabike Rohan - she's doing really well, but after a few hundres metres Addie became unimpressed by her moderate speed, so she was soon in the trailer with Théa.
Picnic stop at a little lake to watch a few paragliders land,  feed a lone duck and eat some chocolate eggs (thanks Stuart - the kids ate at least half, honest) and then back the way we came to our trusty van.
All in all a lovely day - vive le printemps!

pimp my (kid's) ride...

Why wasn't my Dad into mountain biking? Compare a rugby ball and some advice in a broad Aussie accent about not trying hard enough unless your nose was bleeding to this: 20" wheels on a custom singlespeed conversion of an Islabikes Beinn. A proper bomber of a bike that'll do bikepaths too.
Happy 5th birthday to Addie! He was well pleased with it, insisting on an inaugural  ride even though it's still a bit icy outside.
Dad was pretty happy about having whipped the gears off too since the young 'un keeps forgetting to look where he's going often enough as it is! It also gave me the chance to fit a pimp half link chain and a Gusset bachelor chain device to a kid's bike. What isn't good about that?! Not that the jammy wee dodger even noticed. Probably thinks the moon is made out of cheese too!

Frozen Stiff(ee)

Nowt to report from planet BV, just a couple of nice images of the (snapped) Cove Stiffee frame that forms the gate into the BV garden covered in frost. Happy New Year to all and give us a shout if you fancy a ski this winter as there is more snow than we can remember for many a long year!

Snow, man!

It's been a while coming, but we finally have a covering of white over them thar mountains. A pretty decent covering at that -Sam was even caught online searching for telemarking tips in preparation. Les Arcs opens this Saturday so it couldn't have come soon enough!
I'm even looking forward to a bit of skiing this winter although I have to admit I'm slightly apprehensive with 2 dicky knees and a lot of pregnancy relaxin still floating about in my ligaments. I'm more into the coffee/vin chaud at the top of the mountain type of skiing anyway, so fingers crossed my body can cope with that! We've still got plenty space at the Snowinn this winter if you fancy a bit of skiing or boarding action this winter.
As you can see from the photo there were 2 mini Morrises who were very happy to see the snow too. Rowan had a tantrum when we made her come back in. And yes, the snowman is a Jambo. (Sam is making me point out that a Jambo is a supporter of Hearts FC, - jam tarts, therefore jambo. My dad's fault).
The snow does however, put a full stop on Sam's mountain biking and trail exploring for the time being. 3 days ago he could have done sketchy dismount & today you can't even go along the bike path to Bourg St Maurice!

when trail exploring goes bad...

It took a 2000m climb to get to the top, but the line on the map looked so good I knew it was going to be worth it. From the summit at just over 2300m down to the valley floor at 500m, a wiggly little line that spoke of flowing meadows dipping into textbook nadgery switchbacks, albeit with some tight packed contours that looked a spot exposed... Sitting there above the pressure inversion that had filled the valley, and the morning's climbing, with cloud I felt pretty sure this was going to be an epic day and an epic discovery.

The first 20 minutes were textbook alpage traversing - beautiful singletrack that flowed nicely with the odd stream crossing and rocky section to keep you trying. Then the trail took the fall line down the mountain and for the next ten mintues I was sure I was riding the next classic trail. It was so good I was shouting as I descended, wishing I'd brought some friends out to ride it with me and share the moment.
At this exact moment the forest started a gradual transition from larch and pine to a more deciduous mix of trees. The trail was still okay if a little buried under leaves. Then it got a bit more buried, and a bit more still until it was pretty hard to actually spot the trail. The problem here is that leaves fall in autumn and then stay frozen all winter. When they defrost in spring they dry out and sit there all summer. The buggers just don't decompose fast enough! By now the trail was nigh on impossible to follow, with the whole forest floor just a very steep mess of broken branches and leaves about 30cm deep covering loose rock, loose earth and the odd mine shaft. I'd given up on riding by now, having lost any sign of trail a long way back. I was pretty sure from the map there were no small cliffs beneath me so just resorted to sliding down the more gentle sections with the bike beside me and then chucking it ahead of me and down-climbing on the steeper bits. By the time I reached the van I was pissed off, bleeding and tired, wondering what had happened to the amazing trail I'd started on...
Still, that's the exploring process for you I guess. Better than night shifts in a plastic spoon factory! Anyway, there's another line down that looks like it might be promising too, so all hope is not lost for linking in the top section. Having said that, I might go back and run it from the bottom, so that if and when it all goes pear-shaped at least I'm not left lobbing my pride and joy off big ledges, hoping it doesn't bounce out of sight into the valley below!

Season's end, baby Théa's beginning...

It's a girl! Born on Sept 13th, weighing as much as a large domestic cat or a juvenile badger and looking as cute as can reasonably be expected for a human being who'd just done what she had, Théa Nancy Morris completes the Bikevillage sticker set. She and Lyndsey are now back at home and everyone is doing splendidly well, albeit in a slightly tired fashion.

Her arrival coincided with the last week of the season, so we got off pretty lightly there! A massive thanks goes out to everyone who came to visit in 2011 - we had an awesome summer with some truly epic riding, some even more epic banter at the table and lots of lovely new friends made, which is pretty much why we still love doing it eleven years in!
As ever, plans are afoot for new rides for 2012. I'm sporting a slightly sore wrist just now so recce' work is being done in porno shorts and fell running shoes. Just be glad there are no photos of that! The BV house is also getting some poshing up with another new bathroom so I'll post when that's done.
Right now I'm off to help Lyndsey's continuing celebration of her return to the world of booze with a lovely bottle of 2007 Pommard from Borgogne - thanks to John, Maddie and Andy for that one!
Cheers to all and here's to Théa and 2012!

Insurance for older riders?

Does anyone out there know of any companies who'll do sports/travel insurance for older riders? We've just spent an awesome week riding with Bob Grundy who, at 69, is a stronger rider than most half his age. Alas Bob's not having any joy looking for insurance for next year as most companies stop covering people at 70. Please give us a shout if you have any ideas!
On the plus side, I'm now looking forward to at least another  37 years of mountain biking - thanks to Bob for the inspiration!