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We'll blow me! That's a hell of a result, honestly. He's beaten guys who creamed him many times. The lad in 4th was the Pearce overall champ last year and dominated it.
I'm not thinking he's now going to beat these lads week in week out, but heck that's bloody incredible and a proper list of proper racers in there.
There's lots more coming in for the National this weekend, but wow, just
wow.
Top work the pair of you!
Great result for you both. Bet he's stoked with that. 🔥🔥🔥
Kept checking on Roots and Rain but looks like they were having problems
Nicely done!!! That’s a great reward for all the hard work, travel and spannering! Love following this story!
That's fabulous.
HTF though is one lad nearly 10s ahead of the rest of the field!
Well, that's Rheola done for the 2nd weekend and once again it was character building... in massive ways, both for me, him and in truth, most people 😀
Fri started lovely, the weather was decent and we spent a couple of hours playing at Pontypool, just a bit of a warm up really, no reason other than "why not" and he was loving the bike. 😀
Well, mostly... it had developed a creak.... which was then my job later on Friday to diagnose... That got interesting. I was stripping the bike down while he was out with Katy Curd on the track walk. I stripped pivots, linkages, everything, still got the noise.... WTF..
As i was putting the bike in the van, completely unweighted it creaked as i stopped... I ended up diagnosing it as a caliper bolt/caliper that was creaking.. Bit of a clean on the rear caliper/bolts and it was golden. The boy checked and confirmed. Awesome.
Sat brought... wet... rainy wet, again..
The bikes were coming back with their usual patina 😀
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53653940851_a2393bd34a_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53653940851_a2393bd34a_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pKdtkH ]IMG_20240413_130940[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53653940896_fe3a62fa0b_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53653940896_fe3a62fa0b_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pKdtmu ]IMG_20240413_125559[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
But the boy was happy and seemed to be going well 🙂
The bike though, well that had developed a bit of play.. lol... yeah i know.. i know. We're talking minimal things here but i do like/try and have it 100% each start of the day so back at the AirBNB and i've stripped the back end down again and replaced the pivot bearings which i think got damaged in the Friday repairs... but it still wasn't 100%. So i thought it was the upper shock bearing, i removed shock and fitted a spare shock we have which is brand new. Perfect... Shock back out and top bushing replaced in the shock and off we went for Indian and a relax.
It's hard to put into terms how much it takes out of both riders and crew at times, it's full on for both sets, the rider because they're doing all the work and the crew for standing round for 7hours, the pressure, intensity, etc... it's just pretty tough. We were both in bed and asleep fairly handy. (Well he was asleep, i struggled with sleep for some reason, maybe because it was the first National? Dunno).
Sunday brought dry and cold... well, dry in the sky but just as wet on the track. It was absolutey carnage all day, bikes, humans, everyhwere.. delay after delay, run after run of reds... getting flow wasn't happening. More delays, more ambulances... etc. Reports in the pits of rider XYZ having done this and that, broken this, broken that.... Jeeez.
Seeding/Qualifying was massively delayed, like 2.5 hours ish. He then didn't come down at his allocated time... Oh... As a parent when the clock hits about 5 mins, your heart sinks a little.. You know how good/bad your rider is and you have a time in mind that even if they had a small slip off, they'd still come down by... He ended up coming in after 7 mins something.. But he was down and apart from looking a bit muddy, was OK.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53654162803_b295ce7711_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53654162803_b295ce7711_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pKeBjt ]IMG-20240414-WA0002[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53654162813_0a1b0b76ed_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53654162813_0a1b0b76ed_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pKeBjD ]IMG-20240414-WA0004[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
He'd come off in the same spot countless others had done and waited for a gap so he didn't mess anyone up (mistake to do that really i guess) and came down. On the positives, he wasn't hurt and on Split 1 he was 19th, with Split 2 showing as 13th..
The bike was cleaned, then cleaned again, then again, lol.... new kit fitted and more and more delays, more and more ambulances.
Timing showed he'd finished 51st in Seeding which is good and bad as it means he gets to come down early in terms of riders...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/53653941906/in/dateposted/
But sadly that's where he finished... more and more delays meant the racing ended up being cancelled without anyone completing a run in any Cat. Results were taken from seeding times. So 51st.. bah. He'd been at the top of the hill for nearly 2 hours and eventually came down, but he was happy, he'd made a new friend up there chatting and had had a laugh 😀
To put into perspective, his class started Sat morning with 72 riders... with 52 completing seeding..
From what i can see on the results, 110 riders were DNF or DNS for seeding... I mean WHAT !!!!! That's bonkers.
The day then went even more bonkers as the Transit wouldn't start at the lights on the boot had been left on all day... But 30 mins later we got the bugger started lol... eventually rolling home late on Sunday evening.
It was... a weekend of... character building.
That is a great synopsis of why I have zero interest in ever doing a DH race in the UK again.
