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Glad you have got it up and rolling 🤞
As said above I would add his age to the page
As a parent when Abigale was competing my worries were burn out before the end of the season and injuries sustained in some of the regional events having a knock on effect to the events that matters. She lost a season due to broken leg.
Some crazy blue sky thinking.
Why don't you sell one of your bikes/ebikes?
All fair, and I certainly didn’t mean it as a dig!
Been following the thread since the beginning and that sort of schedule will burn you both out before too long.
Why don’t you sell one of your bikes/ebikes?
I don't own an Ebike.
The Liv is Mrs Weeksys, it's used not often i'll admit, but does give the option of going out.
The Orbea is a loaner from a mate, i've not paid for that (i will need to one day though but not for a few years)
The only other bikes I own are the Status which is my day to day bike and the Raleigh which cost £400 new and is on the turbo. The Privateer is a loan/sponsor bike which one day will go back.
You know what though, i don't or shouldn't need to give a full financial breakdown of my whole life on here... It's really not right. If someone doesn't want to put anything in that's cool, but i don't want to sit here and next time i go out riding and buy a beer at lunchtime have someone picking apart my decision of "couldn't you have bought 1/2 a pint or a tape water" heck that's not fair is it ? As i say, i've opened up and answered a lot of questions as honestly as i can and under the circumstances that's about as much as i'm going to go into otherwise we'll move into, "couldn't you sell your house and move to somewhere for 50% of the price"
Come on, lets be fair now... Donate or don't, it's up to the individual but i'm not having my life picked apart.
injuries sustained in some of the regional events having a knock on effect to the events that matters. She lost a season due to broken leg
That is of course a concern yes and from chatting to other parents is part of the reason they skip particular events. I guess we've been fortunate in that context that he's been fairly good in terms of injuries. But realistically if i don't take him racing, he'll still be in the woods playing and can still hit the deck (and as you may have seen on his last Pearce day, indeed he does hit the deck).
All fair, and I certainly didn’t mean it as a dig!
I didn't take it as one 🙂
Well now it really does appear I own an ebike of my own.
Why don’t you sell one of your bikes/ebikes?
I don’t own an Ebike.
Puzzledface.
You really are over thinking all this.
If the lads good enough he'll get the help he needs without any funding page.
I'm not sure that's true stu, being good enough or having enough potential is only a tiny part of becoming a top athlete. Luck, knowing the right people, right place at the right time, aptitude, social media fit, money, obsessive parents etc etc are all significant factors and even the exceptional get left behind.
Being good enough is the main part.
Without that first and foremost the rest is pointless.
If the being good enough bit is there the results will show at nationals and then the help will be there.
As someone that's ridden at European and World Champs in Moto Enduros I'm pretty aware of how sponsorship works.
Just to be clear to Weeksy.
I'm not saying anyone is crap here as I know you take that from anything I say to you.
Maybe stop trying to run before you can walk though...
Nah, being 'good enough' is just a starting point now, it's completely subjective when considering a developing teenage athlete.
The modern world has created so many lifestyle options that the 'good enough' part becomes almost anything you want it to mean.
He's already good enough to get funding from strangers
He's already good enough to be supported in his hobby
He's definitely good enough to make a career out of his hobby.
He's enjoying his life, which seems to be the weeksy clan main goal for now.
The old days are long gone stu, nobody's going to be doing what you did in 1978😁
I'm not that old you cheeky ****er.😜
My point still stands though.
We have the BASE kids round here and I don't see any of them with crowdfunding pages.
What I do see though is people that have gone on to race word cups and and do pretty well or earn a living from riding some other way.
To me they're letting their talent shine through/ finding their thing and not thinking two grand will will make them faster.
Well as some have seen this thread was closed for a week or two, this was at my request (thanks Mods) due to me feeling it'd got out of hand with personal information and other little things. I've now requested that it's re-opened and i'm not going to say it has to be all touchy-feely and lovey-dovey, but sometimes i get carried away with certain aspects and it really does affect me at times.
But i will from now on slightly separate some of the information/discussions i've entered into as some things on the internet ought to be private. I've not asked for any of the information to be edited/removed as i put it there in the first place, so there it stays. But the thread will still remain as a journey of the lad.
I've had a fair few messages on PM, Insta, Whatsapp to re-open it and i've asked... So here it is..
What a day.
