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Race day and it's not dark!
First one of getting up in sunlight in a very long time.
Lots of practice time for the lad, so a bit of a long morning standing round for me today
Are you going to fod to ride the elephant man trail?
Was there with the kids yesterday so rode it. Was surprised how little tech was on it for a downhill race, must be all about having big balls and going flat out constantly!
Good luck!
Run 1 2nd place
👍🤞
Crash on run 2. Waiting for results
Still a solid result
Congratulations!
Another day, another race meeting.
Sunshine and warmer temps were nice. As always the lad was flying in practice, him, drew and a couple of others playing and testing lines.
Run 1 was smooth according to the lad with 2nd place but a pack all close to him. Numbers in the race were low with only 28 in Youth and less in other classes so it was a quick turn around for run 2.
As he came past us he stacked it and has twisted his ankle a bit. Which may or may not affect his ability to race next weekend.
2 people went quicker and he led home the bunch with his teammate in 12th.
He's putting in epic performances and flying at the moment, again today he beat several riders he's never beaten before. Hopefully he'll start to believe he's got what it takes to do it at this and all levels.
Back home with beer for me and ice on his ankle for him
Great result! That’s a close field!!
💥 Ace result 😀 Well done Team Weeksy 💪🏻
Every race is like that at the moment, 1 mistake, missed corner, boom, 10-15 places lost. They're just completely on it, every second of every race. It's crazy.
Best part of the day though was the friendships he now forming with the lads, we barely saw him for 2 hours as they were talking crap, checking out lines etc, then hanging round together by the vans messing around and chatting. Assuming he's ok with ankle, it's the same 4 lads from this weekend who are all racing Southern Enduro, so if he can make it, it'll be fun.
ah man, my prediction was almost right!
Good effort from the lad.
Bloody hell, that's closer than F1 qualifying haha! Nice result
Sometimes you sit there and think "must be time for a bit of a breather now"
But the answer is NO of course.
New Tech3 V4's installed on the Privateer this morning. Bit of a pain as i had to bleed the rear, but it's fairly easy, just like motorbikes really. Due to buying them off a mate he gave me a bleed kit, but i already own one, so i've now got 2 of those, obviously one will be sold. But the brakes are on and ready to roll. We've now got 2 sets of spare Codes and a set of Guides in the box of everythingness. He'll have to do a bit of testing on them to make sure he's happy with bite/reach and bleeding, but i'm fairly happy they're close to where he likes them.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52759692948_046fbff3e5_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52759692948_046fbff3e5_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2oocdAq ]2023-03-20_09-19-53[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
Then we've got the new mech to go onto the Fury in the next few weeks.
Along with that i need to have a look at my dropper post on the Slayer as it's not very responsive at times, so likely needs a bit of a clean/service inside. However, i don't want to take it apart today as i've got BPW Enduro race on it on Weds. I suppose if i broke it, i could just use his Privateer now 😀
Then we're straight into the weekend, Sat lunchtime driving to Plymouth are for Newnham Park enduro with Scott at Southern Enduro. This is of course as long as the lads ankle is OK, but he hobbled to school this morning without the crutches he was using last night, so i think he'll be OK there for weekend.
Straight after that we're into the big boys DH stuff at Rheola for Gravity Events, this is a warm-up type event for the National DH 2 weeks later.. All the big boys will be playing, so we'll need to be fit and healthy for then anyway. It's all a juggling act of time, finances, fitness, training, coaching and riding... Not to forget a bit of recovery in there too... For him and one day, maybe even for me 😀
Well happily it looks like the boys injury from the weekend was superficial and he's all good for this weekends race down in Newnham Park.
It's our debut for Southerns in 2023 and also our debut for van-camping and tent-camping... But we better get used to it as we're doing it 3-4 weekends on the bounce.
The Privateer is ready to roll... the competition is a tough one but i wouldn't be too shocked to see either/both him and his team-mate in the top 5 if all goes well. We know a few others from previous races and they're proper quick, but so are the 2 in the team, so it's not impossible.
I need to get BPW out of the way tommorrow first and then do any last checks, setups, kit, even building and testing the tent on Thurs/Fri when the weather allows.
The advice to get an enduro bike to supplement the dh about a year ago was spot on.
Weather is wet all week for Plymouth but its still firm underfoot
The advice to get an enduro bike to supplement the dh about a year ago was spot on.
IT was and wasn't.... The plan we went for clearly has worked and he rides as much or more than any of his mates with an Enduro bike. However primarily he's a DH racer at heart currently and at the time a 2nd DH bike made sense to have to progress and keep him in races with a mechanical problem.