Also a great advert for picking a bike which doesn’t need endless maintenance.
@hobnob 😂😂😂 how to shoot a man down in 🔥 without looking like a knob
I didn’t mean it to be an arse, more along the lines of all that money & effort for the same old issues that they had 10 years ago when I used to race the nationals. It’s such a sh*t weekend on the bike, literally hundreds of pounds to ride your bike for about 20 minutes if you are lucky 🤦♂️
The second part is more of a reflection on the bike industry & their inability to produce reliable products (apart from a handful of companies). I think if I had to fix a bike that much & replace bearings at that rate, I’d set fire to it in the garden.
After the weekend I dropped the bike at Rotec to get some TLC. None of the jobs were outside of my skillset but I trust him massively and he does an ace job.
The main reason I dropped it off was 'time' and faff. The gear outer is a pain to route on the chainstay.
So the list was as follows..
1. Mech hanger fitting/replacing (bent in final practice)
2. Chainstay bearings (greased in Fri afternoon but we're past best)
3. SRAM RSC bit sticky on lever and RSC adjuster (been like that a while, needs rebuilding)
4. Gear outer replace, route internally at main triangle (squished by fork)
5. Reroute rear brake internally (to protect)
6. New 11sp chain. (4 months old, time to replace)
The shock and forks are off for rebuild and service soon, so want the bike 100% for Fort William in May.
He found a few other things too
I love that video. Brilliant UK racing.
Have to echo the above comment, the amount of workshop time for a 7k race bike is really staggering. Not sure it is a great advert for Trek. I appreciate it is ridden a lot in all weather's but that's the same for most regular riders and bikes. Most of my riding group dont race but ride in equal weather as regularly and will only get an annual service with half the issues that get posted here in a month.
That bike is getting significantly more hammer in the time than most normal bikes though I’d say. So whilst it’s a bit needier than some other DH bikes anecdotally - it’s still getting way more hammering than say my enduro bike.
Having seen the lad sessioning 50 shades at BPW; the speed he’s carrying and therefore the impacts the bike is getting is another level from most average riders.
Of course, he's riding downhill, better than I or most can.
But it's a downhill bike with downhill parts. A very pricey one at that. It's not a 2010 marin quake or something similar bodged together, it's a top end privateers favourite downhill bike. With some of the best parts money can buy for that purpose.
Not sure I’d agree Joe, I’m with suspended animation on this - the trek just seems to need a lot of tlc. Whether it’s because it’s not well thought out for UK I don’t know, but as rider in all uk conditions I never need to change as much
A lot of what Weeksy does is very much on the preventative maintenance side of things. E.g. a 4 month old chain on a DH bike that’s barely done any miles and the rider definitely isn’t putting down 1000watts when it is being pedalled. Along with bearings that weren’t tip top but weren’t wobbling or seized.
I’d imagine you could run the same bike with far less attention, but we all know that he loves spannering
That bike is getting significantly more hammer in the time than most normal bikes though I’d say. So whilst it’s a bit needier than some other DH bikes anecdotally – it’s still getting way more hammering than say my enduro bike.Having seen the lad sessioning 50 shades at BPW; the speed he’s carrying and therefore the impacts the bike is getting is another level from most average riders.
I’ll also disagree with that. The amount of actual riding time a DH bike gets compared to others is minimal. If you got an hour in total in a day you are doing very well - I can do 3 times that on a Friday afternoon.
There are plenty of people on here riding just as hard/fast on bikes that probably see significantly more overall use which don’t need a fraction of the amount of maintenance this thing does.
Been quiet on thread lately, apologies.
We've been sticking in the usual insane amount of riding, playing and just having fun, along with some pre-race testing.
First up was Staunton, that was somewhat eyeopening for me in terms of tech/trails and i got lucky a couple of times. The boy was having a blast with Katy and working on a few things though, he came back laughing lots afterwards.
We then went up to Rhyd-Y-Felin for a Pearce uplift day which was awesome for all of us.Him for riding and playing with mates, me for catching up with and chatting to parents. It was a long day with 5am start and getting home at 8pm, but it was worth it.
https://youtube.com/shorts/MXEZGycnQi8?si=kESZqwrtjVolfCw_
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6TcITss0F8/?igsh=MWx2d3VtbWVhdzZuNQ==
Dyfi this weekend coming on Monday for a last proper day out and then 11/12 of May is the first of the Pearce races, which is on the track he practiced. I've not entered myself for Dyfi as we're trying not to go too nuts on spending as i've had to throw some money at the Transit to make sure it's 100% for the upcoming trips to Scotland and Alps.
