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Good luck today. I know you love it but try and enjoy the downtime and time off the spanner’s, chance for you to watch elsewhere on the track compared to normal perhaps?
How’s the weather looking? I’m in Devon and it’s scorching down here.
Weather is great, we're sitting drinking coffee and cakes
He's 3 runs in and had a new gear inner and outer last night. Seems happy with the track and riding
Morning done and he's chilling now until race. Last run was 2s quicker than yesterday seeding run, so that is good. He's been trying and hitting some new lines.
Race time 4.15 roughly
Excuse me for crying, but he only bloody finished 2nd
That’s amazing, congrats to you both!
Awesome! Congratulations!
Great result!
Epic!
Brilliant!
Well done both of you congratulations!!
Well done both.
Must be the new guy on the tools!?
Well done both of you . Top result and well deserved.🍺🍺🍺
That's bloody awesome mate 👏
Well done 👍
That Is Absolutely Fantastic, looks like he's made a bit of a jump in levels.
A great result on a long journey (not talking about the drive to FW).
I can see a few tricky decisions in the weeksy family's future...
Even some prize money! Hope you got a driver’s cut 🤣
great result well done
Fantastic. Congratulations, you both must be over the moon.
What a result! congratulations
Thanks all, I can't reply to each in turn, so just thank you to all.
We're just into a Travelodge now after leaving very very late due to podiums, but what a reason to be running late.
Amazing amazing day, more so because at the start of the day we'd have accepted our year goal of inside top 15. That was it for Nationals. So to hit P2 is just utterly ridiculous and makes it so so much sweeter than we could imagine. The boy rode an absolute dream run, even though we had some pre race complications I'll write more about tomorrow, which again, just made it even better.
Jeepers.
Congratulations to both of you. That's a stellar result and shows why someone was taking an interest.
Where do i even begin with this one.. It was as you've gathered from my mobile phone posts somewhat of a weekend... I need a lie down but sadly i've got to strip his bike down and get the forks and shock off to TFTuned tomorrow for servicing (thanks lots guys) so no rest for the wicked. But before i start that and working out what to do with the bike we'll get a 5 mins typing session and a quick report.
Fri and Sat went smooth as silk.. really easy days, apart from the incident with the cranks which was quickly taken care of by the crew at Sterlands. Their mechcanics went straight from Fort Wiliam to the World Cup in Poland, so are clearly top drawer mechanics.
Sunday practice went great for him and he'd gone from a 5.09 in seeding down to a 5.07 with a couple of lines he had seen/found/watched. His goal was a 5.05 which if all went perfectly would see him somewhere around top 10 and smashing his goal for the season. But it was a big ask (so i thought).
This is where it all went crazy as 45 mins before race start time i took his bike off the workstand and the front was completely flat. Nothing... Nada... oh for the love of all that's insane in racing... The mechanics were up the hill with their riders who were due down shortly, so i was back on the spanners. We didn't want to risk just pumping it up as we've seen that happen with it going down in the queue (and saw yesterday too).
So it was over to the van and grabbed the rear wheel... Oh.... Argotal on there. FFS.
"we have time to swap to a Kryptotal please ?" says the boy..
"lets find out".
So an F1 stylee pit-stop and a used Krypto and the rotor went onto the wheel and we prayed to the race gods that it would stay inflated. I then grabbed the tyre off the flat wheel, whipped the tyre off, checked the tape and valve, re-seated that and inflated it.. Then grabbed all the wheels and shot up on the gondola with him (with a pump too and tools)
It wasn't an issue in timing as some poor kid ended up stacking it and needed an air-ambulance. However that also gave us time to see if the tyre stayed up etc.. Happily it was golden and with 15 riders in front of him i grabbed his hoodie and headphones and jumped in the gondola again, hopefully to watch him coming down...
But a red flag kicked in and i was at the bottom before he'd set off.
As they're going in slowest to fastest, techincally speaking when the rider comes down next they should go P1, but that's rarely the case and unlike to be for him as Fletcher had a chain issue in seeding and was down 4 riders before him.
