You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Definitely not a failure. Shit happens in DH. Unfortunately it sounds like shit was happening every run, which is going to take its toll eventually. Shame there was then the issue with the B&B, but no point dwelling on that
When you do uplift days at bigger hills (so not FoD or 417) is he smashing out full (ie non-stop) runs? Riding like that isn’t as much fun (by miles, it’ll definitely feel like training) but would be very good to condition him for full-length tracks if he’s not used to it
When you do uplift days at bigger hills (so not FoD or 417) is he smashing out full (ie non-stop) runs? Riding like that isn’t as much fun (by miles, it’ll definitely feel like training) but would be very good to condition him for full-length tracks if he’s not used to it
The only place for that really is BPW and we vary through the day, sometimes going top to bottom, sometimes stopping, there's not really a pattern.
I don't think fatigue during the run was an issue as he'd stopped 4-5 times on each run to check features and lines. He wasn't coming down particularly tired each time as it was more learning than pinning.
bit like head injuries in rugby and football, weeksy’s done the right thing by making the decision for him IMHO. Whether teenage enthusiasm, or even (still, I know weeksy refutes this) not wanting to let Dad down for the money he’s spent on travel and entry and B&B or whatever, sometimes the kids needs protecting from themselves
One of the most likely causes of a bad injury would be being unable to perform effectively because of not being fit to start with, and it’s not a sport or track by the sound of it where not having absolute and total control of the front end of the bike is likely to end well.
Also as per kryton’s thread…. he’s not paid to do this, he’s got to go to school tomorrow* which is where he’ll make his living in the end. This is supposed to be fun.
* except may be easter hols
or even (still, I know weeksy refutes this) not wanting to let Dad down for the money he’s spent on travel and entry and B&B or whatever,
Without getting too picky, that's not exactly what I've said before or we've discussed before, but I can 100% see what you're saying.
That exact discussion came up yesterday "but it's a waste going home as we've spent all this money" did come up.
My reply I'm not sure I want to type as it'll come over all pretentious, but that was more to make him feel better than for me to brag. But he's happy I'm not going bankrupt because of yesterday lol.
The good news is, apart from the injury, he's chirpy and happy this morning. So I'm leaving him with his mum and YouTube and heading out cycling shortly.
Well done to the both of you for not trying to force it through an injury.
I would have stayed the night and watched the race though.
If fatigue might have been part of it you could do worse than an uplift day at Cwmcarn. Not the most difficult track in the world but it is quite long and at speed it is hard work as it’s rough in places and has a lot of hard compressions when you’re going fast.
I’m not sure if they still run the uplift to opposite sides so you get Y Mynnyd and Pedalhounds in the day or not - if they do that gives you 2 different types of trail. At a push you could also ride some Risca stuff and ride back round on the road to the uplift although I think that’s about a 15 min pedal. Just from a. Father / son riding together basis you’d also be absolutely fine on all the downhill stuff - nothing you can’t ride on it.
Also I wouldn’t remove the Assegai straight away - it sounds like it was track difficulty / length not the tyre. The Assegai is very good as long as it’s not a really sopping wet sloppy track. It’ll be better then the Shorty at 417 next weekend as that track is basically a fully surfaced pump track down the hill.
Just be careful that by you signalling to go home, that in his eyes he could see that he has failed you
Great to see though that he wanted to stay and watch, shows that he wants to fight for it
One thing that was noticed on Sat at Rheloa was how tough the place was on hardware. So much so that i've just ordered a 2nd set of wheels for the DH bike.
[img] 
[/img]
There were many many people even just after practice with pranged rims, rims that needed fixing with a hammer etc.... So thought i better get a set ordered.
The boy is dreading next weekend now as i'm not convinced he'll make 417 race.... but that'll mean he's my pit-crew for the weekend instead lol.
Clearly this was a tough one foe the small lads... his had 11 in for practice, but only 8 started Sunday.... out of them 2 DNF'd. The lad in last is my lads mate (sorta) and obviously found it tough and must have crashed on race 1 as well.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51981318648_62bf97316c_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51981318648_62bf97316c_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2ncpR2S ]rheloa[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
Looking at the variety of times it looks like the top couple of riders were quite a long way out in front of the others. Could be a combo of technical ability / fitness / strength etc / plus being used to that sort of track. The top lad in particular was pretty consistent run 1 to run 2. Although everyone found a good chunk of time in run 2 vs run 1.
Hope the shoulder injury clears up ASAP - did you go to get the lad checked out or is it just bruising / muscle strain etc?