We found out he finished 3rd in the Stile Cop series, but we were not there for the final race as we were at a mates birthday, whoops. So we missed prizes and podiums, but it wasn't really significant in the grand scheme so doesn't much matter 🙂
https://www.instagram.com/stories/weeksy08/3358540533553302880?igsh=MXFnaXdlNW5yMGthZg==
Bit of fun for me and him up at pump track the other day, just messing about really. He carries so so much speed but what really impresses me is that he can switch between bikes so effortlessly, on the Dirt Jump, then the MTB etc....
Last weekend i had Mrs Weeksy spend some time with a scalpel and a new tool setup for this year.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53668457129_4c3781b148_4k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53668457129_4c3781b148_4k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pLuSwn ]IMG_20240421_111522[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53667231317_5610918887_4k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53667231317_5610918887_4k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pLoA8F ]IMG_20240421_111509[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53684190739_587d2ce7ff_4k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53684190739_587d2ce7ff_4k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pMTvzv ]IMG_20240428_090846[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
As a side note, we've been playing a lot of golf at the moment and is getitng there, his swing now looks half decent.. I used to teach/assitant-pro back in the day so i've been trying to guide him on technique etc.
Lastly, if people recall something from 6 months ago he was given a guitar from a member on here for cheap money and has been playing it a lot. Well, tonight is his first gig. It's only a school thing, like a battle of the bands type scenario, but he's playing lead on Hotel California, Roxanne and a couple of other songs i think.
Awesome day at Dyfi. Some great camera work by me 😄 😄
The bike seems to be holding up lovely at the moment. I fixed a few bikes today with broken bits for randoms, along with a local Enduro ride while he was playing.
He did have a creak when pulling his rolling stoppies in the paddock, but happily that's nothing more than his number board rubbing the top triple.
Here's the weekend video instead of Insta, i know not everyone uses Insta.
The jump on the hip nearly never happend, i waited there for 45 mins standing precariously holding onto a tree, he decided to take other clips at the top instead.
He then somehow spots me on the hip waiting as he's flying towards it and gets all steezy (his word not mine) and almost takes me out !!! lol... daft bugger.
https://youtube.com/shorts/VHqBLgavqjM?si=3DzUcg7J4dIDx44B
we're back to race weekend again, heading up Fri afternoon after his Biology exam (Yes he's leaving school this week !!!!) and kipping over both Fri night and Sat night. I'll be in the tent again this season and as with last year he's kipping in the van. I expect it'll rain, it always does
BBQ and maybe even a test of some pizza on the BBQ to change things about a little bit.
Race is at Rhyd-Y- Felin which is sort of west ish of Oswestry. It's a track the lad knows fairly well and mostly kinda likes it, although he has been a bit crashy there in the past, his massive over-the-bars and flying through the air crashes were both there, funnily enough at the exact same place on track both times ... Hopefully he's got that sorted now
Practice all day Sat and 2 race runs on Sunday, both counting for the series prizes but only the fastest counting in British Cycling terms.
Well as always this won't be the shortest one. Fri brought traffic, driving and eventually getting to track to set-up. We parked in the same place as the previous year and tried to save space for our mates, which worked out nicely and we had plenty of space and friends around us. I sent the boy out on track walk while i set up the pit and got some food on the go.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53716545502_bd01b0e33c_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53716545502_bd01b0e33c_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pQKkwf ]IMG_20240511_183737[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
Sat morning/daytime was practice and he spent the day with his mates riding, going crazy and having fun. The bike was running sweetly and he was happy with everything. The evening almost turned things sour as they were all playing on little bikes made for 5 year olds and doing ramp jumps, just about every rider came away with some bruising or cuts. But they were having a laugh and being kids for once at a race meeting. It was SO nice having a few beers, catching up with people and just seeing everyone enjoying it. The weather held and it was honestly just a brilliant evening.
I'd spent part of the day rebuilding a Hope Pro4 wheel for one of our paddock mate, re-taping it as it was losing pressure and sorting a few other bikes out too. The gazebo was so hot, but i was rewarded with a beer every now and again, so it's always nice.
Sunday was of course race day and it was time to play. The lad did 2 runs of practice and i then spent the next 2 hours sorting out a complete new drivetrain on a Specialized Demo which had ripped everything apart. It was cause IMO by a Chainguide that was fitted poorly, once that was realigned and a new mech, chain etc fitted it wasn't too bad, i sent that lad back out to play.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53717883375_a8ff986b98_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53717883375_a8ff986b98_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pQSce2 ]IMG_20240512_075718[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
Race run 1 i still get a little nervous as the boy has crashed a few times at Rhyd-Y-Felin near the finish area. He was the 4th rider down the hill and came in with what looked a decent time, but as the field came down he was always going to drop a fair few places of course. His run was a little scrappy he tells me but not a bad run all in all.
Last year his best result at Pearce was 22nd, yesterday on run 1 he stuck it in 11th.
Run 2 we changed a couple of little things, sent him out and thought we'd see what he could do, he felt he had something left to pick up some places potentially but you just never know what can happen. The weather was getting a bit dodgy, rain and thunder/lightening forecast and the sky was darkening.
