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I've seen her ride enough to know that was clearly going to be the case, certainly for me.
We both enjoyed it mate yeah. It certainly showed both of us what we need to work on, although as always, not how to get there.
S5 was my best stage compared to the guys around me, but I still somehow need to find 10+ sec per stage on average to move somewhere up the pack. But as long as we don't look at the results, it was a cracking day 😉😉
Yup, 30 seconds across all stages for me to really progress in results but I am seeing a huge improvement in how I ride. Think I need to concentrate on the fitness side a little more to be able to manage the pedaly bits.
Anyway, that's enough about us old folk, back to the topic of young Master Weeks. That Fort William thing is going to be a hell of an experience isn't it!
That Fort William thing is going to be a hell of an experience isn’t it!
It'll be a bit of an epic. Looks like he can ride on the Friday too once we arrive about 11ish, so should with luck get some runs in. It'll be a weird one as in some ways it's 3-4 days away, but the reality is, van, hotel, van, trackside, trackside, trackside, van.
It could be anywhere 10 mins from home, not 10 hours.
But we've got an insane lineup of elites that would grace any world cup. A massive track and a gondola, heck it'll be fantastic! Beers and airhorns at the ready
Due to the wonky cranks i've now fitted a new crankset onto the purple bike. It was running a 32T front chainring, but the race bike has a 36T, so i've set both bikes the same, so if he uses it, he's got the same gearing on both bikes.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52853180948_c572096db8_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52853180948_c572096db8_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2owsnju ]2023-04-28_09-46-45[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
He’ll just keep breaking things with a hammer when you’re not looking until you buy him a V10 😉
Get that tyre clean!
LOL give me a chance... I've not had an opportunity but it'll be cleaned before we head to Fort William. It's his usual race wheel/tyre, but we went for the Hillbilly. He used this one in practice and then it just got chucked in the bike and back in the van as he stuck with the Hillbilly. The bike hasn't moved since.
It'll be getting a test at BPW on Monday though to make sure it's good to roll.
Phew. That's that done.
Today was BPW, arguably it was a potential banana skin with us heading to fort William this week. But if you take time off before every event, you'd never ride.
The boy spent the day trying out a few little things on the bike (as did I) and just being a smiley happy lad. His mate Pringled a front wheel which ended his day at 3pm and after a last run we called it a day.
We did have 2 instances of dropped chain on the blue Fury which surprised me, but it looks like the chain guide is simply a little far away so a quick 1mm spacer behind the arm moves it a little bit inwards and should mean the chain can't drop now. I moved the lower arm position in slightly too, which may make it a bit grindy now, but I'd rather that than dropping chains.
Other than cleaning and lubing, we're good to go for the weekend I think
That video is great! Hope you have a brilliant weekend
Wow, love the vid - he nailed that!
Thanks guys. Using the video we measured the jump at 54' with a measuring thing.
Looking very good there, Weeksy jr.
Rocky, windy and only missing horizontal rain for the true Scottish DH experience 😆
You'll be seeing some of our young local talent on the track over the weekend.
Awesome video. Very fast and I've watched a few vids of Fort Bill recently and loads where they skirt round those jumps...i was scared watching that 😂
He is ridiculously fast
The crazy part is, he's not. It's just bonkers how fast the fast fast ones are.
That was run3 down there and 2 of the jumps are 40' plus and bigger than he's ever hit previously. But jumping is one of his strongest points usually.
You’ll be seeing some of our young local talent on the track over the weekend.
I can imagine so. Just listening to some of them young and old on the track walk was quite funny with how, where and why in terms of lines.
Charlie Hatton was chatty on way down. We saw Coulanges, Greenland, Peat.
Funny one was that was you see the people almost on the track on the 2nd last jump, one of those was Loic Bruni, so he overtook him, arguably lol.
Hope you’ve got some lead weights so he doesn’t get blown off the track tomorrow 😉 OTOH, hopefully a midge free weekend
But jumping is one of his strongest points usually.
Can't wait to see the vid of the road gap then 😬💩 (the poo is mine just thinking about it 😂)
Road gap isn't included. Rocky Rooty thing instead. River gap is.
The rocks look 10x harder than the jumps.
I think I could ride 5% of course, maybe 7, but I'm then off to x-ray
👍
Just the thought of a single top to bottom run has me feeling tired. A race weekend must be brutal
Good luck to you both , fair play thats racing at the top level . It will give you both a great idea of where hes at . Though he looks brilliant and not out of place there in that video .
Looks great. A little bit jealous that you get to do that with your son.
First or last, something mint to look back on.