I was never the one who's been against the idea of an Enduro bike, i even bought him the Specialized Status which he then decided he didn't want to ride.
Honestly it's not all just quite as simple as "buy this, that's it..." as you've got teenagers and emotions and their wants and desires in the mix.
His team-mate has spent the last 12 weeks barely sitting on his DH bike, preferring his Enduro and now his 141... With the thoughts in his head of "nah, just not feeling it"... then the last 2 races, he's been back on the DH bike after back-to-back testing of both the DH and Enduro the day before races.
There is no right and wrong answer, other than "the bike they'll ride instead of sitting at home on Snapchat" it's that simple really.
However, i have no doubt that having and riding the Privateer in races will help with skills, fitness, bike time.... No argument at all.
However, to think "you've done it all wrong" by doing it the way we have, is just plain and simply incorrect.. We've done what's right for us.. The boy has had fun, enjoyed riding, still got the passion and the love for riding and racing.. So we've done it perfectly IMO.
There's still many things i've either not yet shared on here or not allowed to share yet about certain aspects of who sponsors/supports the team (and him) and what other things we've got going on in the background, but some of the sponsors like to do things in a certain way/method and we've learned a few lessons on this and we don't rock the boat. But trust me when i say, these decisions on bikes, kits, stuff etc and riding time, style, races, series, gets a riidculous amount of thought and planning.
Don't get me wrong here, i don't see the lad becoming a superstar of DH racing, that's not how i see the world going. HOwever what we are doing is giving him a way to either ride, race, work in the industry in his future.
We can debate the right and wrong of any decisions we make until the cown come home, but it's exactly that WE make... not me, not him, me and him... WE decide or plans, our future, our riding and we live with the consequences of that ourselves. I never know if our decisions are right, wrong, good or bad... but we're both happy with where we are in the world of riding and racing.
My message wasn't trying to suggest you had done anything right or wrong, that's for you and your boy to decide. I just meant he is using the 141 and supplementing that with the DH on less challenging rides and that will only improve his all round skill set. So seems to make sense. Apologies if that didn't come across like that, not my intention.
No need for apologies fella, I didn't take it like that. I was just trying to voice that decisions are not always quite as simple as answer X or y.
I 100% agree it will help him and I'm pretty sure it very much is doing. I do have a habit of splurting out lots of words and often are not quite how I set out with the reply
Due to buying them off a mate he gave me a bleed kit, but i already own one, so i’ve now got 2 of those, obviously one will be sold.
not sure it's ok to ask here... but how much would you be after?
Take a fiver off the best posted price you can find. I'll do it for that?
PM sent, I am assuming that functionality works... Let me know if you've not received anything
Todays thoughts move onto tyre inserts for the DH Nationals.
Currently we run none, ever... However, should we ? That's the big question really and if so, on which wheel or indeed should we run on both ?
We don't get punctures.. it's about 2 years since he flatted and that was we think down to faulty taping of the wheel.
But considering inserts as at Nationals you only get 1 run... So if you flat, you're out.
But there's 'feel' in the discussion too of course as inserts feel differently to standard tubeless.
So just looking for thoughts and ideas really.
I think inserts, if you, or he, is concerned they might alter the feel, is really something that is a "suck it and see" option as I cannot imagine being able to describe how "feel" is altered...it's very very subjective.
FWIW, I put a rimpact in the rear wheel of my bike, but it's merely a 130mm travel lightweight trail bike and I run a Rock Razor. But I ride in the Calder Valley where it can be very steep and very rocky and sometimes, when I'm feeling brave, I do go quite quick. I have had a few rides spoiled with snakebite type punctures so I thought it was a worthwhile precaution. I can't tell the difference TBH, with how the back end feels, and no punctures to date. Coincidence?
If nothing else, an insert might give more confidence to hit stuff harder, and if it does save even that one potential snake bite of disaster, then I'd probably go for it. But I'll concede to being no expert on the various heavy duty carcasses used on DH bikes, so would defer to those that can comment.
DH casing tyres with no inserts for me, and I'm probably 40kg heavier than your son. However I will caveat that by saying I've never raced Fort Willam or Glencoe...
Feel wise, he won't notice. I've got a set on my trail bike and there is minimal obvious difference. I'm sure it would allow me to play with pressures if I was inclined, but I'm not. Considering you've said how little he cares for bike set up, I think there's nothing to be gained here.