A couple of small delays due to crashes but eventually he came down and his time was 0.008 different than run 1. He ended the day in 11th place.
I'll be honest and say it was slightly bitter sweet as pre-season he planned and set out "Finish top 15 at Pearce" which he had of course managed. However as we got closer to the race he'd targeted a Top10, so slightly unfortunate there
https://www.rootsandrain.com/event12601/2024-may-12-pearce-cycles-dh-1-rhyd-y-felin/results/#h-15-16m
Happily though race run 2 was 8th quickest of run 2s, so that'll give him a little something. But he was really happy with 11th, it's a damn fine performance and even though the gap to some of the guys ahead is fairly substantial, it's not the end of the world. Of course Felix is a mile away, but that lad is a World Cup podium in waiting, so you know what, we accept some are just quicker.
To top the day off, his teammate Katie managed to get the win in the girls Cat, which was honestly brilliant for her and completed the day nicely.
The rain and lightening then came and the day was canned mid-way though some of the other Cats, but apart from getting slightly damp putting stuff away, it didn't affect our day.
Eventually we made it home at 9.30pm and after unloading, a shower, it was basically straight to bed... It's sooooooo hard both as a parent and as a racer, the weekends are just LONG !!!
He's back to GCSEs this morning, with English Lit as the days exam, he spent 2-3 hours on the way home revising yesterday and some of Friday, so hopefully he'll get on OK with it
Nice to hear you both had a good weekend. 👍
I’ll be honest and say it was slightly bitter sweet as pre-season he planned and set out “Finish top 15 at Pearce” which he had of course managed. However as we got closer to the race he’d targeted a Top10, so slightly unfortunate there
If I'm reading the results right though, he would have placed top-10 in the 17-18 age group, so it's not too bad...
That Felix Griffiths would have placed 2nd in the Elites!
The boy just messing about on Weds evening with Katy, going through the details and picking up little snippets of information week in week out from her. Her (and his) dedication is fantastic, I sometimes wonder if she dreads my emails as i spend a lot of time picking her brains. But in reality she seems to love it 😀
The Session has been golden for a while now, whatever issues we had have not been present and the bike is running sweetly. We're heading into Fort William next weekend so it's all be little details for me on the spanners, things like the idler bearing area cleaned, checked bearings, the lower chainguide bearing cleaned, checked etc... Little tiny things like that.
We're currently breaking in some new pads, yesterday he was out bedding them in. First set is a set of EBC and we've got a set of Galfer Pro to try this week if we get out. I was chatting with the boy/Katy about braking and whether we can make up time using the brakes in different ways. We've run Uberbike race matrix pads for ages, but the fact he's getting 6 months+ out of a set of pads makes me wonder if we're really making the most of the brakes in terms of pads/performance, hence wanting to try something else.
I tried a set of Hayes Dominion on Katy's bike this week and they feel AWESOME... but chatting to my mechanic, they're a bit up/down in terms of rebuild, servicing, repairs etc and the SRAM Code RSCs really are incredibly simple on his bike. We've never had an issue with them and they just 'work'. The mechanic was selling me on the idea of Tech4 Hopes, so he's going to grab a set of spares and we'll fit them to the Session for Antur Stiniog shortly as a 'test' and see if the boy gets on with them. I'd then need to find my big boys wallet to get them bought lol.
He's still mid-GCSE mode and working hard, so this weekend racing is taking a back-seat, which i'm fine with, we'll soon have them done and be back in full flow.
The Galfer green (ebike?) pads appear to be awesome - I've fitted them to my lad's bike and they seem very good. No idea on longevity but they're a hell of a lot bityer than any matrix pads I've ever used. I've often had them glaze over and become wooden and useless.
https://youtube.com/shorts/ZfhnTj4QcZI?si=J12ppWjpdCM5n7od
https://youtube.com/shorts/MYZ8IKVCiB8?si=9m8Kwimdo1sMPd_U
Well as always that was some weekend.
Sat brought a load of new kit, jersey, helmet and gloves. So the boy was looking pretty flash.
Saturday brought great weather, not too many flying insects and lots of flying riders, some well and some badly! The attrition rate was pretty high, although not as high as it was for wheels.
The wheels on the Session though survived well, but for some reason we don't seem to suffer wheel issues. He was running 22F and 22R with an Argotal front and Krypto rear, both DH super soft.
Practice went well and he went into seeding pretty happy.
Seeding he placed 24/72 which wasn't bad, but he felt he couldn't quite let go like he should and does on other tracks. But a solid run down.
Sunday started dry and went well again, more crashes and more people off for A&E. But ours went smoothly enough.
As we got to 12ish and the rains came, hard and long, staying for a chunk of the day. This changed the track massively and my cleaning job for race
But he's happy in the wet so went up for race run. It went well enough, he was 4s slower than yesterday in the dry, so we were happy with that and more importantly, both him a d the bike in one piece.
