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Considering he's pretty picky about the bike, how did he feel about making such big changes?
Do you run inserts? Due to size of the hits and rocky locations there seems to be a lot of dented rims you have which must cost a fortune in replacing and wheel builds which perhaps an insert could help mitigate (if not I assume this is down to ride feel?).
That's a tricky one and we won't really know for another days riding or more. He said the bike feels more stable and planted, but he did have a massive off at 12ish, but whether that was suspension (they'd just changed some settings) or the fact he just crashed, that's open to debate.
Obviously this was only at FoD and on Ski Run, a track he knows well, but is only 1min for him, so it's hard to equate what effect it had in terms of time as even if it's 1s different per minute, that's still pretty hard to track and spot, the tiniest mistake is 1s of course, slightly off-line, 1s....
So he's back out on Wed to test again without the pressure of having to concentrate on what the bike is doing underneath him and just able to ride and enjoy it. We're then off racing this weekend with Pearce which is a full day on Sat and a decent day on Sun to get used to things.
So all in all, he's happy the bike felt better afterwards, but how much of that was TMD and how much was the suspension wizardry, we'll have to see.
From listening to RSR it seems the boy was feeling the things he was supposed to feel, the data was echoing his reports/findings on the runs "oh that felt too firm and a bit sketchy" was mirrored in the data after the run. Then changes made, then he was feeling happier on the next one... etc.
Do you run inserts? Due to size of the hits and rocky locations there seems to be a lot of dented rims you have which must cost a fortune in replacing and wheel builds which perhaps an insert could help mitigate (if not I assume this is down to ride feel?).
We do not....there's a few reasons behind that.
1. Rider feel, we've tried inserts and he's not keen on the feeling
2. Continental tyre techs told us that inserts should not be used, this is due to the tyre being created for a certain amount of air/pressure to work best, when you add a solid object in there instead, that changes how the tyre works, reacts and feels. The thoughts being, if you're killing them, we're doing our job wrong.
It seems the dent was there on Thurs, so it's open to debate if it happened at Dyfi the weekend before or a massive case he had on Tues evening when out with me. Ideally though i completely agree it'd massively help my bank if it wasn't happening. But at FW for example there were wheel after wheels broken, some running Alu, some carbon, some inserts, some without, some Michelin, Maxxis, etc etc. It seems to me Conti are doing better than most.. But as his speed and arguably size/weight has increased, well yes we're getting more than we'd like. My bank account would sure like a few less, we've got 4 rears and currently i've only got 1 fit for riding lol. By tomorrow Rotec will have 2 more built again for the weekend for us.
I don't really have the answer in truth, i don't think he/we do terribly for wheels compared to some, but yeah.... Mmmmm
Do people use electronic gears in downhill, or does the potential breakage costs vs slightly better shifting (maybe) and no cable issues make it not worthwhile?
Do people use electronic gears in downhill, or does the potential breakage costs vs slightly better shifting (maybe) and no cable issues make it not worthwhile?
Well all the gearbox bikes are SmartShift which is all electronic. In truth, i've not looked or considered it much in terms of standard derailleur bikes, but now you've mentioned it, i'll have a peek
Do people use electronic gears in downhill, or does the potential breakage costs vs slightly better shifting (maybe) and no cable issues make it not worthwhile?
there’s no short cage, off the shelf, leccy MTB DH derailleurs (though in theory you could use a road one and corresponding cassette, but they aren’t the most durable, and don’t have the mechanisms to save them in a hit). It’s possible to modify eagle AXS with a DH cage, but you only get 6/7 gears on a DH cassette, due to the spacing. Fraezen are prototyping a cage to go on transmission mechs, which can then work with a SRAM 12speed road cassette. Mine should be here in a few weeks 😎 £££ though.
Do you change gear enough for it to matter? Ive always assumed that once you’ve sprinted out of the start gate then you wouldn’t change gear again
Do you change gear enough for it to matter? Ive always assumed that once you’ve sprinted out of the start gate then you wouldn’t change gear again
According to the lad on a 3 minute track, for example Cwmcarn, you've got click,click out of the gate, then you change 5 more throught the race, giving a total of 7 changes.
Rhyd-Y-Felin, 2 out of the gate, 3 others in the race.
G Atherton had a blank ? Cylinder taking the place of one of the cogs in his cassette that he could shift into to disassociate the suspension action from the pedal interference, so I assume he would change gear more than a couple on the start ramp.