As expected, Fletch came down with a blistering time and went P1, but then we were waiting for the boy, Tyler was in front of him and taking longer than expected (we later found he had a slow puncture) and just after Tyler the boy popped into sight behind him. The fast lads were skipping the box drop as it gave more speed into the cliff face that follows and the boy was ON IT. He then looked like he was going to do what Tahnnee did one time and stack it into the side fence... but it was OK, he came over the line in P1 !!! Whoop.
So he's on the hot seat but we're expecting that to last 30s... Then the next, the next, the next all came down but no-one was ahead of him and suddenly you're thinking "hold on a second, if these all beat him he's still 5th and on the bloody podium at a National !!!
The next few come down and STILL no-one has knocked him off but next is Finn Holling on the Zerode, he's insanely fast... but Finn doesn't come down at all. So now he's sitting at a worst of P4... Next up is Billy, who again is stupid fast but Billy goes P2 behind the boy.. ! WTF is going on here.
Ok so it's Tom Westgate, World Cup junior racer.... He goes P4... !!! Holy hell, there's only Josh left on the hill and he's still sitting in P1....
We know Joshy and his dad pretty well, whilst the boys are not mates i chat to his dad a lot as we're always at the bottom together...
Josh comes down and takes the win, fair play lad... bloody impressive. But the boy is sitting in P2 in a Fort William Junior National...
There's a few re-runs which had the heart in the mouth, but he ended P2.
His goal was a 5.05 and he put in a run of 4.55... 14s quicker than his seeding which he thought was nailed...
I'm actually fighting back the tears just writing this, the emotional build up over this last few days, weeks, years, it's just really really hard. We've all put in an insane amount since he was finishing 5th from last at a 417 race and now he's just podiumed at the top-tier of British racing in juniors..
We have had an incredible amount of help from people on here, people away from here and people we maybe had no right to get help from lol... but they've all done tonnes to help make him fast in their own way and each and every one is appreciated by us.
I'm going to do the van now before i turn into a blubbering mess... this is the bloke who does not do emotions... not ever, not a little bit..
Beautiful write up. Well done weeksys
Awesome thats a result to be proud of on a big course! Hopefully he kicks on from here and gives him the boost of confidence to realise he is pretty damn quick.
But more than anything what a awesome dad’n’lad combo you guys are and as a dad to you g kids you are a pretty good inspiration
That's great stuff. Well done.
I can see a few tricky decisions in the weeksy family's future...
Well as a start point the weekend has just cost me £3000 as i'm now never ever ever allowed to sell this Session frame LOL. On pain of death will this be sold. His ideal is that it ends up mounted on the wall of his house... whether his wife/whoever would allow that, only the future can say... but i can't really argue with him considering what him and it have been through and done together, especially with this weekend of course.
As for the other tricky decisions, well that's a whole kettle of insanity right there, but obviously as i've said previously with some things, there's very little i can put on here, at the end of the 2024 and into 2025 we had our hearts set on something which was honeslty a bit life-changing for him, but at the last minute it fell through and he was totally gutted about it all (as was I) but thats the nature of the sport and the industry at the moment there's ups and downs, good and bad, and this one came bad in the end. There was another option which we didn't feel was quite the right timing, but looking back in hindsight, may well have been the correct timing after all.... but we learn from this and we keep plodding on. It's complicated but in the very very best kind of way i guess.
We've got some major bike decisions that we're weighing up, but that's also potentially been put on hold. It's been suggested the Session is too small for him, but how can i possibly argue that point now after the way he's going... he loves the Session and unless something pretty dramatic happens in the coming months, it'll be staying as the race bike for this year.
He spent a lot of time this weekend on the Zerode, but only playing in the paddock, it's the latest generation G3 version with Smart Shift and lets just say, it felt superb and both of us are pretty taken with it, but it's a massive chunk of change to find (especially now i'm not part-funding it with the Session lol) and that's needing a fair bit of discussion before we take a leap... They're nice though, really nice.
This weekend we're at Dyfi for the day and testing an A200 and an S200 with a potential discussion on one of those as well.
But, we can't jump on any of these discussions currently of course lol.
The only thing I don't like about the Atherton is it's mullet only.
The Zerode is an interesting choice, just over £7k for the full build inc tax isn't too bad.
So is the Zerode. So are the majority of DH bikes currently.
He runs full 29 on his Session
This is just 1 of 4 major issues on this rear from weekend. I think my mechanic at Rotec could potentially save it, but I'm not sure it's worth it.