22/68 he placed. Not quite hitting 20th which was his goal for 2024. But the field as always in Youth is insanely hard, people fast as heck everywhere. So we came in happy overall.
We ended the day with a funny media moment, but not for him! More to follow on that
I'll write a bit more when back next week, but for n
ow, that's your lot.
Just catching up with the last few pages, good to see you still going.
I tried a set of Hayes Dominion on Katy’s bike this week and they feel AWESOME… but chatting to my mechanic, they’re a bit up/down in terms of rebuild, servicing, repairs etc
we’ve got a set of Galfer Pro to try this week
getting 6 months+ out of a set of pads makes me wonder if we’re really making the most of the brakes in terms of pads/performance, hence wanting to try something else
I second the awesomeness of the A4s. With your maintenance regime perhaps you can afford to run the brake he likes the most. Not many pad options, but that includes Galfer so no problem really, and OEM are good too.
the idea of Tech4 Hopes, so he’s going to grab a set of spares and we’ll fit them to the Session for Antur Stiniog shortly as a ‘test’ and see if the boy gets on with them
The style of lever on these seems pretty different to anything else out there, so I wouldn't be surprised if he makes his mind up pretty quickly.
As you're definitely sweating the details with everything, have you considered telemetry DIY or a session with someone who knows what to do with the data?
Where's the tyre journey at by now, have you settled on those Contis you mentioned?
I see he's riding well from the Insta clips. I think what he's wearing is normal for the circumstances, and speaking purely from wanting the best for you while not judgemental, I see him sending the non-DH bikes with an open face helmet, no gloves or elbow protection. Hope you can keep in 100% health throughout the season, without picking up some annoying niggles like even a scraped palm off the pump track.
We ran ebc this weekend, but in truth he didn't notice any difference between them and the Uberbike race matrix.
We're at Antur on Thursday to test the Galfer. We're both happy with the RSC so they'll be staying.
Funny enough that you mentioned the elbows, he's got a full Fox jacket but he's had that nearly 2 years and is too tight and restrictive, so at weekend he used the hard vest type and elbow pads we borrowed off a mate, so we've now ordered a set of those as he liked them.
Suspension is looked after by TFTuned and it's off there for a service in a couple of weeks.
Conti are indeed the choice we're sticking with. We do have an option of a tyre sponsor but I don't think we'll take it up in truth.
His riding is still going in the right direction, he was 30s quicker at Fort William than he managed last year, but of course everyone in the class improves too, so his position wasn't that much higher in terms of placing.
We ended up coming back last night instead of today, i think everyone had peaked and just wanted their own bed, so instead of stopping half way down for the night, we just stopped for food there and i made the final jaunt getting back at 10.30pm .. So everyone a bit tired.
The weekend though was awesome again, the Highlands of Scotland are a lovely place (if you ignore the midge bites i have now) and the track/racing is incredible there
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53750951437_d3ce9668b5_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53750951437_d3ce9668b5_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pTMFd2 ]SDA-Fort-William_DSF9603[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
He'll have to get on the case of picture purchasing, but for now this one will do.
It was great seeing the boy bonding with his mates again and riding all weekend with them, they're all becoming a tight little group and having fun, it'll be a shame when that invariably ends as people drift off either into teams or other sports, but for now we're really enjoying the vibe in the pits they all have together. Sadly though one of the crew broke her collar bone in the morning on Sunday and ended up having to head early to A&E to get it seen to, but as we know, that's the nature of the beast and sport. She's OK though and everyone has been really helpful and positive to her.
We had a few interesting fixes as always over the weekend, Katies (team-mate) Session needed a pivot main bearing set swapping, happily for her she had both me and the Trek mechanic from Cotswold Cycles on hand and it was swapped quickly and easily.
On the morning of Sat after run 1, our mate Isaac had an issue that his rear axle was mullered, the threads were destroyed. We set about a plan and sent his mum to Nevis Cycles and we tried to think of weird and wonderful fixes we could go with. I then thought i'd go see Andy at Viris. They ran GT Furys the same as Isaac previously. In a very weird twist of fate, one of Andys riders had lost his bottom shock mount bolt/spacer and was running round the pits like a loony before having to end up going home early.
So, I had one of these bolts/spacers and a deal was struck with Andy, he gets our spacers and we get the axle 😀 happy day. Isaac was back out racing 😀
Over the rest of the weekend it was mostly wheels. Not for us, although we did have spokes loosening, but many many broken, battered and destroyed wheels throughout the paddock.