So once again it's race weekend of course 😀
This one is Pearce, it's at a new forest/location known at Redwood. A few people have done an uplift day there, but as that was on the same weekend as Fort William, most missed the day and went there instead. From watching the videos it's very very 'Pearce' as you'd expect. They build tracks in the same sort of way wherever they go. Some steep, some twisty, a few jumps.. Typical sort of Shropshire off-piste type stuff blended into a bit of trail center as well. It's generally great fun and i can't see why this will be any different.
It'll be the usual weekend of camping fun with mates, banter, laughs and a bit of friendly rivalry as the majority of our mates will be finishing very close together come race day. So always a bit of needling and rivalry coming out 🙂
We're back up to 2 rears at the moment, but weirdly the Halo which i couldn't get to seat/bead went straight on last night at LBS with the compressor, so he's heading in today to see if it stayed inflated. If it did, it's good to go i guess, but we've got a spare anyway with a brand new Kryptotal fitted on there so that's golden.
The Pearce series is always cracking racing and him and mates should all go pretty well assuming they have clean runs. I'm most interested to see how he goes with the TMD. He's got an afternoon at FoD today with Katy to dial himself into the TMD and new settings as well. Again, really curious to see how that goes.
We fitted the new jockey wheels yesterday which the LBS doesn't like much due to lack of float, so everything apparently needs to be perfect or they get a bit yukky. But he was having issues with SRAM jockeys dropping indexing onto the wrong cog of the narrow wide and this was the easy solution. Apparently it's quite a 'thing' ... but in truth until recently i've not seen it much/at-all. Just another minor thing that's being tested lol.
The boy is trying to persuade me into the French Cup race in Les Menuires in Aug. Funnily enough we have an entry in it as i booked it in March and have been unable to cancel, but after the Euro Champs and stuff with work i was unable to do it. However part of our plans changed as the IXS in Bellwald clashes with the last Pearce race, so we'll stay here and do Pearce, but that frees up a bit of cash so he's trying to get me to do :
Return from Morzine, head straight to Llangollen for National. Then on the Wed head to Les Menuires, race the French Cup, then drive back and after 2 days off head to the next Pearce LOL. I'm not even sure i can manage the annual leave for it, let alone the actual logistics without dying 😀 So it's looking somewhat unlikely.
Doesn’t the boy usually do pretty well at the Pearce events? Aren’t they usually the shorter races, circa a minute?
Do you change gear enough for it to matter? Ive always assumed that once you’ve sprinted out of the start gate then you wouldn’t change gear again
According to the lad on a 3 minute track, for example Cwmcarn, you've got click,click out of the gate, then you change 5 more throught the race, giving a total of 7 changes.
Rhyd-Y-Felin, 2 out of the gate, 3 others in the race.
thanks. More than I thought
Doesn’t the boy usually do pretty well at the Pearce events? Aren’t they usually the shorter races, circa a minute?
YEah he goes well at Pearce. Races are 2mins+ with the shortest being about 2.10. This is a new track so no idea on the length/time yet.
All things being equal he should be in the top 4, but it's DH racing.... so it's a great unknown... but you have a decent idea who the majority of the competitors are.
Just saw a preview of the track, looks fun.
Yeah, that looks great fun
Weekend was going sweetly enough until about 20 min before his race run, then it went rainy. It's that weird misty rain that gets out wet without being big raindrops.
As we got closer to his run the rain continued making the track wetter for the later riders. As it's reverse order from championship position he was out late.
He came down in P2 on his run but with 2 fast lads behind him who both pipped him so finished 4th on run 1.
It's continued to get and stay wetter so I'm not sure anyone can find more in run 2. But we have 2 hours until then, so who knows.
His run wasn't bad he said but he wasn't sure how much to push in the conditions, it turns out a bit more was needed lol
Both races score points for the overall, so it's still important to try and get a fast 2nd run.
Rain rain rain. Runs were 10s slower so finished 4th
Still a good result 👏👏👏
Yeah, not quite the podium we'd have liked, but as always it was tight and the conditions/rain played a part in the game...but it was great for the overall series as he was P4 and P3 for the runs, so decent overall points.
Need a lie down now... i'm tired and achey and... well...knackered.
Tough but good weekend all round really. From practice 1 on Sat morning i can't say the boy was massively feeling the track, it was very new and some of the berms/corners were not holding as well as i think they hoped, but when you throw 200+ riders down them time and time again they take a massive beating.