If he hasn't flatted in a while then I wouldn't bother, he's still relatively light so it's not a necessity. It's something you could test away from racing but there's no guarantee that an insert will stop a puncture anyway so you may not feel it's worth the faff
If you've got spare wheels get insets for those and then he can try both in practice?
If you’ve got spare wheels get insets for those and then he can try both in practice?
Course we do 🙂
But the inserts are sodding expensive.
Mountain biking is sodding expensive.
We don't run them but more for your info Abigale didn't and touch wood once she went to BlckDmnds she never flatted in a race be it DH or Enduro and some of those EWS races were punishing tracks.
There's a video around of the UK Enduro Team in Finale last year showing Matt who flatted early on in the race with an insert.
If you can give me a couple of days to check the garage loft there may be one or two new Vittoria inserts that Abigale won. I don't know what she did with them and cant asker her as there's a time difference and she will be in bed.
If I can find them and you want to experiment then I will send them down as we wont ever used them.
Let me know if you want me to look as I hate going up in that loft.
That would be very kind of you @tracey and it would be quite interesting to find out some answers. He's running 27.5 rear 29 front.
Will get back to you. I can picture the bag so it should be easy to spot if its up there once I get up and fight my way in.
If you need to buy new we found Nukeproof to be the cheapest (from CRC)
My son's had to start using one in the rear, not because he punctures, but mainly to protect the rim. Serial dinger 🙂
They do a pair for mullet, £45 - [url= https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/s?q=nukeproof+horizon+advanced+rim+defence+-+ard+pair&cat=previous-search ]here[/url]
I wouldn’t worry too much either way about inserts whilst he’s relatively light.
I’ve got them in where I’m running a flimsy tyre on the back (Forekaster / reckon / slaughter) but so far I don’t think I’ve damages an insert at all so I’m probably not going hard enough to really need them.
I found Hunt wheels sell the standard Rimpact in singles - whereas everywhere else you have to buy a pair. Standard rimpacts are on the lighter end of things - they do a pro version that I think competes more with cushcore. Supposedly the heavier ones give more sidewall support for lower pressures but can’t say I’ve tried them 🤷♂️
Cheers for all the thoughts guys...
Anyway.. onto this weekend. It's Southern Enduro at Newnham. Katy is racing with them too so will be good to see how she can push them on and give them tips and thoughts, as well as just being her cheery infectuous self. Will be great to see the team out in race kit, pushing eacheother, driving eachother and seeing if they can have a laugh.
It's obviously both the boys first races on the Privateer 141s and it's a tough field. Plenty of quick kids/guys in there and due to the age being 'at Dec 31st' my lad will then be 15, so he's in the U18s... So plenty giving him a good couple of years.
We know a few of the racers who are playing and he's not been as quick as those guys previously, so it'll be a toughie for him and Drew.
In terms of targets, goals and aims... Well, a top 10 is the first step, which barring any issues/crashes, should be fairly possible. Plenty of laughs, plenty of fun, some testing of our camping/vanning setups and gazebo stuff etc. So it's all a bit of trial and error stuff this weekend, along obviously with a fair bit of driving as it's way down south west.
I've scaled the stack of tyres and boxes of spares and found it. There is only one in the bag. i think she only one the one. Its a Vittoria Airliner 2.25 to 2.5 in 29er but looking at the instructions its one size and you cut it down. if its any good you can have it. Let me know and if so I will get it pasted down
Superstar ! PM'd you.... but just wanted to say a public THANK YOU.
Yay!
Here, just found out my son's Exeter Uni crowd are racing at Newnham this weekend too 😀 (Fun cat)
Say hi if you see a handsome dude on a black & red Remedy 🙂
I possibly should have entered fun 😀
If i'd been in fun yesterday at BPW i'd have been 4/7 instead of 11/12 😀
Looking outside at the moment, my boy will be racing without me as i'll be sitting in the gazebo with a coffee and bacon roll 🙂
Van loading and getting ready for the drive
https://flic.kr/p/2op7cxe
Oh wow. Talk about the most bonkers courses ever. It walloped with rain all night and the tracks were I felt over and above my skills, so I pulled the plug and didn't practice/race.
Seeing the absolute carnage this morning hasn't made me question the decision not to race.
The boy is finding it hard. But everyone is.
The boss is currently doing the transition between stage 4&5 and about to do her last stage of the day. Leading her Cat by 45s
https://my.raceresult.com/238087/
Live timing here
@weeksy,I am glad I checked, I almost sent her a congrats message! How did the boy do?