The boy was looking smooth in practice and working on a few lines. We've now got a system I can't say I love in some ways where I go to the top with him for race runs, taking jacket, gand warmers, food, water etc. it means I don't get to see him come down which is a double edged sword in some ways.
I sent him off for race run 1 and went down the longer way. He'd only put it 2nd place out of 78. Awesome stuff. 1.3s off the leader who is a rider who races for Commencal. We were all really happy of course. Katy his coach chatted through a few words of wisdom and eventually we went up for run 2.
They seed you so he was 2nd last to set off.
At the bottom there's been a computer issue so his time showed 14hr 46 lol. After 45 mins I gave up waiting and went to the van, by the time I got back the final results were in. He'd taken 2.2s off and won the race
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53493942730_b056c2fbe9_h.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53493942730_b056c2fbe9_h.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pv5rtq ]IMG-20240128-WA0002[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
I have no words honestly. None
https://www.rootsandrain.com/event12336/2024-jan-28-100-mini-dh-1-forest-of-dean/results/
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53494273535_b049767b93_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53494273535_b049767b93_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pv78NX ]Screenshot_2024-01-28-20-52-30-110_com.android.chrome[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
The sacrifices are real at times. Was a 5am start today after an already long day practising yesterday and 400 miles over the weekend. There's a lot of standing round for all of us, him included but today was one of those days where it all makes sense. There was him and 5 riding mates at the top waiting together, all talking crap and taking the piss out of eachother, laughs and smiles, then the serious business of racing. Despite the fact he beat his mates they all seemed genuinely pleased for him, the camaraderie between them all is ace to see.
It makes me smile and think "yeah, we're in the right place"
Don't get me wrong here, this is the calm before the storm and in a few months he'll be back as the smaller fish in the bigger pond with the super fast lads. But we can only beat what's out there with us on a given day, and that's of course what he did.
https://youtube.com/shorts/DPzwKECUAZ4?si=F6_O_4hGd2T4GtUC
Thanks all. It's really appreciated.
As always, we're straight back into the thick of it, even needing a rest and a sleep, which i didn't really get last night i'll admit.
Forks were stripped out of the bike along with the shock. The fabulous TFTuned are looking after his bouncy bits this season so they're both in for a full strip and service. Should have them back in a few days. Along with that it needs a rear wheel bearing rebuild on the Bontrager, it's just got a tiny tiny bit of play in there.
The Hope, well that's a bit of an Enigma at the moment lol. 3-4 times out of 10 he rides it i get told, "making a funny noise", which i/we simply can't get to the bottom of. We think it's due to the cassette which is running 7 speed and a large spacer, but that's the same setup many people use on wheels/DH bikes... and indeed it's the same as on the Bontrager. But we can't silence the wheel.
It'll get a full frame/bearing check while it's up in the stand too, along with a new pair of headset bearings in there as the others (lower in particular) were a bit grubby. After that it'll get some new DMR Deathgrips on there and be golden for the next race.
Saturday brings a day at BPW with Katy for some more training/coaching.
what a result, you both must be buzzing!
The fact it was so unexpected made it feel all the better for me, i thought he'd be at the sharp end but knowing some of the other racers i didn't think he'd win it. After run 1 and a 2nd place we were 'stoked' as he'd say. But we also remember Windhill where he was 1st after run 1 and ended up in 4th place. So we didn't get over excited. Then because of the timing computer issues we didn't find out straight away, it was like a VAR situation, so the excitement of the moment wasn't quite there.
Mrs Weeksy got a reminder from Google Pics/thing
1 year ago yesterday was the same race.
26/52. It was his first race in Youth
Now 1 year on, he did a chunk better.
Don't get me wrong here, i'm not sitting here saying we're going to go and smash Nationals, we know that's not happening... but he's getting better, faster, pushing... so we'll be putting it on the line again and again and again this year.
Fantastic result, 25 seconds quicker than my lad🤣
25 seconds quicker than my lad
That time can be made up matey... practice, time on bike and work.. but mostly lots of fun.
Anyone who gets down these courses deserves respect IMO.
He's still 14, but moved up a category because he's 15 this year. Quite a bit smaller than a lot of the 16 year olds....