He was trying new lines, particularly in the woods, which on race runs would work out well and he was one of only 3 taking this line but that ended up being 2nd quickest on the sector timing.
The bike was working lovely, with a few quirks on the gears so in the afternoon i ended up re-fitting the standard SRAM jockey wheels after removing the Hopes. Even with checking the mech, checking the alignment etc i still couldn't get the gearing perfect. Thoughts were that the Hope jockeys have 0 float in them which can make it really finicky on things.
The evening brought beer, banter and spannering as always, again as always none on our bike lol. It was various wheels, tubless setups, installing a new E-13 Sidkick wheel/setup , some brake bleeds and other various fun little jobs. But it was all spent with a beer in hand so i'm fine with that of course 🙂
Race day was smooth, apart from a buddy snapping his femur on the early triple, whoops. The boy just wasn't quite there in terms of speed for the win/podium. But he was right in the ball park. Run 1 he just didn't know how much the conditions had affected things and 1 major corner that was riding very loose he took really easy after the first big rain shower but apparently it had really helped that corner so lost a fair bit of time.
There's a long wait now he's in juniors at times throughout the day and the conditions were changing from minute to minute. But he wanted the Arogtals on so that's what he got. I wished i had the new compressor with me, but it was OK with the track pump if a little sweaty 😀
Run2 again he was happy, his splits were decent but no-one was getting anywhere near their run 1 times, so his finish was about as good as it gets.
It's still a 3 hour drive to get home and by the time you get home you've got a tonne of stuff in the van to unload, the bike to re-wash and lube and not forgetting the washing, the cooking stuff and all the kit to dry like the gazebo lol.
It's been a bit quiet this week as the boy has been a little injured from FoD Thursday. He stacked it and bashed his head slightly, but more importantly bashed his leg and has given himself a solid dead leg. Struggling a bit at the moment, but getting better.
I enforced the decision of "nah, i'm going to BPW on my own, you stay home" which didn't please him at all, but he seems to have understood the logic as it's back to the National DH series this weekend.
We did have a new plan, but that's taken a small delay due to the seller not getting the part to me this weekend as planned, so he'll still be racing on his white Session. But we do have this arriving at the weekend.
This is of course the same as his Session, apart from being the next (and biggest) size up.
The reach on his current Session is 466mm with the new one being 493mm. There's been talk a while now of his Session being too small and with this coming up as a Frame only option we jumped on the plan.
There's other plans forming longer term of course, other options and other discussions, but for the rest of 25, he's likely to be on the new Session frame. I can build the whole bike apart from the forks out of spares, so the plan is to head to Dyfi the weekend of 21st and do a days testing on both, it'll be the morning on bike 1 and the afternoon on bike 2 as it'll take me 45 mins to swap the bits like forks and brakes over to the new frame while he has some lunch.
I'm looking forward to both this weekends National and of course getting this up and running too. 🙂
Is that mam tor in the background
Is that mam tor in the background
No clue. It's an ex-WCDH bike from the Union team, it was a spare bike. A mate of ours bought it and has used it but he's now on a completely new bike so this became available. We did a deal on the frame without his shock as the boy loves his Vivid. The pic actually looks like Pontypool to me. But i couldn't say in truth.
In the interest of more experimentation, thanks to Rotec i just picked up a new rear wheel. This time 27.5 to mullet the new bike.
There's a couple of reasons for this, one is that it'll lessen the reach slightly, although i don't know how much of that is negated by sticking it in 'high' on the flipchip along with the mullet wheel. Partly too is that if you'd seen the article on Pinkbike, 95% of the bikes are now mullet, including any of our other potential options to buy in the future, so makes sense to try the mullet for a while during the mid-season quiet time.
From when we get the frame we've got 5 weeks until the next planned race which is the National Champs in Fort William. So we've got a while to test both frame sizes, wheel sizes, settings etc etc... I'm hoping by the time we go to there we'll be golden. But don't expect us to be coming home with a podium again lol.
Not quite sure how, but DAMN he's pringled his chain ring, i'd say hi/lo point is about 10mm bent.
He's due to go out riding this afternoon so i'll have to whip the cranks off mine and fit onto his for the day.