I'm pretty sure it was straight before the weekend, but clearly 11 runs of Fort William is about it's limit lol. It survived the race run, but how many of those were present before the race I'm not sure. I did the spoke tension just before his last run, but I must admit I wasn't much looking at the rim. If it stayed up, it was good enough.
Glad we're away from here for a few months now, I need a new wallet!
Wow. I wish both my kids (and my) rear rims were less dented than that!
But I get it needs to be reliable.
Wow. I wish both my kids (and my) rear rims were less dented than that!
But I get it needs to be reliable.
LOL i'll get the opinion of my LBS mate on it as to whether we can save it and use or whether it gets replaced. I'm far from a wheel expert so i'll leave that to him this week when i go see him for a new NDS crank arm i'm collecting. Certainly for FW it needs to be about as good as it can, this weekend again was a complete wheel-fest for people with rims everywhere and wheels being rebuilt constantly.
We're back at FW again for National Champs in July, so we've got a bit of time for any decisions to be made on this sort of stuff.
The boy just found a funny pic from the podium
https://www.rootsandrain.com/photos/15559659
The 3 lads in red are part of Jack Readings Gravity School squad and there's a bit of friendly rivalry between them lot and us (the 4th lad is away at Poland so wasn't at FW), i get on well with the parents and we share some banter and laughs. When the champagne came out at the weekend there was clearly only ever going to be 1 person who got soaked by them 😀 😀
So we're onto this weekend. Lets just say this week has been somewhat bonkers, but as always i'm afraid there's a lot of it i can't get into... but it's been very very interesting for sure.
We're sitting watching Socials with a lot of interest this weekend as it's Poland WCDH and a lot of his close rivals are playing (although arguably they're quicker than him, but he's chasing them). So can't wait to see how some of them get on in the coming months with their GB jerseys.
We're heading up to Dyfi for bike Demos, A200 and S200. If i end up coming out of there without a £7000 bill i'll be quite impressed lol. Nah, seriously though, at the moment we're not buying or ordering anything, but we're both very curious as to what the weekend will bring with them and the back-to-back tests against the Session.
He's been out a couple of times this week, only at the local which isn't hugely tough for him, but IMO it really does mean he can work on the details, precision, line choices, technique in a way that he can't do at other places as he's concentrating too much. I can't see any way that more bike time and more riding won't help him, so i'm all over the idea when he wants to go. It also helps that he's been giving me some tips over there in terms of riding, lines and body position.
First job for today is to get his forks and shock installed when they come back from TFTuned after being serviced. I'll also be running the Session this weekend at Dyfi, but with his settings and my pressures to work with, i don't generally fiddle with the bouncers much so i'll just set the pressures and go.
Once that's done i'll get the Halo wheel (on the Bontrager hub) installed to see how that does at Dyfi and whether the hype is justified. The DT Swiss EX511 is completely dead so is getting rebuilt onto a new rim, but we'll see how this Halo does on Sat before we decide what rim ends up on the wheel.
I've been looking forward (and partly dreading) yesterday for a while now as it was Dyfi on the Atherton Bikes demo rides for the boy.
Apart from the fact it's 4 hours door to door,you've then got the potential expense of a new £7500 bike LOL.
Anyway, we got there and were met by Horatio, a top lad and really easy to chat to.
The days format ended up being
4 laps on the S200 (alu version)
4 laps on the A200 (carbon)
4 laps on the Trek Session.
The boy liked the S200 when bouncing on it with discussions of how it felt playful and fun (but we knew this in advance really). After his rides, not a lot changed in terms of him liking it "it's ace at fat whips" which i believe is a compliment.
He then knocked out fast laps of Racetrack with mostly (due to traffic) full top to bottoms on it.
Moving onto the A200 i was met with "Oh this feels awesome".. eeeeeek, £7500 bouncing around my brain lol. After 3-4 laps on that nothing had changed and he felt it was both faster and more stable than the S200. He deffo preferred this carbon version it seems.
But the order of the day was not about buying a cool bike, it was about buying the fastest bike too, so he grabbed some food and then set out on the Session, his old friend. The suspension was serviced this week by TFTuned and it had a new Halo rear installed we were trying out (it had done 3 runs with me riding it in the morning and was fine). So the bike was sweetly running and ready.