Good luck weeksy Jnr!
33rd in qualifying. Wasn't going nuts. May have a bit more tomorrow
Weeksy do you know if the qualifying is online to see. Would be interesting to see how some local borders guys did.?
Apparently it's being live streamed tomorrow but we've been told that before too.
Live timing will be on that link tomorrow too
Going to guess he didn’t actually do a 14 min run?
Potentially, he was riding, watching, riding, checking, etc. He'll often do runs in practice and take ages, which terrible for the parents watching and waiting lol
aahh gotcha now, just assumed run 1 = qualifying and the results were screwy
Live Stream (from around 14:15 tomorrow) - no youth or juvenile though.
Always a good read. Hope all goes well tomorrow Weeksy. Looking forward to the update.
How does he get on with the jumps after a full run? I’m usually breathless just watching on Redbull I can’t imagine having to hold on and pedal after 5 mins or whatever it is of having the shit beaten out of me by that trail!
He loves the bottom 1/3 and the jumps are his favourite bit really.
He's struggling more with his hands/fingers/fatigue from braking. Of course the answer being braking less lol.
We've had a few dropped chains in the past week, I thought I'd resolved it but I now think it's coming off the top idler pulley. I'm debating whether I have more teeth pulley wheel in van and ability to swap it trackside.
He honestly seems to be loving the track, it's right up there for him. Sadly, he's just not there yet in terms of speed. But he's doing really well IMO. But mostly, as I say, he's really enjoying it which is the important bit.
We've had pizza, beer (just me) and he's sitting in our place playing Super Nintendo lol. It's the world of dreams.
I think tomorrow will be a bit less practice runs to keep the fatigue down, maybe. But it's a tricky line to walk between riding, learning more, or being tired out. He did 5 runs today total and was straight back for bike check and straight out again.
He’s struggling more with his hands/fingers/fatigue from braking. Of course the answer being braking less lol.
You can assure him that it’s not just him feeling like that.
I think tomorrow will be a bit less practice runs to keep the fatigue down, maybe.
That’s a pretty good approach. There’s actually not that much to learn in terms of lines at Ft Bill, and they rarely change through the weekend. Couple of runs to get his eye in will hopefully be enough for him
Race day, dry and sunny
Having a few chain dropping issues. Spent time chatting to GT Viris mechanic and they've had same lol. But it's that rough it seems like half the field are dropping chains or snapping.
He's just had what's known as a HUGEY. But he's ok. Trying to pick up speed and putting things together now.
Just off up for another run after some food and chill.
Let's see how this goes
Ft Bill crashes do tend to be on the big side unfortunately 😬 Hopefully not too battered for the race run
Currently showing as 22nd. Will drop a few places due to red flag re-runs but shouldn't be too many.
Finished on a 5.45 which was 13s quicker than qualifying. He's pretty delicate after the HUGEY, lots of bruising coming out, but that's the nature of the sport. But he's well happy overall.
Mrs Weeksy can relax now.
Beer time 🍺🍺
Glad he's down safe with a decent run.
It's on days like today when you should be proud of his achievement. Its what memories are made of.
Enjoy the well deserved beers
Beer time 🍺🍺
aye, that'll take his mind off the bruises !
Was a funny day. One of the kids in his class also has a Fury. 80 min before his race run he noticed main pivot bearings play. I had 2 of the 6003s with me, their mechanic hadn't done an idler setup and the GT is a funny system of crazy. We swapped them in 60 mins
I then got back to find our rear was flat as he'd hit a rock again. I had to get on the Gondola with track pump and £25 lighter as it wasn't fully holding pressure, we were losing 2psi every 10 mins. I sent him into the queue with 25psi in. 3 more than his usual.
Happily both mine and other GT kid made it down
Beer time 🍺🍺
Deserves a keg of his own 😉 and maybe a couple of jars for his 'pit crew' 😁
Good on him Weeksy , thats a big race and he deserves some kudos for it . As do you for Dad duties.
Well done to him, and to you for the top support you give him! Sounds like a cracking day…
Epic adventure. Well done team Weeks 👏🏻
Thanks guys. I'm just one of a mass of parents doing this, there's many many and all put in the effort I do
It's the small ones who deserve the praise. Some massive balls shown this weekend by the lad (and all the others). Especially after the big crash. We've had a few bike issues this weekend but I think we've now sorted those. We've had some tiring days, but he's smiling and happy with what he rode and jumped. With luck this will help with his progression.
Let the adventure continue. Next weekend is rest,then straight off to race at Rhyd y Felin the weekend after.