Interestingly i bashed the chainring that was now fitted to my bike instead and got it somewhat straight, Shimano use some new system which is with bigger teeth apparently and on a 17 mile ride yesterday it was golden. It'll still get swapped when the part arrives from Biketart, but it did a job.
Van is mostly loaded and full, just fitted an Argotal on the spare wheels as the weather for Saturday is looking somewhat dodgy. I'm not always convinced it's Argotal weather but if he wants them on there it's better to do at home with the compressor than at the track in the rain 😀
Almost secured a deal on a set of Boxxers last night but the location didn't quite work out, however it may happen next weekend when we've got a bit more time. I can then build the 2nd frame into a full spare bike, which would bring quite a dilemma for Morzine as to whether i take the Session/Session or Session/Fuel.
The bike travel dilemma - apparently I'm taking 4 bikes to Scotland this year..... 2 enduro, Downhill and dirt jump /pump track bike.......
The bike travel dilemma - apparently I'm taking 4 bikes to Scotland this year..... 2 enduro, Downhill and dirt jump /pump track bike.......
LOL yeah tell me about it, it's made worse some weekends by take 3 memory foam matresses as well as the gazebo, massive tent, 3 tonnes of cooking, washing, cleaning, eating stuff. Then the bikes, multiple sets of kit, helmets, goggles etc etc. I think for Morzine and the Euro Champs we're likely to just take the 2 Sessions as that'll help a bit with space, but that'll restrict me a little bit of what i can/can't do in terms of riding, so i really don't know the answer yet. 3 bikes in the van for Dyfi/BPW works OK, but not to Europe with all the other stuff that has to go as well.
Sounds like you need a trailer for the euro trips
Sounds like you need a trailer for the euro trips
Next year all things being equal we'll have a much bigger van potentially which will remove the issue completely. I mean, it's not an 'issue' as such currently, it just takes a bit of a Jenga fun and games at times. The problem with the van is that mostly you only use half of it as you can't stack everything up to the ceiling. But in truth we'll make it work either way.
We won't be taking the memory foams to Europe as it's just me and the boy so we will blow-up mattress it instead which take a tonne of space less.
Sort of off topic, self inflating mattresses are great. A lot warmer and comfier than inflatables, and can be rolled up fairly compact.
Can you put a roof box on the van for the bulky light stuff?
Next year all things being equal we'll have a much bigger van potentially which will remove the issue completely.
I had vision of a graphiced up trailer with weeksy racing on the side FMD racing styleee
8pm and we seem to have bought a frame
"We may as well run it this weekend hey" says the boy.
"Ummmm sure mate"
It's needs a bit of fiddly tidying in the morning but I can't really see as it's dark.
It's also the end of the world as the brief shower has been a 3 hour monsoon.
It's just hammering down beyond words.
I can't see how anyone will get any sleep.
Worst night in a tent for years. Monsoon stopped about 4am, but is currently back with full force. I was just about to get up to finish the bike bike that may wait
So as you've gathered, the new frame got quickly (sorta) turned into a full bicycle.
He/We decided we'd run it as a mullet, he normally runs full 29 on the Session, but thoughts were threefold on the mullet
1.98% of DH pros race on mullet now
2. Most DH bikes are going mullet only
3. Reach is shortened slightly so potentially makes it less 'different' in some ways.
So it made sense to get used to the mullet, luckily i'd planned this partly in advance and picked up a new mullet wheel.
So it was just brakes, gears, forks, etc some parts swapped over, some new ones and left the old bikes on the white Session. It was properly dark by the time i finished so had a few little bits left to complete the bike in the morning but nothing too complicated. It all went smoothly enough with a bit of faffing with his gearing being the only real issue.
His practice reports were mostly "don't aske me, i'm just hanging on and hoping for the best", along with "feels the same really", but how a frame 30mm reach more can feel the same is beyond me. Funnily though a paddock mate of ours was also on a next size up Mondraker they'd never sat on before and apparently that felt the same too 😀
The slop was real, deep, wet, slippery and rooty, even the Elite riders were not getting down without paddling their feet, plenty of riders were walking or jumping off their bikes and crashes were plentiful. So much so that his seeding run was cancelled due to over-running time and moved to Sunday, so our chilling came a little earlier.
The bike was cleaned and fettled/checked and beers, food and banter ensued. Thankfully it was without the rain of Friday night that kept us awake most of the night/morning, so a fairly decent nights sleep.