The Cat system can be proper tough, i know of one lad who's birthday is 2 days into the BC year... so he's properly unlucky that he's in there very early. The difference in 'size' and strength/experience really tells in their 2nd year. As you see from above, the lad was 26/52 in his first Youth race, since then he's now grown into a 6'0 adult size, gained a years experience at every riding track possible, racing Nationals, Fort William etc etc... So it's no massive shock that your lad found it a bit of a baptism of fire. My lad is a mid-year boy for his birthday, but still when he moves up next year he'll be at a dsadvantage on the bigger lads for sure.
I wouldn't over think things or obsess about age group, size etc. When my lad was 15 his coach decided to move him up an age group for the last competition of the year. Her reasoning was that he was going to be competing against these boys in a few months time so he might as well get used to it. I was worried that if he struggled it would set him back. He won the 3m springboard competition, despite being up against much bigger lads, 3m divers are pretty chunky guys. Confidence and a positive state of mind are everything.
Thanks to the lovely people @tftuned the forks and shock are fully serviced and ready to roll for this weekend.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53501145702_45df483653_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53501145702_45df483653_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pvHmEA ]IMG_20240201_100421[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53502455660_1f77912709_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53502455660_1f77912709_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pvQ555 ]IMG_20240201_102138[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53502182348_2c388ebfc6_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53502182348_2c388ebfc6_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pvNEPN ]IMG_20240201_100442[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53502030951_b6cfc37b96_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53502030951_b6cfc37b96_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pvMTPv ]IMG_20240201_102126[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
Both are back in the bike along with a new Headset bearing top and bottom, just need to service the Hope Pro5 hub with new pawls and springs and then fit the wheels, torque up all the bolts and get it ready for BPW on Sat.
Nationals all entered
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53504177973_71ea48fd71_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53504177973_71ea48fd71_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pvYU48 ]Nationals[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
Awesome mate. I'll keep an eye out. I'll be with the lad, Katy and a few other girls, but also @joebristol from here, he'll be on the Sentinel, i'm on the Status.
If you fancy a chat and a burger at lunch we'll be down about 12.30 i'd guess.
I am pretty sure I saw a "Weeks" down in the Ft. Bill youth entrants.. glad you managed to get in even with the points SNAFU. Might see you there.
Well done to the lad! (And his chauffeur / mechanic / funder).
Playing on the Orbea to maximise runs after school
https://youtube.com/shorts/bkv39TnN5kw?si=tJznFKozH2z703DS
She's an incredibly supportive person and now friend to him/us. I certainly don't believe he'd have made anything like the progress he has done if she wasn't involved.
Loving that!
Me too 😀 it answers the questions that sometimes gets asked as to whether he's still enjoying it 😀 I ask it myself/him at times just to make sure, but i think we can safely assume, yeah he's enjoying it 🙂
I noticed yesterday one of his bolts was loose, the DH bikes and riding are hard on bikes and he's been moaning about playing and wiggle, yesterday he showed me properly, so I set about it. I noticed with wheel out I had wiggle at the back pivot.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53523056754_6b1cc4c77b_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53523056754_6b1cc4c77b_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pxDE4m ]Screenshot_2024-02-11-17-11-42-660_com.google.android.apps.docs[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
Bolt 2 was the culprit, it's 15nm with a cassette tool to tighten. Anyway it's done now, along with new pads front and rear and a brake bleed to set stiffness using the RSC adjuster.
He's not got a massive amount of DH stuff this week, but does have a day with Katy at pontypool. Then straight back between the tape next weekend for race 2 of the season. I think we're off to pump track today at lunch for a bit so he can mess about. I'm still a ball of snot/coughs so i'm not taking mine today 🙁
Half term this week and whilst the weather hasn't exactly been playing ball, we've still been out having fun. Well, i say we, but i'm down and out with lurgy/man-flu. It's coming up to 2 weeks now and i've turned from the worst tonsilitis type thing ever into a constant ball of snot and headache now, along with a tickly cough, but last night for example we were supposed to be out for Valentines, i was in bed at 8pm.... Just floored, even 2 weeks in, i'm still utterly rubbish.