As you'd expect, the old comfy slippers didn't let him down at all and stuck in fast or in his world "that was rapid" laps.
It was the a fairly lengthy discsussion with Horatio, me and the boy as to which, why and how long.. The chat deffo veered towards us ordering an A200 in the not too dim and distant future, there's a LONG wait which poses somewhat of a complication because at the moment due to other discussions i simply have no clue what 2026 is going to bring. We're in a very incredible position of having 'options' at the moment which brings not only a lot of good things, but massive complications to any decisions we make on bikes too. I can't really be in a position where i spend £7500 on a bike that in 2 months time we don't actually want/need. So i'm pretty torn as to a few aspects of our plans now.
It was then back in the van for the 4 hours home and an hour of GoPro analysis with some fancy timing apps.
The tale of the tape
P1. Trek Session
P2. Atherton A200 + 1.4s
P3. Atherton S200 + 3.8s
Now that really is interesting as the A200 was running Fox 40s which he's never used before, along with Hayes Dominions which isn't a brake he's ever used (but felt great actually) and finally a Coil DHX2 which isn't his preference as he likes Air on the back (or maybe not now lol). So is 1.4s in the same ball park... Well yeah, it's right up there, but it's still a smidgen slower. I need to have a chat with a few people who 'know stuff' in terms of riders jumping on new bikes and the expectations from there.
Does that mean we're buying an Atherton... Not today, although Mrs Weeksy is happy that if we're going Atherton then we have approval, but we've got a few other tests lined up (sadly not at Dyfi for comparison) on other bikes/options, before we even consider pressing the button on one.
We (me and wife) want him to demo/hire an R3 Session at BPW for the day, but he's really not feeling the bigger Session depsite the fact it is arguably going to fit a bit better and is a 'known' options, i think he sees it a bit as "same thing different day" and isn't wanting to jump on the plan.
As for me, i spent the morning on his Session and the afternoon on my Gen6 Fuel... Bizarrely, i much preferred the Fuel, even at Dyfi.. which really surprised me. Whilst the Session absorbed the bumps in places a lot better, my weight was sitting more in the right place on the Fuel, i felt too far back on the Session. Once i'd got back on the Fuel i felt right at home and didn't want to get back on Session..
Interesting. Would have been good to have had a few more on the A200 after the Session.
Aren't you a bit big for his Session?
Interesting. Would have been good to have had a few more on the A200 after the Session.
Aren't you a bit big for his Session?
I hear you but he was 11 runs in or so and it was 4pm and last uplift. I'm sure they'd let us do another day on it though.
Give or take 1cm me and him are the same height. He's arguably the 1cm bigger now. So if I'm too big, obviously so is he. But that's where all this stemmed from, the thought from a few people that the Session is too small.
But I think a DH bike is quite specific in terms of riding position, maybe. I loved his at BPW, but at Dyfi, a bit less.
Interestingly, the Session at 465mm was only 5mm shorter than the Athertons. They both came in size 7 which is 470mm reach. But obviously you can buy them in any 10mm increments. However they don't have a 480mm demo bike. But we could try one which is owned by a staff member lol.
Once upon a time a very good athletics coach (wrote the manual) told me to see how fast you can get without really training... in your case , and especially bearing in mind the 2026 uncertainty I'd hold off spending money and just see how another year of racing goes in terms of progression
Once upon a time a very good athletics coach (wrote the manual) told me to see how fast you can get without really training... in your case , and especially bearing in mind the 2026 uncertainty I'd hold off spending money and just see how another year of racing goes in terms of progression
We're not buying anything just yet.. Progression has been high though and it's as much sizing and age of bike as it is to make him progress. I don't believe there's a bike in the world that will make a rider 5s quicker (assuming they're on a great bike already which he is) but the current Session has had a life, it's been and done everything time and time again, so they get a little tired, worn, used. There's also new technology coming out year after year, like the Zerode gearbox bike for example or the new Pivot or the new Sender which are all using 'different' things that will make the bike quicker. Even possibly things like the larger stiffer Boxxers compared to his current 35mm Boxxers.