Sunday brought more dry, sunny, fine weather, we were going through tear-offs most runs as even though it was dry in places now, some was still horrific. But the boy came down really really happy with his run/runs and enjoying it. He was riding mostly on his own as he does, but he chats a bit with a fair few mates he now knows.
Seeding came and went and he stuck it in P10 for seeding, which in all truth, is about right for his level, although his riding mate and rival George stuck it in P1 which was incredible !!!
Race run came a lot later in the day, which we're still getting used to really. It was still the Argotal on the front and the Kryptotal on the back of it we went for and as always you're sort of sitting there watching the riders and clock and working out where your rider needs to pop into sight to be about the right speed/time as the guy in front and happily he did. But then they disappear out of sight for a while so you're waiting to see if they get out of the slippy field and into the finish. He popped into sight and over the line happily. His time was just below the 3.00 maker and 2s quicker than his seeding run. Apparently it was a bit messy, but he'd given it a decent shot.
Obviously then the rest come down and he settled into P11 for the day.
P11 sometimes (and did yesterday too weirdly) feel like a bit of an anti-climax for all of us, he was happy he'd done his best but a little unhappy with P11, obviously at this level, being disappointed at that is a funny situation as it's a position we'd once have dreamed about. But that's the reality of being a racer i guess, always wanting more, wanting better.
George ended up P2, which is a lifetime best for him and we were properly excited for him, he was close to the win too which made it even more impressive.
Eventually it was back home for nearly 9pm and the unloading of the van, sorting of the bike/frame and getting back to reality. These weekends honestly destroy you as a parent, they're just so so hard and intense, whether it's the standing around on your feet for 8 hours, or the walking, the socialising or just the pressure of it all, it's just hard. I was getting really tired on the drive home and after a shower it was early to bed 😀
I'd love to say we've got time off now, we have time off from racing yeah, but we're back out this weekend at Dyfi and out on Thurs night at FoD for pretend racing lol.
There was half a plan about using the white Session frame and building that as a spare bike, it was needing a set of forks and a stem buying but i think he's moved on from that idea so the lilac one is now the one and only bike it seems.
Dyfi will be a bit more intense in terms of testing this weekend with trying settings, Mino links, wheel sizes and actually trying to get used to the bike and the differences, so should be interesting. Not sure yet if we'll stay up there and make it a 2 dayer or head back after 1.
Well done. I'm sure he appreciates all the efforts that go on in the background to ensure it all goes as smooth as possible for him 👍🍺
Well done. I'm sure he appreciates all the efforts that go on in the background to ensure it all goes as smooth as possible for him 👍🍺
Thank you, he honestly does appreciate it. He's not the most touchy feely or emotional lad, but sometimes he comes over and gives me a hug and says thanks, or just little things he does that shows his appreciation. So i know he's feeling the efforts that go into the weekends, both from me and Mrs Weeksy nowdays.
I do enjoy the weekends too of course, but sometimes they're hard like i say... Even just the aftermath the next morning of re-cleaning the bike, all the 4 sets of muddy kit, multiple pairs of shoes, then sorting all the gazebo, tents, etc etc... it goes on and on. Just taking 10 mins break here and there from work, we get there by tea-time usually lol.
The bike is all sorted again now and just finishing drying, the wife has done all the kits and i'm about to jet-wash the heck out of the shoes 😀
Straight into meetings at 10am 😀
We hit FOD last night for FoD Thursday which is a pretend race, with transponder timing. I say pretend, it's pretty serious and proper rapid at the pointy end.
The boy started on his Fuel and was a little off the pace, it was on Twisted Sister which arguably should suit the fuel as well but he's not as comfortable on that as his Session. At that stage the fastest time was a 45s with him putting in a 48s and 5th place overall. He then jumped on his Session which we're still dialling him and the bike in and put in a 46, 45, 44... So he was sitting in P4 overall with 4 riders all on 44s. One of them is a kid called Cooper who we know well and chat to lots, he lives walking distance from FoD and rides a LOT there.
So he goes up for a last run and stick in a 43s and P1 overall, but only by 0.5s but it was a funny end to the evening as i was chatting to Jeremy who generally wins the events most weeks and he was asking if the boy was going again, he laughed when i said he'd gone up for a last run to try and beat him.... then of course he did. Jeremy wins most events he races and last night he did 11 runs !!! Which is honestly crazy if you know the hill at FoD and the temps being in the high 20s, just touching 30 at times... 11 !!! Jeezy.