Great update, what a great experience for you both. Really nice of you to help out the other lad on the GT too.
Enjoyed the update. Sounds like a pretty decent result too? Hope he’s pleased with it 😊
Really nice of you to help out the other lad on the GT too.
We've known him a little bit a out the paddock for last 12 months and he's a nice lad, always polite. I also gave him the option of putting his forks and shock into our spare bike. The racing paddock is friendly though and everyone helps eachother out if needed.
I gave another dad a dh34 tyre as his lad had split his rear. But I was happy to as my lad doesn't like them so I'm not even sure why I had it in the van lol.
Sounds like a pretty decent result too? Hope he’s pleased with it
Yeah I'd say it was mate yes. Anything around 50% is our target in Nationals and Pearce, but it was more the experience that was the best bit, in terms of technical, times, distance, rocks, jumps etc. I can't see any way it won't help him overall. It's got to benefit in other races to do this level of riding.
I don't know though, a lot of things change on an almost weekly basis in terms of racing, targets, goals and expectations. Mostly now, we race because the lad (and me) enjoys it massively and any pressure has been removed in terms of results. The only pressure he has is internally from the competition/tech side of things.
He doesn't much do emotions, but yeah I'd say he's happy.
Been out to a posh place in town, now having beers and ab early night.
Top stuff team weeksy 👍
@FunkyDunc I do, so I clicked it in your place. Nah, I clicked it anyway cos it's an awesome pic.
Getting to ride in that environment is a priceless memory for the lad. Even better and a huge relief to the parents is that Weeksy jnr's big spill didn't shake him up too much or damage the bike before the final run.
I see that my local hotshots came and did more than alright. Lisa is shaping up for a great second year as a junior, the twins did their usual thing in the youth cat. Shame for Max that he flatted after the first split.
Sounds like a great weekend experience for you both Weeksy, he was about 30 seconds behind the elite women seeding time (all I had to reference at the time) which sounds bloody incredible!
That photo is superb
We're talking the Frenchies? They were daft quick. Like wow quick. Looking at them in paddock they also appeared to be 25 years old lol. Impressive riders.
That was quite a weekend. Well done @weeksy and Weeksy junior and hope the trip home goes well.
My wee one is on a slightly different (far more amateur) level than Weeksy's lad but had a great time over the weekend. Warm and dry was an unexpected bonus. Track was in great condition and atmosphere was brilliant. The group we were in had a few 12-14 year olds buzzing about being behind Minaar / Greenland waiting to drop into practice. Some experience for them!
Kids and bikes largely intact. We have a tyre split and a rim that won't ride again, otherwise no real damage so that's OK.
Your lad did brilliantly mate. He should be immensely proud of that performance.
Great photo! Stylin it up 🙂
Well, we're finally back home... 10 hour drive today and i'm a bit tired... It's remarkable just how tiring this weekends are on the body, mostly you're just walking up and down the hill i guess.. but it just drains you a bit. Throw in 20+ hours of driving this weekend and you can imagine, i'm a bit dead 😀
Made a few mistakes this weekend though which irritated me a little... but i made a lot more good decisions which pleased me.
Noticed i'd fitted the idler pulley wheel on the wrong orientation a few months ago. It's got a flanged side and a flatter side, the flatter side being on the outside edge if running Shimano, the fat side being there if running SRAM... why this is the case i don't actually know lol. But what it meant was that the chainring was slightly offset on alignment to the inside, which meant on the really rough track he was dropping the chain off the top of the pulley wheel. Now i've flipped that i'm hoping he has no more issues.
Kinda lost focus when we had the tyre issues.... Note, this was 30s before heading out for his race uplift. I make sure i check pressures before every run he does.. Just in case. When i grabbed the wheel on this one it was pancake flat... I then went to swap it all about with wheel 3, which would have meant then swapping cassettes, or changing the gearing tension completely as they are pretty different. What i should have done was to swap for wheel 2 which was on the purple bike, which has the same 7sp setup along with a brand new tyre on it. But in the end we made what turned out to be the right decision on tyre/wheel and he ran the cushcore wheel and i went up to check pressures. Funnily, now he's done a run on it it's sealed fully and staying up nicely LOL. But we didn't know that at the time.