Yesterday i had a day off to take him to Ponty/Tirpentwys, but no way was i riding, so i was uplift van for him, Katy and Sam Copp. They spent 4 hours getting crazy, muddy and destroying my van, until finally calling it and dragging something that resembled a bicycle back into the van 🙂
Had a long chat with another mate parent who i see often at races, turns out he's the parent of Josh Turner which i didn't know... fast fast lad. https://www.rootsandrain.com/rider160969/josh-turner/results/
He ended up 16th in Chatel, in the snow race, which sounds impressive until you hear that he didn't know he was going until 3 days before the event and didn't have any spikes. They tried to make spikes using self tappers the night before LOL... Awesome 🙂
The boy was flying again yesterday, really getting on with it well and working with Katy on specifics. It's interesting chatting to him how Katy and Sam whilst from the same place of coaching, relay their information and thoughts in very different ways, along with analysing and observiving completely different things in his riding. So was great to get 2 different sets of feedback from them.
We're off to Stile Cop this weekend for a small race, although only small in distance/elevation, not in field as there's a few fast lads out in his Cat which will deffo make him work and have to be on his A game to do well here. But that's what we want/need, to get to the next level we need to race faster lads and ride more and more with them. So Saturday he'll be on the Orbea sticking in lap, lap, lap, lap, then a couple of push-ups on the Session at the end of the afternoon to dial it in. Then Sunday will be on the Session all day of course.
Whether it's me or Mrs Weeksy taking him, remains to be seen. We may end up doing 1 day each just so i can rest up for the other day.
my big question of the day - why do you refer to him as "the boy" as opposed to "James"?
lol
I hoenstly can't even comprehend the drops. He was saying 1 of them is a slow drop, he hit that too fast on the first attempt. The second is a sender and it's just a question of comittment, apparently... Not in my world, not ever.
A massive help though is someone in front hitting them to guide you in, on the early runs he had Nathan and Ruben from Trailrippers who live nearby and they were hitting them, he knows them well in terms of their skillsets so it was a question of "ok, if they hit them at that pace, as long as i'm following i'll be fine".
MTBDH is such a confidence sport, once you have it you can find leaps really quickly. That's where he's at right now, he's finding confidence which if finding more and more speed and skills. I wish i had half his talent.
I wish i had half his talent
Me too, plus the confidence of youth!
Figured I'd post in here as there isn't much appetite for DH chat in the main forum.
I thought it was a pretty interesting chat and will be of interest for you if you've not already listened. Especially the bits about becoming a world cup DHer starting at Swinners!
One of the surprising takeaways for me is how he found there were more opportunities as a DHer with no reputation compared to a national champion MX rider. MX is often seen as what World Cup DH should be aspiring to be, but those mega bucks at the top don't mean anything at a national level.
I chat to him and his dad at races, so I'll give that a listen tomorrow. Thanks for that
Only my 2nd ever podcast i've watched... Really interesting stuff indeed. I'd have loved to be in the studio as there was so many questions i'd wanted to ask him that they never managed to fit in.
I admire some of his comments about sponsors and support and prefrences for who/what to use etc and why...
Race day. Stile Cop.
Some fast lads out today for sure and tonnes of crashes on the roots of despair sections.
The boy had an untidy run he tells me, mistakes in 2 sections and got caught out with sun vision. But stuck it in P3 on run 1 and 0.07 off.
That’s decent going then - fingers crossed for a cleaner 2nd run. I looked quickly and thought that was one of those old school chunky monitors with the huge back on them….the retro scoreboard not helping things!
Solid result. Is he happy with it 👍
Felt he had a bigger mistake than in run 1 but I expect everyone out there would say the same due to conditions. But yeah it's a great start to the season.
We finally seem to have hit on a happy place with the Session in terms of upkeep. It's been a bit of a road this one but not a complicated one as such and not individual to us from speaking to many other session owners. They just seem a bit 'fiddly' at times ith various little niggles. But we're now at the stage where when i get it back in the garage after a weekend it doesn't wobble, wiggle or clunk any differently.
The boy was commenting on the weekend after race run that he was having issues with 4th gear on changing down. I checked the mech hanger alignment and that was spot on, checked and slightly adjusted the B screw and still wasn't perfect so whipped the gear inner out and fitted a new one, he's got X01 gearing so should be pretty smooth. I do blame Trek slightly though as they've got a bit of a tight spot at the start of the chainstay where it's a fairly tight angle. But anyway i've got it pretty happy for him now.
This weekend is the 3rd race in short order and the last of races before we hit the Gravity/Nationals. There's a couple of big hitters in this weekend, Osh Morris from GT Viris who's just come up into youth and has beaten my lads times every time they've met, Finley from Commencal is present again who was 2nd behind my boy at last FoD race, Will Mosely (nephew of Tracey) is there and the Maplesden boys who are always handy.. Then adding in the usual fast FoD lads we've raced more than a few times of course. So he'll need to be on fine form this weekend to find his way onto the box. But we're as ready as we can be at the moment, so lets see what the weekend brings.