THe boy is still running and trying the mullet, but this weekend at Dyfi it'll be some testing between wheel sizes and seeing not only which is fastest but also which feel nicest to him.
We'll also be watching VDS WC on catch-up as one of his main rivals Josh is making his debut this weekend having got the call just before last weekends race. It'll be damn hard for him to get to qualify but he's a very determined lad so i expect him to push bloody hard.
I was playing on the long red as i'm trying to work on my fitness and had an absolute blast, the last descent they've now build from the top and then into Boneyard is brilliant fun.
We'll also be watching VDS WC on catch-up as one of his main rivals Josh is making his debut this weekend having got the call just before last weekends race. It'll be damn hard for him to get to qualify but he's a very determined lad so i expect him to push bloody hard.
What’s his team? We'll keep an eye out for him as we're going to head over today to check qualis.
Him and Seb Sumner will be in the Gravity Racing jersey, red top half, blue bottom. It's the Jack Redding development team.
Yesterday was a lovely 5am start and heading to Dyfi. Whilst it's the 'best' place for testing in the UK it's also a sodding pain and a 4 hour drive to get to. But to save on expense we now usually do it in a day, but that's proper hard work and even on the drive up there i was finding it hard with the early start. But we made it and were met with warmth and grey cloud. (Although that wouldn't last).
I sent myself off out after getting his bike checked and ready and went riding. But left him with a mate, Willow. She rides for Propain and they spent most of the day riding with Gee, Dan and Jono Jones (also on Propain and knows Willow well). He had an absolute blast as usual, especially as riding with guys like that he's got someone to chase down.
The plan was to swap at times between the 27.5 rear and the 29 rear, but in the end he was so happy with 27.5 rear that he kept that all day, whilst this isn't always useful for me in terms of setup/testing, i don't generally argue too much as a happy racer is a fast racer, so left him to it. My job was mostly feeding him, checking the bike and drying him off as the rains came. It got properly north Wales wet at times, even though it was 26-28deg. But he had a blast and tells me not only does the R3 frame feel way faster than the old favourite white bike, but it feels more planted and stable too.
How much of this is down to the bigger frame, the mullet or the TMD and suspension setup, i don't really know. Which of them is the biggest factor, who can say, we swapped too many things at once to be able to narrow things down there. But my job as crew is to give him the best and fastest bike possible for racing the how/why isn't always that important to me. It's the end-goal rather than the details 😀
He came home as happy with things as i'd seen him in ages, so again, awesome and happy for me.
That sounds like an awesome day for James. At least he could chase them down, I asked Rach if I could follow her down 50 hits during a vist, she was in my field of vision for approximately 10 seconds 🤣
Look forward to bumping into you both again soon. He has come such a long way since the day I saw his face when being surprised by the Privateer bike handover.
He has come such a long way since the day I saw his face when being surprised by the Privateer bike handover.
Indeed he has and it's still such an adventure for both of us.
Funny enough, his Privateer is currently for sale with Katy, I was half tempted to buy it back for the nostalgia factor. But that's crazy talk.
How much of this is down to the bigger frame, the mullet or the TMD and suspension setup, i don't really know. Which of them is the biggest factor, who can say, we swapped too many things at once to be able to narrow things down there. But my job as crew is to give him the best and fastest bike possible for racing the how/why isn't always that important to me. It's the end-goal rather than the details 😀
But surely, in a sport when fractions of a second matter, you have some sort of timing benchmark for bracketing. What feels fast might not be fast. You seem to sweat the detail, telemetry suspension and all that, then (it appears) you make massive wholesale changes to the set up and he simply has to be happy, to be happy. What was the outcome of the timing with just the TMD you did a couple of weeks ago?
We do generally have timing and timed runs yes. However the track he tested on a few weeks ago on the Athertons was partly closed yesterday so a timed comparison wasn't possible to do. With the early rain too the conditions ridden were massively different as well, so even if it was open it would be hard to tell.
The timing on setup day was only on a 1 min track so really hard to gauge as it would only come down to 10ths on a short track. But the runs with the TMD indicated it was quicker than before.
This was all thrown up in the air though by swapping to the larger frame just after setup/TMD stuff. But none of that was planned for 25.
In the ideal world you'd do things a little more scientifically of course, but it wasn't possible yesterday.
