Equipment and Bike Set-up Checklist

This page is intended to help you decide what to bring with you to Les Arcs and how to best set up your bike for your holiday with trailAddiction.

The list is mainly intended for those riders who at home are quite XC-orientated but who are looking to do mainly lift-assisted descent riding on holiday with us; however whatever your current riding style and your intended riding type when you come on holiday with us (pure XC, backcountry singletrack descent, World Cup DH courses, tricycle racing...) you may find it useful to have a read through this.

We highly recommend that you buy any spare/new parts and components before your departure; although there are a small handful of bike shops in the Les Arcs area, the choice of spares and components tends to be limited at best (e.g. they might not have the right brake pads for your brakes), and a trip to the bike shop can often prove expensive and tend to take a large chunk out of what could otherwise have been riding time.

Tyres
Freeride or downhill-style tyres (2.3 inch width or more) are highly recommended. The width helps with stability on uneven terrain, and the thickness of this style of tyre massively reduces the chance of punctures on the often rocky alpine terrain (less punctures = less fixing time = more riding time!). Tyres are very much a personal choice, however, as a recommendation our guides use Maxxis Minion's, Michelin Comp's or Nokian Gazzaloddi's.

Inner Tubes
In accordance with the above, you'll need DH-specific tubes for the big tyres. Again, the added thickness compared with smaller or XC-style tubes greatly reduces the chance of getting punctures. In general, if you're worried about the added weight of bigger tyres and tubes, don't be! During your week with us, you'll be mainly descending, and therefore the extra weight does not put you at any kind of disadvantage (put it this way: if you don't have DH tyres and tubes when you arrive, we're convinced you'll want them by the end of the first day!). However, if on any particular day you choose to go for a cross-country ride, there's nothing to stop you from putting your narrower and lighter tyres and tubes back on for the day.

Seatpost
Because most of the riding you'll be doing with us is descending (and sometimes quite steep), it's really important that you're able to run a low saddle. If your bike has a through-running seat tube such as on any hardtail or on certain suspension designs (Rocky Mountain, Kona, Turner, Santa Cruz, Marin, etc) then this should be no problem. However, if your bike's seat tube is not through-running, then please make sure you have a short enough seatpost that your saddle can be run low. This may apply to you if you have a Specialized FSR (especially pre-'05), a GT I-drive or any design where the line of the seatpost intersects the placing of the rear shock. In this case, you will probably need to invest in a cheap second post, and cut it right down. We have a hacksaw on site - don't let a lack preparation force you to cut down your expensive post once you get here!

Bars and Stem (riding position)
As a follow on from the above, again because most of the riding you will be doing is descending, it is highly recommended that your handlebar is higher than it would be for cross-country riding. This can be achieved by fitting a steeper angled stem or a riser handlebar with a bigger rise. This modification in combination with running a low seatpost helps to provide a slacker feel to the bike (massively increasing stability and confidence on descents), since your weight will be shifted more towards the rear of the bike.

Brakes
Brakes are probably the single most important component of your bike for alpine riding - having a powerful and reliable set is an absolute must. For this, we strongly recommend that you use disc brakes. The type of riding we do really is in the upper realms of what traditional cantilever or "V"-brakes can cope with, simply because of the sustained nature of the descending, not necessarily the steepness of the terrain. If you do not already have disc brakes, the most reasonable prices that we've seen are at ChainReactionCycles. The Shimano base model hydraulic disc brakes (Deore M525) are easily adequate for all but full-on DH riding.

Disc pads plus other spares for brakes
Again, your brakes will not be put to the test anywhere as much as they will in the Alps and this means that they are likely to experience a certain amount of wear and tear. Considering the amount of descending you'll be doing, you should expect to get through at least one complete set of brake pads in a week and this is therefore THE most important spare: bring AT LEAST one spare set of pads! Quite apart from pads though, anything from hydraulic hoses to caliper inners, to the disc rotors themselves could get damaged so if available, try to bring as many spares with you as is reasonably possible. If you are running hydraulic brakes then a bleed kit is an excellent idea.

General Spares
Within reason and considering your baggage allowance if flying, try to pack as many spares as possible that you think could be of use in the event of excessive wear, damage or breakage (e.g. spokes, cables, cable outer, DH inner tubes, rear derailleur if space allows, sacrificial parts such as rear derailleur hangers).

Tools
We recommend that all guests bring their own set of basic trail tools with them to Les Arcs (allen keys, chain cracker, tyre levers, etc) but we understand that due to baggage allowance limits it is difficult for most of our guests to bring a full tool kit. We therefore have a full set of tools (hopefully anything you could possibly need to take your bike apart with) here at the trailAddiction chalet. However, there is normally only one of everything, and so we ask anyone who is travelling by car and/or has enough space to bring as many tools as possible.

Helmet
You shouldn't need reminding that wearing a helmet is absolutely 100% essential at all times when mountain biking. However, going a step further, we specifically recommend that you use a full-face helmet whilst riding in the alps. This is not a reflection on the genre of riding we do: we always wear full-face helmets even for all of the backcountry descent riding that we do, not just on the World Cup DH course. There is just something inherent about the severity of alpine terrain that makes it seem like a very good idea to protect your whole face rather than just the top of your head.

Gloves
Basic, but very important. If you fall off, the first thing you do is put your hand out - and lose the skin off your palms! Our message is simple, never ride without gloves.

Sunglasses, Clear Lenses or Goggles
Although conditions are usually dry; gravel, flies, stones, and dust can still get into your eyes whilst riding, and its not nice! Clear lenses are handy for a cloudy day, or riding in densely forested areas like we often do. Sunglasses also help protect you from the harsh Alpine sunlight - we recommend plastic sunglasses with high-quality shatterproof lenses. Goggles are a nice addition to a full-face helmet and offer extra eye protection.

Protective Pads
Whilst not an essential item of riding kit, protective pads are proved on a regular basis to help reduce the severity of injury in the event an accident. We therefore strongly recommend that you use them. Most important for general riding are knee/shin and forearm/elbow pads, however, pressure suits are also available if you want to go for all out protection and some of our guides wear pressure suits with spine armour all the time. Dainese body armour comes highly recommended and is well used by DH'ers the world over. We have a limited number of arm and leg pad-sets available for hire on-site, at 10 euros/day or 30 euros per week. Please pre-book these before arrival as supplies are limited.

Small first-aid kit
Although all trailAddiction mountain hosts carry first-aid kits at all times whilst accompanying rides, we consider it sensible for all of our guests to carry at least a basic portable kit in their back-pack.

We use ChainReactionCycles to get most of our kit in the UK - they're cheap, and normally deliver next day for free. Can't say fairer than that! www.ChainReactionCycles.com