He'll either get there or not and the bike won't make a huge difference to whether he does... Although that depends whether we consider P2 in National Juniors is already 'there' or not. But he's a chunk off the fastest DHers for sure and that does need a level of progression i completely agree.
If we can get a bike that helps though, there's no reason not to. (apart from a huge layout in cash)
Don't expect anything to come in before Nov though.
Sounds like Atherton clearly have no issue shifting bikes given the long wait list. The carbon ones are lovely.
Sounds like Atherton clearly have no issue shifting bikes given the long wait list. The carbon ones are lovely.
It really is a lovely thing. But more importantly it's an EASY thing to work on it seems, no blind bearings, no weird spacers, brackets, links, no weird routing. Just simple stuff out together.
Which is arguably more important for what we need than how it looks.
The fact he was only 1.4s off his Session on it bodes well too.
I don't know if it actually takes 16 weeks to make, I doubt it, so yeah I assume it's backlog which is great for them
The only downside being that they ain't coming down on price anytime soon.
Hopefully this works as my phone couldn't view it correctly
Quick question (and this is not a criticism), but is the camera supposed to be angled down like that? It’s been a long time since I’ve used one so fashions may have changed.
Quick question (and this is not a criticism), but is the camera supposed to be angled down like that? It’s been a long time since I’ve used one so fashions may have changed.
Camera is on chest mount as he doesn't like it on head/helmet. I don't think it's supposed to be quite so low no 🙂 But i can only work with the videos he's taken lol. It does show nicely the speed tucks and how he moves/changes body position i thought, but isn't necessarily the best of showing the trail at times 🙂
If you look at the shadows you can see he rides some parts with bike soft/bent arms to absorb the bumps, which probably affects it too. I'll have a look at the other clips and see if any are better angles.
Interesting that the S200 was a fair chunk slower - any thoughts on that?
Also would you be better off just going for a new next size up Session frame and swapping the bits over?
Got to be the most economic and straight forward plan?
All that deliberation and faffing around with tyres when his wheels are barely on the ground anyway ! 😂
He can ride, that’s for sure.
I saw you there on Saturday & had planned to come over & tell you how much I enjoy these updates but didn't manage to coincide with you not being busy by the van. Glad you had a productive day.
Interesting that the S200 was a fair chunk slower - any thoughts on that?
Also would you be better off just going for a new next size up Session frame and swapping the bits over?
Got to be the most economic and straight forward plan?
I can't seem to work out the multiquote thing, but thanks guys... he's absolutely flying at the moment for sure.. which is kinda funny as off the bike he's the most grounded and sensible and even emotionless person you could find lol. So to be a complete and utter nutter on a bike is hysterical to me. I can't actually fathom how any of that riding is even possible myself, we had a funny one a couple of weeks back from his race run at Rhyd-Y-Felin. There's an Instagram called "sped up sausages" who call-out people who have sped up their footage and posted it. He got called out by them for his race video. I can assure anyone, none of his clips are sped up lol... How, i have no clue...
Not a lot in terms of why the S200 was slower, he didn't like the narrower bars on there, but they were only 20mm or so narrower when measured. The S200 was better at whipping and 'steeze' (not my word) but a little less able to fly over the ground... but don't forget, this is a 3+ mins track so even 3s was only a tiny %age.
The Session would of course be the easy option, we can buy a whole bike for less than an A200 frame lol. But for some reason this doesn't seem to be an option in his head, he'd rather keep his R2 version than even do a hire/test day at BPW on an R3.. "Just no point, it's the same" seems to be his answer.. Sometimes i can work out his brain, sometimes not so much.
@simwit, pity you never mate he'd have been made up to hear that 🙂 (as would I) and i'll always find time to chat bikes.
It's an incredibly interesting time and day after day i get more and more confused as to what he's going to do, but until something happens, i have to be very cryptic on here. We go from one option to another, from one bike to another and one plan to another. All of them having massive plusses and massive minuses.
New super UDH mech hanger from Burgtec for the Session today. We've been diagnosing an issue where the indexing on the top jockey wheel isn't quite right, so i scooted to Rotec who says "yeah that hanger ain't straight" and now that we've put a Burgtec on i can kinda see it yeah. It wasn't huge, but enough i think.
The Crank Brothers Mallet DH are due a rebuild and service so they're off the bike for that and i'll fit a new set for the weekend.