He's still young and learning/progressing so him having a bike he has confidence in can't be a bad thing regardless of whether it's technically faster or not
It's been a little quiet lately, but things have still been cracking on nicely. There's been a little pause in riding at times due to studying and mock A levels, but still getting as much in as we can realistically. They're now finished so we can get a bit more going again now. We're out this weekend with Reeksy from here as he's borrowing all our bikes for FoD lol.
The boy has a few plans and a new sponsor incoming which is ace, so that's pretty exciting.
The Session is going well and he's loving it lots, but we do need to put some work in on settings and wheel sizes etc before heading to Fort William in a few weeks for National Champs, but we've now got 2 27.5s and a 2 29 wheels for there, so plenty of options, with a bit of luck we may even bring 1-2 back in working order 😀
https://youtube.com/shorts/cTf4jb2GbP8?si=PpeV4kNPSrZahcWs
In an unrelated twist, today was the boys first time driving a car.... HIS car !!! We bought him a little 12 Fiesta last week and 5am today as he turned 17 today was his first lesson with me. (instructor lesson at 4.30 later)
He did well.. 🙂
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54610308799_f7882f70e9_4k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54610308799_f7882f70e9_4k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2rcJ7dg ]IMG_20250623_203633[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
Happy birthday 🎂🥳🎉
Thought he might have got a car based van 🤣
Can't get insured on them. Nothing we've found currently is viable at this stage and we really really looked hard at the options.
Are you going to insure him on your van once he passes his test, he can do 50% of the driving!
Are you going to insure him on your van once he passes his test, he can do 50% of the driving!
Well we're going about it a slightly long-winded way. If you insure as a 'learner' it's for this car and him, £260. The second he passes his test at 17 it jumps to £2800 and 0 no claims to take forward.
So he waits until the day after his 18th birthday to take (and hopefully pass) his test. He then takes 1 years NCD and is also 18 years old and his insurance is then £1200 approx based upon comparethemeerkat using DOB 1 year in advance.
This does mean he has to have a full driver for the year with him, but it'll soon pass and it saves us a massive chunk of change. He doesn't NEED a car currently as anywhere he's going, i'm going too. When he starts work next June/July he'll be cycling distance from the work along with then being 18 so all good.
Assuming then it's viable to add him to mine, then yes.. But not long after that i'll likely give him my Transit anyway if we can get it insured for sensible money and i'll replace that with a Crafter. That's a bit pie-in-the-sky though until we see the viability of that plan.
Can you accrue ncd as a learner? I honestly have no idea.
After a bit of a break due to a gap in racing calendars for all the organisers, we're back at it this weekend. It wasn't our plan as we were hoping to head out with the coach but a bit of a crash has put her slightly out of action so unavailable to play.
So we've got the last FoD Thursday play-race along with Reeksy and his boy on Thurs, but then on Sat we're heading back to FoD for the MIJ race. It'll be made slightly more complex due to some work i've got to do on Sat, but we'll make it work and Sat is only practice. It won't be the biggest race ever but a chance to catch up with riding mates who we're spending half/most of the summer with this year, so will be good. I expect it'll be over the Elephant man side of the hill which isn't necessarily his favourite tracks, but it's a last chance for a race simulation before heading to Fort William the weekend after for National Champs.
The Session is going well after getting the larger frame, along with setup and work from TFTuned and RSR, so we're happy that we're good to go. We've not done the camping thing for a little while now so it'll be back to it as we're hitting FW on the Weds and there until the Sunday, so a good chance to get back to it.
This weekend is a little bit of MIJ racing at FoD. For no other reason than, why not?
Next weekend is National Champs at Fort William, so it's a day back between the tape and dialling in the bike and setup.
It's over on Enduro hill which is not exactly a DH track usually but it's sunny, warm and dry, so let's see what happens.
New set of Deathgrip2s installed for the weekend and bike was checked today after being thrashed last night 😁
MIJ this weekend and fun in the camping field, but to be fair, when it's 20 Deg overnight you don't actually mind being in a field. A kebab, pizza and a couple of beers and it's all good.
Practice went ok but the track is massively blown out due to hundreds of riders and no rain for months
He stuck in a good lap though and is 3s clear after run 1, so we'll see what run 2 brings for everyone. Got about an hour till next run.
Went slightly slower on run2 due to an issue on a blown out corner, but took the Win.