Saw Katy’s insta post and looks like you got the standard Newnham weather. I’ve raced 2412 there a few times and the weather is often hideous (worse than you had) which makes conditions difficult. One year I’m not joking when I say I had to stop every minute or two to clear mud from my glasses as they’d be totally covered in no time at all.
Not done the enduro course, not sure if any links to other races there, but hope your lad had plenty to take away. Not all about the results (no doubt they keep him keen though!)
It went well right up until I went really wrong. With the final stage left he was in 10th or 11th (out of 40ish)
Then the last stage was tech fest and 10s before the video started he crashed right in front of me.
Then this
Then crashed lower down.
Lost 32s compared to his mate who he'd been quicker than on all 4 previous stages. If he'd matched his mate he'd have ended 9th or 10th.
I think he ended 24th.
It was a cracking weekend but some parts of the track were ridiculous.
My lad said the trails had dried up a bit by the time they raced. Exeter boys got top 3 in Fun with my boy 3rd. Happy with his mug prize 🙂
Congratulations!!!!! Tell him well done!
Cheers! will do 😀
In what way ridiculous Weeksy? Conditions or general tech? I saw one preview of an A, B and C line with big drop, medium drop or “skirt around the lot”.
Both to me, 🙂🙂🙂
To him it was the conditions and grip.
Neither of us are blaming anyone at all, he had a blast and we all had a top weekend. But after walking the track Sat arvo I decided not to even take the bike out of the van. I wasn't convinced I'd survive it. The rain cemented that.
About 2pm I had a few pangs of regret. But stage 5 removed any of these.
The ABC line you saw, yes the slower one was possible for mortals, but it was just a horrifically tech course imo.
On stage 4 finished 0.1s behind Katy, which really pleased him. Drew was 1s behind Katy on 2 stages, the boy was 3s behind her mostly until stage 5.
But mostly we, them and everyone seemed happy. We learned a lot. Mostly about how much I hate tents and rain.
They run that rock line on the xc series.. 😉
I saw the amount of fresh cut tracks they seemed to be digging and thought it was ambitious. It’s rained pretty solidly all week.
Well it's the aftermath, the cleaning, the washing, sorting gazebo, tents, bags, kit, of course the Privateer, the shoes, jerseys, jackets etc etc...Along with being knackered from a lack of sleep and walking up and down the hills 300 times and standing round all day..
At least we don't have to do it all again next weekend.. oh... yeah, next weekend is Rheola.. So another full on weekend.
That means prepping,checking and sorting the both DH bikes instead now of course... The blue one should be 100%, the purple one we've barely seen so will need a bit of a check over before it gets ridden over the weekend (potentially)
Whilst doing all this i need to start working on getting my fitness sorted, weight sorted and even some riding sorted now the evenings are lighter...
Sweet pic from Roots&Rain of my son going down a gnarly looking section. Might have to get this on my wall 🙂
(sorry for invading the Weeksy08 thread!)
Maybe its time for the boy to do more of his own mechanics?
Even if you do all the wrenching I'd at least expect him to do the cleaning so that you can focus on the mechanical side!
I get not putting too much on him to begin with as don't want to make it a chore. But I think he's hooked now so now worries about that side!
Yeah absolutely... but he's at school, i've got time before work etc... So i generally get things done and dusted.. It's arguably the wrong plan and would be better making him do it himself... But i also enjoy a bit of tweaking, checking. The DH bikes will be getting done this evening and he'll be joining in with that for sure. It's not that he's lazy or not interested, i've just got a spare hour here or there.
(sorry for invading the Weeksy08 thread!)
Crack on matey... it's an ace pic... You should be proud.
Onto the weekend.
Rheola. This is a national level DH track and a prequel to the National DH in 2 weeks time. Riders entered are Jordan Williams, Charlie Hatton, of course weeksy08.
We went here last year but he crashed in practice on run 5 or 6 and hurt his shoulder which kept him out of the race on the Sunday. So he knows the track a little bit at least. It's classed as being one of the harder/hardest track in the UK series, so will be somewhat challenging that's for sure.
We'll have both of the GTs present and correct.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52650208298_ebf0fbddb5_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52650208298_ebf0fbddb5_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2odw5C3 ]2023-01-26_08-11-27[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
Along with a selection of wheels and tyres and spares. Although i very much of course hope we don't need any 😀
It'll be a full weekend away potentially from pre-dawn on Sat until Sunday evening. But that partly depends on the weather and what it throws at us. Lets just say i didn't get on well with the tent at the weekend in the rain and if it's like that this weekend than i'll be driving home and back up for Sun morning. There's going to be a bucket load of dirty clothes, dirty bikes and muddy insanity.