I'm excited about this weekend, he's got the day with RSR Bikeworks getting the new Rimpact TMD setup and suspension tweaked accordingly. I'm really curious as to what him and Rich find in terms of setup, differences and hopefully a bit of speed as well.
Apologies for the quality as it was sent via Whatsapp, but a comparison run of all 3 bikes.
And here it is... Ready to be installed and then suspension setup using Data Acquisition this weekend. I would call it Telemetry but i'm sure someone would tell me it's not as that has to be read on the fly otherwise it's not telemetry 🙂
The data is taken after each run when back at the bottom and analysed and then changes made 😀
Hopefully this works as my phone couldn't view it correctly
I'm with Rockhopper on this.,... You must save a fortune in tyres 🙂
Hopefully this works as my phone couldn't view it correctly
I'm with Rockhopper on this.,... You must save a fortune in tyres 🙂
Lol if that were only the case. The word 'save' isn't in my vocabulary.
This week was
1. Halo rim + spokes
2. 2x Burgtec UDH
3. Rimpact TMD
4. Suspension setup
5. MRP replacement lower guide
But we have a lot of fun together 😄
Nice! I spotted a lot of those TMD top caps on the WC feed over the weekend.
Is that TMD a fixed weight, weight, with just options for spring rate? Or do you spec the weight weight vs rider weight.
Weight is 1 weight only (as far as I know)
Spring rate does the adjustment
Curious what you make of this as it seems these things are normally used on rigid systems and structures, not dynamic already damped systems. It sounds like it could work against the suspension, if the frequency of the weight movement isn’t aligned with the HSR in the fork, which appears to be the case as the TMD has no damping. Yes, I’m an engineer. Yes, my head is now scrambled visualising this on a fork.
Curious what you make of this as it seems these things are normally used on rigid systems and structures, not dynamic already damped systems. It sounds like it could work against the suspension, if the frequency of the weight movement isn’t aligned with the HSR in the fork, which appears to be the case as the TMD has no damping. Yes, I’m an engineer. Yes, my head is now scrambled visualising this on a fork.
Honestly no clue. He's with RSR Bikeworks on Sunday to get the electronics on it. It's a massive thing nowadays in DH racing and obviously it is all the rage with things like Flight Attendant and Fox Live Valve Neo, but a huge chunk of the team are using Motion Instruments or BYB for setting suspension, along with the engineers and riders. Hence we're getting his done Sunday.
I'm curious to see if he notices when it's in, out, with weight, without weight etc, as well as the overall settings and the difference in speed from morning to afternoon.
It's all witchcraft and magic to me, but my job is just the basic spanners not the clever stuff.
TMD | Rimpact - basic explanation
Rimpact's Tuned Mass Damper: Are TMDs Really Making Your Bike Faster? - YouTube - long explanation/sales pitch
Like many of these tech developments, if they're really good then presumably everyone will use them and then nobody will have an advantage.
TMD | Rimpact - basic explanation
Rimpact's Tuned Mass Damper: Are TMDs Really Making Your Bike Faster? - YouTube - long explanation/sales pitch
Like many of these tech developments, if they're really good then presumably everyone will use them and then nobody will have an advantage.
To an extent yeah, but they're quite short supply at the moment and even once you do get them, they're not just a fit it and run it (so i believe) it's quite an effect on suspension settings to get the best out of them. Racers are notoriously bad at getting tech on their bikes as we know, people like what they like and run what they know.
That's interesting... i hadn't really thought about the impact on suspension settings and didn't listen too closely to the podcast.
Well it's half a KG pretty much stuffed into the headtube for a start. I know chatting with Rich at RSR roughly how much of a change that is likely to equate to, but he's got a bucket load of data from the Scott team and testing/setting up this year already, so i think i could guesstimate a few bits.
However even though TFTuned set up our shock with new valving/tuning, we've not had the Vivid setup at all since buying it, so i'm massively curious as to how this weekend goes in terms of setup for the end as well. It's going to be very interesting to see for me anyway. But i do like bike nerd type stuff and even though it's mystical, it's very interesting to see if the riders can notice changes etc. We've also got a mate getting his bike setup at the same time, so the boy will have someone to ride with as well.