The boys race run was fairly solid and looking at the results his actual position in relation to various riders is about right in truth, that's where he is in the grand scheme of things roughly. So we're as always happy to get down in 1 piece with a bike that works and a rider that's not broken. He is again closer to the guys who are occupying the higher places and of course that's his job to work out how, why and what he can do to get closer and up to them. We will of course plan and work on that in the coming months (Starting with Antur Stiniog on Thurs) But the reality is, these riders are just bloody impressive as riders, any single one of them could 'make it' in terms of results in the coming years, it's no shame in being 22nd in a National DH in this Youth cat that's for sure.
So today it'll be into the garage later to sort, check, clean, etc both kit and bike, organise gazebos, chairs and everything else, it's half a days job at the end of each weekend and honestly really it drains you but, well, it's what we do 😀
We are considering a bit of a plan change later in the year now, the plan is/was to race all the Nationals with Glencoe being the 3/4 Aug. However we're also racing Champery for the European Championships on the 10/11 so we'd be getting back from Glencoe on the Tuesday and driving to Morzine on the Wed and i simply don't think that's going to work. Add into the fact the midges and desolation of Glencoe, the £300+ expense of racing there and of course the potential for a mechanical/accident that would wipe us out of the Euro Champs, it's just not the best idea i think. So we're pretty much decided on canning Glencoe. Riding or skipping 1 National isn't going to make or break his season and define where he ends up in the sport and there's only so much we can realistically do sometimes.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53752399710_77b61c0c3f_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53752399710_77b61c0c3f_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pTV6Jf ]_DSF9596[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
Cool pic by Hannah the Editor 🙂 (and now friend)
Great write up.
I think it might be the right decision regarding the events, Its not only hard on the driver if no one is sharing but still takes it out on the passengers. If it was me I would spend the extra time and go out to Champery a few days early.
We once did a back to back races with Abigale and the EWS events in Ainsa and Finale. 2700 mile round trip. Finale was the last round of the season and Abigale came back to the van at 6.00am Monday morning after the afterparty. She had to be in Uni next day. We got back in time but wouldn't want to do it again
Thanks lots, we don't have any intention of stopping this game yet. It's a heck of a ride. I don't think at times I can quite convey how much of a rollercoaster this is a lot of the time, from joy to frustration, to despair and back to joy.
Where he ends up with it all doesn't matter, he'll be who he'll be, but we're riding the train until the proverbial wheels fall off.
We've gone slightly rogue and booked a FoD race in a couple of weekends time. His race mate is struggling with belief at the moment and it'll give him a bit of a boost, so we said we'd enter too. I'm tempted to book myself, but not sure yet. I'll see if I can still ride a bike this week at Antur and then I've got my own coaching session on Sunday, maybe after that I'll book it.
I’m loving the more recent updates, such a huge change in confidence and comfort on the bike.
He always looked so awkward back a few years with his bars too wide (say what you want, but he was a young teen, he didn’t need it), elbows out because he’d been coached the fundamentals of weighting but was still learning his way into fitting that stance and I was never particularly impressed with his riding style - not something I’d have commented in the past because it’s just plain rude to someone trying so hard - but he’s through that now and on the other side so sod it, it’s great watching him ride in his vids now he’s got bigger, older, stronger. And he looks bloody brilliant in those photos. Trusting and following the process has clearly worked.
I’m so pleased you started this thread, what a journey for you to go on with him, it’s awesome to see the bonding!
Thank you fella.
Just because I don't necessarily agree with someones feedback or comments, don't think for a second I don't appreciate the thought. I'll be the first to admit that I may not always come over that way.
We drove up to meet mates at Antur last night, to be honest I could still do with resting instead of driving up here. It wasn't helped when we rocked up at our campsite, we'll, in a very loose term. I'm not sure if the midges or the sheep were worse, possibly the sheep standing outside the tent screaming all night.
But we then had an excellent day here at Antur and met a few other racers who are all now going nuts on the hill pushing eachother.
Last night's pizza for lunch and of course some cake.
It'll then be a long drive back and work tomorrow
I got about 8-9 laps in myself today which was ace, if a little lonely lol.
Race run POV from today
@weeksy is that Tan Aeldroch farm/Camp Snowdonia? Incredible midges in the wrong weather! And very rustic, but I love it. Some great swimming spots in the river and a terrifying ladder walk.
There's another campsite up on the A5, Dolgam, that's a bit less rustic but similarly priced.
Yeah i think so.... The midges just kinda spoiled the evening as we couldn't really sit out and enjoy the evening, we ended up just sitting in the van.
By the time i got up at 6am we'd noticed several couples/families had gone already. It's not the campsites fault of course, but had we known in advance we'd have arguably come up with a different plan for the night as it just spoiled some of the dynamics for us. But wasn't the end of the world of course.
National isn’t going to make or break his season and define where he ends up in the sport and there’s only so much we can realistically do sometimes.
I know very little about mtb racing, but from reading alot of your existing posts, currently most of the racing is mixing with the same lads at every race.