Lastly i noticed i can be an impatient and intollerant bugger at times.. "just leave me to it " and this can be spannering, setting up the gazebo or even "what do you want for breakfast".. I get a little over-focused and miss some things. It's not a massive shock to me, but Mrs Weeksy was there for the whole weekend this time and i neglected her a bit i feel... I'll be out getting some flowers tomorrow i think 😀
Other than that, the weekend was full of positives. The lad was working on different aspects of his riding and as well as trying to learn the track and different terrain type, was working on his riding style. I think if he wasn't coming into his race run hurting he could have found another 5s off his time, which would've given him 2-3 places. The epic thing is that he was a LOT closer to the front runners than previous big races(Rheola Gravity and NAtional).. Roots and Rain shows percentage times from race winner in class and he closed the gap massively to the front bunch. Obviously getting the next part is incredibly tough and lets face it, maybe impossible LOL. But it shows he's getting it together and improving still, which is the main target.
Defo Needs a V10. None of that idler fandango.
Seriously, sounds like a top weekend and great result. Great photo too.
Lol @ v10. It'll maybe happen one day. But not now, not yet.
That’s a brilliant result and cool pic!
Thank you (all). I will make sure he has a read of the comments and praise.
I expect there'll be a few more pictures being bought though so apologies in advance 😀
So we're now straight in for Bala (Rhyd-y-Felin) and a Pearce race on the 20th/21st. Not long and a few jobs need sorting on the bike.
Due to timescales and things i'm going to outsource a few of the jobs to my local friendly LBS at Rotec
Jobs list.
1. New pads and a full caliper service/bleed on the Tech3/V4s (Rotec)
2. Sort dink in the rear rim on rear race wheel (Rotec)
3. Sort 2x dink in the front race wheel (Rotec)
4. Lowers service/oil/clean on the Boxxers (Rotec)
5. Bearing check and replacement on Blue race bike
6. New chain on the blue race bike
7. Reconfigure gearing on purple spare bike to 10sp setup
8. Reconfigure alignment of idler on purple spare bike
9. Tyre swap on spare wheel rear (torn sidewall)
10. Gear cable replacement on blue race bike.
As you can see that's just the race bikes. I've currently got the RM Slayer in pieces and needing a new rear mech fitted/installed due to it being very sticky. I took it apart to service it last week but screwed up the P-spring which i'm now waiting for, but i've got a new mech on it's way from Bird.
The Privateer 141 needs 'something' fixing/cleaning/sorting as it's got a bit of a creak on it, i checked all the pivot bearings the other day but haven't quite found it yet.
After the Pearce race the Fox X2 will head off to TFTuned for a service/refresh as it'll have been on the bike for about 50 hours by then.
Admittedly it's not like it's a full weeks work, but i can only do in the evenings/weekends so it does take a bit of time i must say.
great effort and results by team Weeksy.
I saw a Vital raw video and that top section is mental with all the rocks. Bikes looked to be getting battered!
Is he on 27.5 or 29 inch wheels?
I saw a Vital raw video and that top section is mental with all the rocks. Bikes looked to be getting battered!
Is he on 27.5 or 29 inch wheels?
The rocks are quite simply INSANE there... it's more than i thought and honestly i couldn't see any way i could even ride the place. Unless i had it to myself to give me enough time to pick lines, check sections, etc, then maybe. But to go in there hot and straight onto some sort of pace, it just astounds me how they seem to do it week in week out. THere were broken wheels EVERYWHERE and i was shocked that all we came out with was a slight dink on his rear.. I assume at times it's people trying to compromise between lower pressures for grip and getting down the hill... We were running slightly higher than usual with 23/24 on ours, up from 20/22 which is our usual. We also had the cushcore on the rear which we've not tried before. He rides quite light in terms of landings usually and obviously isn't hitting the rocks as hard as the faster lads/elites. So we either got something right, or got a little lucky... maybe a bit of both.
We're currently running a mullet setup which helps obviously with the rocks on the front, but enables him to turn well on it. Whether we'll stick with that setup or go full 29 for the replacement larger bike, i'm not sure. But i don't even know if we'll do that before the end of this season, i suspect the replacement will be a winter plan in the off-season.
It is a bit of a battering! Of course now he's wanting a DH bike as more travel might have helped.
It is a bit of a battering! Of course now he’s wanting a DH bike as more travel might have helped.
You should've said on the day... he could have tried/used ours.... If you'd mentioned it, he could've bought it at the end of the day too 😀 😀
The less temptation he gets the better! He wants to go back for a play there as soon as we can - and there's no way I'll be able to keep him in sight if he's on a DH bike!
Top marks to Silt wheels though. I don't think there's anything that would survive an unlucky hit on those rocks but I sent them the picture and there's a new rim in the post this morning. Excellent service.
Fwiw Lisa who won the juniors broke two wheels over the weekend. She can't weigh more than 55kg and is a very clean rider to boot. I'm not sure that she's ever broken a wheel on a race weekend before.