Just picked up a few points dipping into that podcast…one thing struck me is that he says that on suspension hits, the force travels up the fork leg and some is absorbed by the mass, which absorbs it in the springs, so it doesn’t transmit to the headtube/rider. What he doesn’t say is what then happens to the energy as energy stored in that spring. Well, energy cannot be lost, only converted, so it must be then transferred back into the bike when the spring recoils so I can see instances of this upsetting stability. It would be like having a massive heavy jelly mounted to your stem cap. But he does concede it is not “tuned”, which I suspect WC racers have a bit more time and facility to do. This is just a random weight on a spring. Very curious about this on a moving bicycle.
Let us know how you get on with the MD, but I suppose there are other changing variables by the sounds of it, so bracketing might be tricky.
Well the plan is to perform 2 runs on what we have now. That'll be the start of the day for sure, then we'll move onto 2 runs with the TMD installed, then start configuring it fully. Obviously all the runs will have data (as the bike is off currently getting the electronics fitted) so in terms of bracketing, yeah it should kinda work OK.
THere's a pile of riders using TMDs now in the paddock at world and juniors national level, although different ones are being used by some. However all of them are raving about the performance, more so than i think a placebo effect could ever show.
The interesting one for me is fatigue, although the boy doesn't massively suffer from this, at FW for example it's pretty damn intense and lap after lap of 5 mins of crazy can take it's toll.
That brings on another slightly interesting one as he's just got another sponsor this week thanks to Katy of a new personal trainer, although it seems i get shouted at if i post things about sponsors lol, so i'll not go much more into it in depth. But he's got a 2 hour session with him next week and then straight to FoD for coaching and riding. But that'll also be quite interesting as to what a proper coach in strength and MTB fitness can bring to the game.
IMO - I think a fitness and conditioning coach will make the biggest difference to him. Great move for him.
Is it Ade?
IMO - I think a fitness and conditioning coach will make the biggest difference to him. Great move for him.
Yeah 100% agree. It's taken a while but that's on the boy as he doesn't like being pushed into doing or going somewhere, like most kids I guess. But he's now got his own weights/gym here in garage and is using it lots. So a decent plans and structure can only help him
Just checked in on this thread, been a little while.
Good to see the hard work starting to pay off !
As to Atherton bikes. I’ve seen quite a few 2nd hand for sale recently. If their sizing is so unique (not that convinced it is) then could make a 2nd hand bike harder to shift ?
As to physical strength and conditioning. It’s always surprised me how unprofessional DH mountain biking is when it comes to fitness.
It will definitely improve his performance, but I’m yet to see a young lad who doesn’t feel better for having a ‘ripped’ physique. My lad plays football and aged 15 they are in the gym 3 times per week doing strength & conditioning. The coach is absolutely clear that’s not ever pushing big heavy weights. Also it will help massively with injury prevention/ rehab
I couldn’t believe one of Bernard Kerrs more recent vids where he said he had been working with a physical coach for the last 4 months and had never been so fit / strong. 🤷♂️
I'd be curious as to where they're for sale please. I only view Pinkbike and eBay and song ever see any.
I terms of sizing they can make anything, but most are generic with sizing being 10mm increments on reach and certain step ups in chainstay as the sizing grows. Ideally we want a size 8, 480mm reach. The demo bike was 470mm which was great, but I think the extra 10mm would suit him.
We're still having a lot of bike/team debates, I have my thoughts and he has his, somewhere in the middle is a common ground. But what this is, is still a slight mystery. But for now we'll just keep on riding and racing.
The boy is toned and defined but he's not massive, his body fat is very very low so every sinew can be seen. It's interesting when you look around paddocks as there's no defined size or shape that's the best, a Bruni is built and stacked, Jackson is tiny and slight, but I bet still strong. Then everyone else is again different. But there's little doubt that being stronger and fitter will massively help him.
Thank you, the work is fun, mostly. It's a massive amount of back end work too, like 4 trips to Fort William, trips to Italy, France, Spain, the driving, energy and fatigue can be draining, especially night after night in fields in the cold. But the rewards are high for him and us as parents. Even today though, he's got a day off, but I'm still riding today before we head to FoD in the morning, so I've still got the spark in me to ride and bikes in general.
House goes on the market in a few months and we'll be moving to FoD for his next chapter, we're all looking forward to it.
