Video: French Pleasure

I make my best editing when I drink, and this time was no different.

After a million beers, and a bit of Gin, this is where its at, oh boy is this edit way out there,

Ah fuck it, enjoy my entire French Alps vacation in 2 minutes.,,

HD, with sound.

Wanna fight?

Wait a moment

Just recently got back from the french alps, stay tuned.

Pay to Win (Part 2/2)

More on commercial trailbuilding;

While this particular feature (berm-to-drop'ish) was a missed opportunity to do something really cool, it shows the will to build and explore. Other features that deserve a mention where some of the small step-ups..the trailbuilders just nailed those, it demonstrates a clear understanding of the momentum those features require.

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Part of the XC line was this drop. 

I bet the gap seen here makes some spandex-racers cringe ; )

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By pure incident, we met one of the avid builders of this trail. His name was Simon, and before we knew it, we had the first 20 questions lined up. He was in the middle of building a new technical descend, armed with a chainsaw and a showel. After some talking he went; "Screw it, i'm going to grab my bike and ride with you guys" : D 

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..And so he did. Here he is hitting a roadgap (on his hardtail). This is the only feature in this post that doesn't belong to the official xc-line. "Some of the XC-riders are already crying about some of the drops and jumps" Simon told us with a smile. He added something important tho'; "The XC-riders are slowly beginning to hit some of this stuff" 

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I am not going to blindly sweet-talk everything, as this place had its share of faults as well; Drops-to-flat (are we in 1998?), flowing lines interrupted by meaningless tight stuff, fragile berms, drops to corners (not in a good way), and a training area with a wasted potential. I don't want to sound as if I have an omni-potent knowledge of trailbuilding, because I dont. I am however passionate about traildesign, a have written about it HERE.  Being puristically positive about something is not my style. Skepticism fuels the full spectrum, know what I'm sayin?

This small jump however, was one of the good features, it even had a small switch-back section before it.

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Hitting a table-like jump. While its not evident on this pic, I estimate it was about 5-6m(16-19ft) long.

A local beer ends a good day. I will be back.

So was it worth the money and time? Sure. Did it push trail design forward? Yes it did for this area, but we are, in this country, still in an early stone-age regarding trail design. So, ya, this place is on the right way, but more is needed to be done, and a crystal clear objective and intent would suit this place.

Got questions? Shoot in the comments section.

Pay to Win (Part 1/2)

You are welcome to ride this trail - If you pay 17$ (13 euro) for a day. This is the premise on this particular trail. Its a private forrest, where loads of time, blood and sweat (and money) has been invested to materialize the best possible mtb trail. The trail is 20km (12mi), a northern part(10k), and a southern part(10k). Northern part is where the action is, so that's what I cover in this post. 

But is this monetary solution better? Does this place push things forward? Is it pay to win? I went there with my buddy Jan, and we had a whole day of riding(and beer), here are my thoughts and observations;

Private means building-freedom. This place was a clear evidence of that. While most of it was easy to ride, there where some good challenges to battle as well. And no, the skull is still not justified imo.

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Berms, oh how I love berms. This place had lots of berms. Some berms where small, oddly shaped and where falling apart, some where in mint condition, with a perfect shape, that left you with a childish grin, this is one example;

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Drops with gaps, are as rare as a unicorn on official trails. This place had a handfull in a particular technical area. Might not look big, but keep in mind that this is a XC-trail. Beware the mind-fuck.

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This creek-gap was entertaining. What made it challenging was actually the rockgarden just before it. You had to fight to keep the speed momentum to clear it. This made the run-in...interesting. We both gapped it a few times tho' and had a good laugh : )

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Trail line marked. Dont go nose-heavy.

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Stepdown with a gap. Boy was this line fun.

Stay tuned for more.

Preview: FiveTen VXi Elements

So I'm nearing my second month on the FiveTen VXi Elements shoe. New and improved upon, well that's what FiveTen says anyway. They resemble the classic VXi shoe, and in many ways they do, there is however a big difference; they use a brand new rubber compound; Mi6 rubber, according to FiveTen its their most grippy rubber yet.

The outer fabric is a DWR treated synthetic upper that repels water. Inside is a PUR foam insulation that wicks sweat but adds warmth. Handy in the cold I guess.

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Weight (Actual, same size):

Original Freerider is 960g

Freerider PRO is 880g

Freerider VXi is 855g

Freerider VXi Element is 795g

The diet obviously continues..

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These shoes can take a small shower..but when it really gets wet, the problems become more apparent, water can simply not escape.

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This is after a month of intense use....hmmmmm....

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So how does these shoes fare? Are they comfortable? How is the rubber? Is the shoe durable? Stick around as I do my review, right here on All Mountain Next.

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Random pics part 2/2

More random stuff:

Man made flow.

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This is new for me. A skull indicating how dangerous a section is. Naturally, it wasn't even posing a challenge, the bar was just set low. 

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The trailgaps are on  their way to get bigger, both the small one and the big one. Here they are in their current form. 

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Post ride beer? How about post ride Gin and Tonic? 

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