Race weekend again... then a couple of weekends off racing before Nationals on the first weekend of April. So last chance to scroe some points for a little while in the overall.
The boy has uplift booked for tomorrow for race practice and will likely spend most of the day on the race-track. Weather looking a little better than it has lately but it's still going to be slippery roots mostly. But we'll see how he goes.
Looking forward to it 🙂
So it was the 100% race at FoD today and a day filled with ups and downs, but arguably more downs (lying on the floor) than ups.
They'd cut a new trail within Corkscrew and the lad couldn't get on with the bottom bit they'd cut in. Flat and off camber corners meant he spent more of practice lying on the deck than on his bike. As more bikes came and cut away the loam it exposed more and more roots.
After 6 crashes he went off for a walk alone, so I caught up with him, gave him a hug and left him for 5 minutes to compose himself. At that stage I thought the bike was going in van and we'd be home for lunch.
He sucked it up and went for race run1. He came down in 22nd place and a chuck off, I thought he'd had a crap run but apparently he'd stacked it massively too on roots. Damn.
He'd snapped the bolt that holds in his SRAM Code RSC lever so the lever was all over the place. I threw on a new front brake and checked the bike over, all ok to ride. Adjusted and set up his bite and throw on it, ready.
After lunch rest it started raining and got wetter and wetter by the time he was racing, I had to Eeb it down and get his roll off goggles quickly.
I checked the times people were hitting and times were far off run 1 times.
He looked pretty sketchy on his roots section and almost binned it and came in with an 11th place.
Using just run 2 times he was 2nd fastest in class, but could only obviously make up a certain number of places.
I guess it shows where we are that we felt 11th wasn't awesome but it was far from terrible, after all he beat 53 other racers.
But he took it well and we went home pretty happy considering. He spent the rest of the time with mates laughing and joking and watching many people crash, it was a crash fest and comical.
I even watched my Status being stacked as a mate snapped his chainstay yesterday in practice so I brought him my bike to use.
Pics to follow
https://www.rootsandrain.com/event12337/2024-feb-25-100-mini-dh-2-forest-of-dean/results/
Some slightly interesting things from weekend.
We've as some may have seen, been having some 'wiggle' in the Trek Session. No matter what, i seem to get 2-3 days out of it before you can feel some play, somewhere.
Last time it seemed to be the lower shock mount point, so i fitted a different bushing and sent it out again.
Yesterday "my bike is making a goofy noise again".. GRRRRR
This time i was SURE it was the same lower bolt mount. So i did some digging. What i noticed was that the spacer that sits in the frame is really loose. I measured it at 23.99mm (so 24mm then). According to the Tech Docs on the Session it's 25mm for the frame mounts. So i chatted with my LBS and we thought a 25mm spacer would help with it... Funnily enough with the accumulation of spares in the various little boxes i happened to ahve a 25mm spacer of the M8 hole. Awesome. It was incredibly tight, so i filed about 0.1mm off it just to enable it to go in easier.
Once i'd then tightened it to 10Nm we didn't have any play at all.
So i'm hoping we can put this one to bed again.
The Session has been somewhat work to keep it running, but part of that you can see as soon as you start stripping spacers, bearings etc, it's just mud, wet, slop... Even though we dry it with a pet blower after every ride, the water still gets in everywhere !!!! As we've all noticed, there's very very few days and rides currently where it's been dry and 2 days most weekends of wet mud deffo takes a toll on the bike.
That just needs a quick clean now and it'll be all good.
Then i've got the clean the Orbea and the Status 😀
snapped the bolt that holds in his SRAM Code RSC lever so the lever was all over the place. I threw on a new front brake and checked the bike over, all ok to ride. Adjusted and set up his bite and throw on it, ready.
Is that the tiny bolt that holds the lever blade to the lever body, goes through the small bearing that the lever rotates on, and there are two, one either side of the lever?
If so, the lower bolt can work loose and just fall out if you dont double check it every now and again. I had this happen to me and it caused a large crash.