Exciting times mate.
It's taken a while but that's on the boy as he doesn't like being pushed into doing or going somewhere, like most kids I guess.
This is so true. I've got mtb specific gym plans and a spare hardtail and my lad won't have a bar of it. We looked at his results from his last enduro race and I pointed out exactly where we could make some improvements without too much effort but he's not at all interested.
And I remember being the same with football training when I was a kid, so I don't push it.
As always with testing it's a bit of a slow process, a try this, try that, lets do this, lets do that, go again, again, up again....
But that's the nature of the beast and the steps needed to dial things in. The morning started with a baseline to see where our settings were, apparently they were not the best LOL, add to that his tyre was a Kryptotal Re (rear) on the front, which i'd obviously fitted in a hurry at Fort William, but it seemed to work OK there 🙂
After the baselines, they went to work on the getting the suspension dialled with the standard bike first. While they were doing that i went out and hit the long red loop with the new sections in there too and had a blast on my Fuel.
The afternoon brought in the TMD testing, but also a bit of a hugey for the boy who lost it, possibly due to mistakes but possibly due to slightly too much rebound on the back. It's all about rider feedback at this stage, along with what the data says of course, but a combination of rider/data to get the end result. As we've used Rich before, the boy knows what to expect and knows that just riding the bike isn't the answer, it's riding and thinking.
The only downside with the TMD testing was that the boy was getting a bit tired by the time we got to TMD runs, but was still putting down the pace hard, he's flying at the moment. I wasn't around for this testing as i just leave them to it, i'm not at their levels so i was fixing a puncture for a mates son along with grabbing a beer and talking shit with the blokes 🙂
But the reports for the TMD are that
1. He can notice it
2. The bike feels a chunk more stable.
3. He likes it
4. The weight doesn't adversely affect the ride.
All in all, very positive. I'll wait for the data sheets from Rich along with all the information that comes too, but i'm happy that both him and the boy are happy with the bike... (yeah yeah, despite it being too small lol)
The 'too small' bike thing is getting plans slowly put into place, but he's got an afternoon with Katy this week where there's hopefully a few questions and answers that'll come up and then the odds are a new bike will be ordered soon. Unless the question i think were being answered, are not..then, i have no clue 😀
A load of mates of both him and me were at the Forest today, which made the day even better, i did some lapping with one of the parents, who as i know is a fair chunk quicker than me both up and down, but i think i made a reasonable fist of things and did OK, i hit a few features faster than i've ever done before and that cheered me up a lot 🙂 But most importantly it showed that our upcoming house move is deffo the right plan..It'll be nice to finish the day at 4.45 and be home before 5 😀
Into the garage nice and handy this morning...
Needed a surprising amount of jobs doing, it was one of those days where when you start, you find something else, then something else, then you're balls deep in bits, wheels, tyres and stuff.
first was sorting tyres. One of the fronts had a Kryptotal rear, so was swapped for a front. However when i then went to put that rear onto the rear i found a decent dink in the rear rim.... Which sadly meant the rear isn't holding air.
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I think it'll fix up fine, but wanted to take it to the LBS next week first as this was a bit of a test rim, so he can send feedback to them.
So a new rear wheel went in instead and i was checking the pads.
Yeah they're TOAST
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So that's a new set of pads and a full bleed along with a 'piston massage' done on the back end.
He was saying yesterday about having jumpy gears, but as we only had a new mech hanger (Burgtec) last week i thought it's more likely to be the indexing, as the cable end was frayed, a new gear inner went in and that's all done.
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As is common on DH bikes the triples creak where a bit of dust gets in between the uppers and clamps, so the forks were stripped, cleaned and put back together with a bit of grease on the bolts, you can hear it when you release one of the clamp bolts that it 'creaks' so needs a clean...
After that it was a new Saddle installed and that's it, all good. Apart from a bit of a lack of wheels at the moment, which we'll get sorted this week, we're all good and ready for racing this weekend.
Lots of changes both front and rear with 10psi more in the front and 15psi more the rear Vivid.
5 clicks different in the Vivid rebound.
Quite different on the front end in terms of both rebound and LSC too.
I expect it'll ride pretty differently so may get him to do a few uplifts on DH this week if he's got energy.