A downhill bike? Not in Holland...
You can drive to Germany or Belgium. Theres some pretty decent tracks not to far depending on where in Holland youre gonna be staying.
Any questions just ask!
Never ridden in Holland but I worked in Belgium for a little while, Houffalize was pretty damn amazing for XC and was what got me started mountain biking.
I lived in Maastricht (hilly for NL) for 3.5 years and rode all the places kevin mentioned. An AM bike would be my choice if I could only have one. It will be overkill on most local rides and overwhelmed at some of the gravity spots.
Take a road bike for daily riding, buy a beater townie bike for pub runs and rent a DH bike if you have time for a gravity weekend.
If I go I'll be in Eindhoven. I don't know if I'll have a car. Will I be able to get around on trains with a bike? I might be able to use some vacation time while I'm there too. If I use a decent bike for commuting how worried should I be about it getting stolen?
When I'm home I make the drive to Whistler most weekends, about 2.5 hours. How do the mountains over there that are within 4 hours compare to Whistler?
If I go I'll be in Eindhoven. I don't know if I'll have a car. Will I be able to get around on trains with a bike? I might be able to use some vacation time while I'm there too. If I use a decent bike for commuting how worried should I be about it getting stolen?
When I'm home I make the drive to Whistler most weekends, about 2.5 hours. How do the mountains over there that are within 4 hours compare to Whistler?
All thats 3-4 hours from Holand are smaller hills. Still what they did in winterberg is pretty impressive considering what they had to work with. Though for Vacation time Id try to go somewhere further away like the French/Swiss resorts.
You can easily take trains over to Belgium (and Germany for that matter). There's a brand new bike 'park' - if you can call it that - in Belgium that is fast becoming the best on offer, called Bike Park Ferme Libert in Malmedy. Short runs (only 2 really), but it has a small ski lift system, so not too bad and extremely cheap (think it's 10 euros for 16 go's)
Malmedy isn't all that far from the Belgian border either, so shouldn't be too much of a mission provided you have some motivation.
Namur is also pretty cool, short but fairly fun DH track with a massive table jump, some easy doubles, and one or two small steep sections...you'll need a way to get an uplift though, because the only way you'll get back up the track is by shuttling on the main road...usually has riders during weekends etc. so finding a way to shuttle with them should be alright.
As mentioned before, Winterberg and Willingen aren't too far for a weekend away. I've only done Winterberg out of those two, and that place is epic. Some awesome runs, not too technical, but great fun and lots of different options to choose from. Not too expensive, ski lift (2 seater chair lift). Can be quite busy in the summer months, but then again, I don't know of a place that isn't busy in the summer.
Best thing to do is maybe register on forums in Holland/Belgium, and ask on those too, no need to ask in their language - pretty much all dutch people speak a good level of english, and the belgians will be glad to help out.
If you need anymore info feel free to PM me as might not check back onto this thread.
Everything is so close in Europe, always worth taking your mountain bike! There are a list of lift-assisted resorts on here: http://www.gravitymountainbike.com
SupaTone - you should position the site better as last time I couldnt find it in google when I wanted to recomend it to someone. What key words do you use to position the site?
Also Mayerhofen and that new Stubai bikepark that opens this year are still not on the site. Nevertheless its great and very helpfull.
As of this morning it sounds like I'll be leaving the US in early July and staying in Eindhoven until mid December. I'll probably get to take 2-3 weeks off while I'm there too. I think the company that I work for will lease me a car while I'm there but I'll probably have to share it with 1 or 2 coworkers who are also going over. The only downside is that I'll have to make an effort to get 7 more days in at Whistler to make my summer pass pay off. It's worth it for the experience of living and working in another country though.
Dont except anything Whistleresque unless youre going to Portes du Soleil.
About an 8 hour drive from Eindhoven but totally worth it.
The Belgian and German tracks would be hell to do by train I think.
Long drives and transitions and youd still have to go to the bikepark from the train station. Its also quite expensive and imo Belgium doesnt have proper DH tracks at all...
Germany on the other hand has lots of good tracks that you can reach within 3 to 8 hours from Eindhoven. Winterberg and Willingen at 3, Bad Wildbad at 5 and Todtnau or Bischofsmais at a 8 and 9 hour drive.
Id invite you for a ride but Im working in Scandinavia most of the time. Shoot me a PM with your MSN or email and Ill let you know if Im riding anywhere anytime soon.
You can also try www.dirty-pages.nl, Dutch mtb website with a small DH crowd.
If I take a bike like an Evil Resident will it get stolen if I lock it up in the middle of the city and go into a store? I've been told that the bike racks at work are safe and I'll keep the bike in my apartment at night but the guys I work with tell me not to bother bringing a nice bike. They don't ride and don't have any passion for bikes though and I would like to have something a little better than a beater with me.
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