Excellent weekend had, i had to work on Sat which was probably a good thing as it not only got me a day off this week to go to Fort William, but it was also DAMN hot so good not to have to get too sweaty until later.
Beer had while setting up the gazebo
https://flic.kr/p/2rgtBcf
It was then straight into practice for the boy and his mate who we were looking after for the weekend as his parent couldn't make it. So i was spannering both bikes, but as they were both Sessions it was cool for me 🙂
Practice went mostly well, it was a completely new track and it got insanely blown out and dusty, so much that the boys had to give bigger gaps than they usually would otherwise they couldn't see. On one run the boy caught someone and stacked it into a tree through lack of vision, giving himself a dead leg in the process. But with a bit of a rest he was relatively OK.
We then headed out to Coleford for Pizza and kebab (way too much chili sauce !) and back for beers. It was a lovely evening so some bike chat and analysis of a mates golf swing was the order of the evening.
Sun brough practice which went pretty smoothly all round, our mate rarely hits a podium so was trying to pick up pace to get him to the pointy end.
They were chatting lots about line choices, what they were hopping/clearing.. He couldn't quite clear everything the boy was, but pretty much.
Run 1 saw them both come down happy enough, the boy was 2.98s clear at the front with a good run. Our mate came in P5 for run 1 and not exactly unhappy as his teammate was P3, but wanted better.
Lunch and banter with more mates who came to spectate and then back for run 2.
Our mate came down into P4 which was soooooo close.
The kid who was in P2 came down and was faster than his first run (he's a super fast BMXer) but didn't get past the boys time (just over 1s away) so by the time he crossed the line the boy was confirmed in P1 anyway. Sadly he didn't get quicker due to a corner he went high on the berm not having the same berm lol. But the targets for the day were 1. Race Win, then 2. Fastest time of the day.
He managed both goals and we're more than happy with that.
Today is stripping the bike down, cleaning, lubing and checking, sorting the TMD, checking headset, sorting chain and gearing. Getting a new rear 27.5 ordered as a spare and checking things like pads, rotors, clearances, pad rub etc.
After that it'll be cleaning the van, sorting all the kit in there, getting the 'catering' box all ready.
Weds we're off to Fort William for National Champs. The weather is looking somewhat dubious and 'Scottish' so we'll see how that goes 😀
It'll be a tough one of course compared to an MIJ, but we'll do our best to have a bike and a rider that does as well as humanly possible.
Long weekend for sure, we're not back to lunchtime on Monday.
Came up to Fort William yesterday via Liverpool.
Weirdly it was VERY light even at 10.30pm
This morning brought sunshine at the moment.
Currently WFH with the cafe wi-fi and enjoying a coffee and some power for the laptop 😀 Didn't bother bringing the generator as i knew i'd get power here. The fact they have things like the cafe, power and a shower block that's lovely, really makes this an epic place.
Sadly it's due to be wet tomorrow and with the fact i've got to work today means i didn't bring mine to ride, so a bit of a shame but not much i can do there.
Once this is charged i'll get the boy up, get him fed and sent out on the track, it doesn't open until 9.30 though so no major rush to get out.
usual fort William kind of day.
Nukeproof, dead, like pretty dead.
I spent an hour trying to buy a new rim locally but no good.
I fitted a spare which had a load of play in it at the hub. So checked and after some swearing and sweating I swapped the bearings and it's all good.
We had more luck than some, there's a few who've done 2 and one who did 3. So, not a disaster for us lol
We then headed out to buy food which we've had and now it's time for a beer.
How come with the numbers of wheels that Fort William seems to kill you're not running heavy duty inserts? I can sort of understand it for a death or glory race run were every advantage counts but does it make that much difference just in practice?
People kill equal amounts with or without them. I don't honestly think there's an answer either way in favour or against.
We don't run them due to his preference and advice from Conti
Seeding morning. It's not impossible that seeding run may be race result as the thunder and lightning is due.
Good luck to the boy! Looking forward to hearing how it all goes.
Racing on hold for an unknown time die to boardwalk collapsing. Just waiting like lemons currently
Did someone the weight of me decide to give it a try and collapsed the boardwalk?
Race runs moved 2 hours earlier due to weather coming in.
Had a bit of a traumatic evening with bikes, long story lol. I've for Monday on laptop. But all resolved and my mate doesn't have to kill me now.
P12 and an amazing performance from him.
Driving back now and just dead on my feet. 4 nights in the tiny tent lol. Epic.