From my experience as a ski racer, and my son playing football, if you have ambition to make it top level, you need to see how you compare on a more global level, and at some point that means you can actually go backwards for a little bit. By the time you are 17 you kind of know if you are going to get there or not (yes there are always exceptions)
However it can help define where you on in the sport. For myself and I think my son, it affirmed that the end go isnt out of reach as actually the competitors in the rest of the world are not actually any better (ie not attainable as a stepping stone) It can act as a massive motivator.
If your lad is consistently top 20 and now entering European level races psychology will start to play as much in to it as talent.
Yeah 100% he's racing the same lads race in race out. Pyschology is something we/he have been working on and he's got a sports psychologist (yeah really) he's been working with and trying to unlock certain aspects of the game.
I agree that we're getting to the stage where we 'know' how far (or not) he's likely to go in this game and that's why plan B's are in place (if you've listened to Hanahas podcast you'll hear a bit more about those).
I have no massive misconceptions that he's the next Jackson or Bruni, that's not our realistic goal within racing. He's not even the next George Madley, so we're planning things with him one day getting something out of MTBing that'll give him an income, but with the potential for all the little things to add up to being and staying a racer should the cards fall right for him.
There's still a lot we can do both in terms of riding and behind the scenes that will give him the chance to push to the next level within himself, but it's not quite a simple case of BOOM quicker.... it's a long slow drawn out process at times.
For example, his video above is riding the same track as 2023 race where he finished 48/63. Last year his time was a 3.17 with yesterdays time being a 2.58 so he's getting quicker and quicker. (But as we know, so is the competition).
For now we just keep on plugging away, trying to get with the faster lads and trying to push things a bit more each time he rides and races.
Thanks man. He does know the track pretty well in truth and some of the faster lines, although I know the lines, I just can't implement them 😕
I'm not sure where he started and finished the timing beacons but he got 3s quicker from a 48s to 45s on the timed segment, working on suspension tweaks/settings. But yeah at times he's bloody fast. (But amazingly some of the Youths blow him away)
Will be interesting to see how this weekend goes at MIJ race in FoD on elephant man.
We've entered to help a mate out who we race and pit with quite often who's struggling a bit in results and mindset, so we're trying to keep everything as fun and chilled as possible, but with a race thrown in too.
He's out for coaching before that though on Wed to drag a bit more speed out of him. But again that's more about time away from exams and enjoying a bit of fun really.
FoD race today with MIJ and familiar territory for the boy. We wouldn't arguably race these at the moment, but it was a free weekend and we had no other plans, but also our mate wanted us there for moral support. So we jumped on and entered him.
We didn't go for practice yesterday as most did, but arguably he knows the track and the forest as well as the next person.
Setup and practice went smoothly and he was feeling fine.
Run 1 he ended up in 1st place with a 1.07.60 and about 1.8s clear of the next placing. Onto run 2 after a lunchtime game of battering eachother with a mini-basketball with his mates and he set off. Watching the rest of the class/Cat come down some looked RAPID... As he passed me about 3/4 of the way down he'd forgotten to put his goggles on (muppet) but he looked OK.
Got to the bottom and he'd improved to a 1.06.30 and won by 2+ seconds. So an excellent result and the 4th fastest time of the day for him so again, pretty happy.
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Onto Antur Stiniog for National DH in 2 weekends time (Foo Fighters gig next weekend)
Great to meet @dirkpitt from the forum and his daughter 🙂 (Top job young lady) sorry we couldn't chat more but i missed you first time, apologies.
Great to catch up with you @weeksy and thanks for the chat.
She was chuffed with her day - she was apprehensive after first practice as it's a big step up from the 417 races.
Aim of the day was not to crash and just improve.
Her second race run was a lot quicker but a mistake before the first road crossing meant having to push back as she out braked herself.
So overall time didn't reflect the improvement.
Also a really great atmosphere and everyone we spoke to were friendly and helpful.
Your lad looked rapid all day, congrats on the win.
She was chuffed with her day – she was apprehensive after first practice as it’s a big step up from the 417 races.
Oh yeah it's night and day compared to a 417 mate, so she did brilliantly and you should both be properly proud of that performance. Cracking job.
My son was there racing at the weekend as well (unfortunately i was off on a stag weekend so didn't make it) , he saw James and said he was looking fast.
It sounds like it was a tight race from 2nd to 10th place but James was the clear winner so congratulations, my lad finished a couple of seconds down on him - he said he couldn't get enough speed on the flattish top section so lost the time there.
Congrats to him squealer, i was watching at the bottom section for both runs and plenty of the last 10 riders seemed really quick, a couple getting caught out with a slight slide, a slightly wrong line here and there, but in reality, they all look bloody great to me. This sort of track and race are always exceptionally tight and 1s can move a rider up or down 5-10 places with ease... it's bonkers just how close it all is.