That's correct Julians. It's deffo snapped as when i take the other one out, i can still see some bolt in situ. It may have worked loose, but i don't know. Either way, i've bought a new blade/bolts and will sort as i can't get to that bolt and it's not worth the time trying to drill it out etc.
The boy got his own first real sponsor as well. (all the others have been part of Katys arranagements with sponsors) We're currently signed up with https://oxfordmint.co.uk/
Who will provide all our cleaning products/ lubes etc for the season for him, which lets be honest, at the moment is pretty damn important LOL.
We've been using their stuff recently anyway and by pure chance we were chatting to their Sales Manager who was looking for someone and was aware of us, so asked us to sign for them.
So expect a little product placement on some of his Instagram and pics in the future. It's hopefully a relationship that will grow in the coming months and years as they don't just do cleaning/lube stuff but a whole plethora of kit, clothing, bits, helmets etc through Oxford Products so we'll try our best to make it work for everyone.
I wouldn't normally steal a pic, but this is only until he gets home from school and we buy a set.
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Those in the know call this a T-bog. You take your hand off the bar and grab your seat in the air...
cocky bugger.
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Does he wear any body armour?
Yeah he varies between a Fox upper body protector, chest/back type and a full on suit/jacket type. On Sunday he was running the chest/back type as it's more comfortable. If i'm honest i prefer when he wears the fully jacket, but can understand at times why not. At places like FoD i don't enforce it, but at harder places i do.
Having a bit of a dilemma, not really sure anyone can offer much here but i like writing things out so they're clear in my head too
So the Session comes with https://fifecycles.co.uk/products/bontrager-line-dh-30-tlr-29-mtb-wheel?variant=44251399323822 Bontrager DH Line 30 wheels. On the Rear, Shimano 7-speed implies to me/Rotec that the cassette is optimised for 7 speed which is what the bike comes with.
We also have a Hope Pro5 in orange which comes with a 9/10/11 speed hub and you run a cassette spacer to offset from 7-10
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This is quite common on many DH bikes running 7 speed. However, here's the minor issue.
If we run just the cassette/spacer on the Hope Pro5 the cassette comes loose after 1-2 runs. This is because you need an extra 1.6mm spacer fitted which allows a smaller cassette stack height onto the larger free-hub. Now that's all kinda fine.... apart from one minor issue that when you do that the cassette is then out of sync in terms of positioning for indexing on the gears... So swapping a wheel means you then need to re-index the gears, which can be a 2 mins job or a 10 mins job if it's feeling fussy as you sometimes find the gearing is OK on the stand but when rider sag takes into account, it can then be out.
So i'm thinking of binning/selling the Pro5 (or keep as very very emergency spare) and buying a Bontrager as that's got the same offset, same layout etc, so theoretically will be a simpler swap.
So is the hope hubbed cassette 1.6mm further to the right as you look at the bike from the rear?
If so a super simple option would be to get a 1.6mm spacer made up that goes between the hanger and mech for quick swaps.
That's correct yes... must admit, that solution never came to my or Rotecs thoughts, but i'll certainly get his thoughts on it. We were thinking more along the lines of a spacer that goes on the outside of the 11 tooth cog, between that and the lock-ring, but still allows you to tighten the lock-ring.
Good thought though mate, thanks.
That was my other solution
Never a perfect solution when dealing dissimilar wheels especially when in a rush
Is the mech externally routed?
Option b if so is to get a spare mech and shifter that is setup for the order wheel and swap over mech and shifter at same time as wheel
If internally routed ignore
It's mostly external but some bits are internal. So wouldn't really fly.
Bit lacking in clips this weekend sorry, but it was horrible.
https://youtube.com/shorts/lqyHprdsfEo?si=8KyFXVjJomeq_GVC
May only really be of interest to me. But yesterday i was at RSR Bikeworks picking up some race rubber for the boy and we got chatting about frames and suspension as always and i was telling him about the spacers in the Session.
Funnily enough, he had a new shock for a Session in that he was doing last night for a customer and sent me this below.
A bit of information for you……..
I fitted that Ohlins shock on to a Trek Session last night. Struggled to assemble it with the 25mm shock hardware. Measured the RS Super Deluxe and it had 24mm hardware and had bent in the frame mounts.
Had to open the frame up a little to get the 25mm hardware in.
So it’s not just your shock with the wrong hardware.
All in all we both find it a bit weird that Trek built it to 25mm mounts and fitted a 24mm spacer.