Jobs left before the weekend... well, nothing really. Unless we come up with a solution for catering ourselves... which is certainly a possible option for me/us. But in truth i don't know what we want or need for that really or whether we just do our usual and wing it. There'll be a catering van on site and lets fact it, a bacon roll each and a coffee takes a while to be off-set in terms of costs from whatever a cooking machine of some description will take to purchase, (along with the bacon and breaded products each time hahaha)
Couldn’t you just pickup one of those cheap single hob gas grills from go outdoors? Quick and easy with a frying pan for bacon / sausages etc and could boil a kettle on it as well
https://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/16233482/campingaz-camp-bistro-elite-cooking-stove-16233482
Yeah that's kinda where my head is going at the moment. Can get from Halfords with a 4x of canisters, each one should last 2 hours of cooking apparently. So easily last me a full weekend.
Abigale has managed to live weeks travelling around Europe cooking on one of those. She had a small deep frying pan and cooked everything in it.
We bought her one of these last year for her trips
The gas canisters seem to last ages on those little cookers - bought a stack of them years ago and still not through them all.
I did have a bigger double job thing of a big gas bottle but I’d rather have 2 cheapie seperate hobs tbh. They come in a nice solid plastic case so it’s easy to chuck in the car.
If you wanted a portable bbq to compliment it the Webber go anywhere is quite compact. I’ve got the charcoal one but I think they do a gas one too. Quite pricey though.
Anyone giving odds on Weeksy starting a “What Motorhome for three plus many bikes” thread?
Anyone giving odds on Weeksy starting a “What Motorhome for three plus many bikes” thread?
Maybe in 3-4 years if he's still at it. Currently, no chance. I'm skint
It’ll be a full weekend away potentially from pre-dawn on Sat until Sunday evening.
ouch. 06.30 arrival for course inspection?
ouch. 06.30 arrival for course inspection?
Unknown until we get a mail @mashr on times etc. But realistically we'll be out the door before 6 that's for sure
Happily he's ridden this one before so we won't need to do Friday evening for a walk. They'll get 10-12 runs in a day which is more than enough and the track will change constantly throughout the weekend as it's ridden.
So really I'm thinking 5-6 runs, a couple of watch sessions and then either home or to the camping a mile or so away.
It's all part of the adventure but will prefer when the warmer sunny days are here
Doh, the BC website being the wonder that it is had the 2022 (in a 2018 url, very confusing) timings up, didnt realise it was old info.
Happily he’s ridden this one before so we won’t need to do Friday evening for a walk.
Thats it, you've done it now. That means they're cutting a fresh trail as I type this 😉
Might I be bold enough to observe from that crash reel that his handlebars look very wide for him. Are they 800mm?
Might I be bold enough to observe from that crash reel that his handlebars look very wide for him. Are they 800mm?
Course you can, you're not the first to say it, even his coach and suspension expert have commented. We've run narrower and he's not liked them. We've got bars in spares from 750/770/780 and the current 800s.... He likes the 800s.
I suspect Weeksy and Weesy Jnr are happy they were no worse than that as his OTB/Collar bone incident was another level....as a Dad myself to a keen 16yo lad rider, I'd have been papping myself seeing that and wondering what the aftermath and injury was going to be.
Oh, of course! I wasn’t disapproving. Having escorted my boy down BPW after bumping his head and saying he was dizzy, would by far prefer unspectacular.
We're good 🙂 i didn't take it as him saying anything bad 🙂
Just looking at the depths of fields...sadly Gravity Events don't show the entrants like most do, but they're often fairly lowly subscribed compared to some. Last year in this event in the juvenile class there were only 8 riders.
But the good thing is, that means there's plenty of points up for grabs. Even the guy who got 7th still picked up 25 British Ranking points. (this is one of our main goals for 2023, to get in the top 10 UK ranking in Youth at end of season), 25 points for 7th in an A race, is the same as winning a B race basically.
Obviously we don't know how many are racing yet though in his Cat.
Last year we didn't complete the race after a decent off in practice he ended up in the car holding his shoulder and unable to move it... We decided to bail as he couldn't even get out of bed properly the next day. It's a tough course and last year was slippery through the dust, this year will be slippery mud on Sat, but a drying track for Sunday.
We're pretty much good to go though and just need to load up the van, the kit, the bikes and all the stuff..
It is as they say, Game Time.