Nice win 🙂 Good luck drinking champagne out of those podium shoes 😂
Hahahahaha it was commented on by Mrs Weeksy at the time of going up to the podium.. I don't even question why he does some of the things he does, it's just all part of him being him. He seemed happy with his choice of footwear for the podium so we just let him go with it.
race clips for the non-Insta people.
https://youtube.com/shorts/SB4kahkGlZI?si=yMsY6O-3tUc7pBOL
See you with updates in a few weeks 🙂
As you're sweating the details, have you considered a silent hub? Everything feels slower, but is actually faster in my non scientific experience. You can hear the grip. Some marginal amount less drag too. Plus it might psyche the competition!
We're not sweating the details fella, we're just organised and prepared really. Sure we are more organised than most at times, but as you'll see in his clips, not always as he came down with high goggles swinging round his neck (and went faster still)
Can't say I've given silent hubs a second thought though in truth. We e got the bikes dialled now, with the new Galfer pads in, some dot 5.1 in there and a Kryptotal tyre on the front, we're as good as can be.
There's things I've thought about like O-chain devices but dismissed as not required. He can still find plenty of time in himself before we get into any more details that'll empty my wallet.
The forks and shock are off for service this week, then it's 3 days at Antur for nationals.
Just realised I used that phrase again, unintentionally! I don't mean to suggest you're obsessive, only that you're good with maintenance and are experimenting with things like tyres and brake pads where you see it matters. And evidently considering other ideas and making informed decisions to put them aside or deprioritise them.
Yeah, no worries. I wasn't offended or anything, just a bit confused.
We/(more me I guess) do like trying to get things better for him. If we can get more speed for little consequence of cost, then yeah we're all in for it.
That said, I am a little/lot obsessive yes, but hopefully not to either mine or his detriment. But there's so many things to juggle in terms of bikes, kit, sponsors, riding, coaching, parts etc. it's not just a case of "have bike, will ride" there's lots of other things going on in both the foreground and background.
I've sold 4 sets of Uberbike pads this week, but I think I've got 5-6 left. Which I'm using to fund some Galfers which he's now decided are superb.
The main focus though is as always coaching with Katy which I still believe is a massive reason he's getting better as the months pass. So much so that we're trying to persuade her to come to Champery for the Euro Champs. Her knowledge of things and the way she sees tracks, lines, markers, it's bloody impressive I can tell you.
****ing STUPID companies.
I wanted/needed to replace the lads SRAM DUB preload spacer on his cranks, the SRAM one is made of soft plastic and splits/breaks really easily. This is alu and a bit stronger. So i'm trying to fit it, looking at the pic on the back of the box
Preload Ring > Dub Spacer > 30mm spacer
That's how their pic goes, with pretty little boxes and arrows to point to each.
But it doesn't fit right... I'm then thinking are you SURE... So i google it and there's a video with a guy who picks up the 30mm spacer (as per box) and says, fit the DUB spacer... Errrrrrrrm.
So i ring Muc-Off.
"yeah, you need to ignore the box, it's completely wrong"
I laughed, he laughed, oh how we all laughed.
Jeeez.... really lol.
is that one of the cheap £10 ones? I thought they were Raceface Cinch fitment but the video on the website does show them fitting it quite successfully to a DUB crank. Very odd.
Yeah reduced to £10.
Fits perfectly when you know you're fitting the correct parts 😀
I was tempted by one as the plastic thing on my Cinches has a crack in CSK tab and this is so cheap it seemed daft not to, limited colours though at that price. What colour did you go for?
Orange to match his Hope
Went racing with the boy at FoD last night. It's only the Fod Thursdays mates race thing, but a decent bit of fun with a friendly bunch and a bit of a laugh. The track was partly on what's known at Seths Corners, but veering off half way down. It was sketchy and the rain then increased which meant it wasn't really worth putting in more laps for me.
His was far more glorious than me, i'm not exactly sure where his skills come from, but it's clear to see where they don't !!!
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[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53788504727_0dce77a947_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53788504727_0dce77a947_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pX79ux ]IMG-20240613-WA0004[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
He's still deep in exams with Physics today, so i've been up early and stripping the forks out of the Session along with the shock and i'm heading off to TFTuned to get them to wave a magic wand over the bouncy bits this morning. So it's a full stripdown and service for them and a coffee and WFC (work from cafe) while they do that...
We looked at those after you mentioned it last weekend.
Would be great but it's a bit too far for us to do as Daughter doesn't finish school until 4, and then it'd be a battle down theM6/M5.
He's putting down some pretty rapid times!
yeah we were lucky yesterday as it was an exam free day, so he was cool to get over there. Next Thurs we're at Antur, but we'll be at the next next one as he's finished for summer holidays then. So all good.
Thanks mate, obviously last night was just playing and he rode the Privateer for the evening so he could pedal back up, but was a decent couple of runs for him but was more just a mess about that fully serious.