You'll likely see that in all categories tbh. Dropouts as the weekend goes on are common. Can be crashes, broken bikes or people just going "**** that" and calling it a day
The top lad in particular was pretty consistent run 1 to run 2.
The top lads are incredible.... the kid in 2nd hardly ever loses a race, the winner has won a gazillion BMX races in the last few years and has won national championships and raced at World level.... there's a bucket of talent out there.
An interesting one for me and the lad was seeing how another kid Billy Pugh has done this year and the answer is, not as well. In the last 18 months he won a tonne of races, but this year he's had to move up an age group and is now playing against bigger stronger kids and has clearly found it a bit harder in the big boys Cat.
Not that i'm looking to blame any of that for the weekends result etc. But me and the lad have moved on from that and are just seeing how the week progresses.
The top lads are incredible…. the kid in 2nd hardly ever loses a race, the winner has won a gazillion BMX races in the last few years and has won national championships and raced at World level…. there’s a bucket of talent out there.
The kid who won that age group (on a trail bike no less) is a bit of a force on two wheels.
The top 5% in pretty much any category are fast as hell, then you get the outliers who put a decent chunk of time into them & you have to ask the question of how did that happen!
The really scary part is when those guys get given a GB jersey to go race a World Cup & they don't even qualify. It's like a different sport.
LOL absolutely H-N yes... it's remarkable the levels.... We came to terms with that a while ago and whilst we'll still pick up races, the fun factor is as important as anything else to both me and him. It's also why we're trying to race different courses this year, Berwyn, Caresws, Rheola, Bringewood, etc.... just weekends away, being boys, drinking beers and eatping hot-x buns 😀
Race day Sunday.... 417 Flyup. It's a cracking little fun race, not too far away and well run, both of us really enjoy it there as it's the right type of atmosphere too 🙂
He's not been on his bike since crashing, although we may get 10 mins tomorrow just to check it over, i've had it all checked on the stand and it's running nicely.
I'll be racing at the back of the old mans field and curious to see if i go faster or slower on the Trek than on the G170.
Has your lad recovered enough to ride this weekend?
If the race is on that easy flow blue you should be faster on the Trek - there’s literally nothing tech on there at all - it’s basically a pump track down the hill from memory. Shorter travel / lighter and more nimble should work well on that 💪
My best time on both the blues at Flyup are riding a Vitus Sentier hardtail with a 140mm Pike on it.
Has your lad recovered enough to ride this weekend?
Aye, he's all good. MAnaged a few press-ups this morning which excited him. Still not 100%, but good enough to give it a decent run.
Yeah the course is simple basic blue fun.... But my speed is likely dictated as much by me as the bike, but if i can pick up a couple of seconds compared to other times i've raced there, i'll take it. But it's just about having fun for me and being there with my lad while he races as much as it's about the racing... Just this way i get to join in with the banter with him.
Sounds good - it’s a nice easy track for him to work back into the bike on without any technical features 👌
@weeksy
you guys around next thursday at all? I might be heading to Rogate... You and the lad fancy it?
DrP
Hi Doc.
We're at Katy on Wed I think and I've not booked day off. We're free all weekend if that changes anything?
Yesterday i went out with my lad and his buddies. He was testing the Whyte T-130.
The conclusion was "i don't like it at all"
So we swapped the stem, we swapped the bars, we moved the seat, we changed the suspension. The conclusion was "well I don't completely hate it... but I really don't like it"
I then got him to try my Trek Fuel, his mates new Trek Remedy and his other mates Specialzed FSR Stumpjumper. The only one he actually liked was the Stumpy, but that was a small and obviously too small for him.
So i had a bit of a chat with a guy on Ebay/Pinkbike, well technically 3-4 different guys and different bikes.
After some discussions at 417 Flyup today with 2 guys who owned 2 of the possibles from PB/Ebay, we ended up with a bit of a wild-card turning up at 417 while we were racing. The lad took it down Cheeseroller (a trail at 417) and really liked it. I was up at the top at the time waiting for my race, but when i got down i chatted to him and the guy and we made some suspension changes and sent him down again on it....
Once again he was happy.
So i gave him the option between this one and a 2017 Specialized Enduro, he picked this.
So after a discussion on the price, the guy took £200 less than i hoped to pay.... and i put it in the car.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51995206363_50bf8085d8_5k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51995206363_50bf8085d8_5k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2ndD2ne ]2022-04-10_06-42-02[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
It's a 2017 Santa Cruz Bronson CC.
Lets just say he's a very happy lad.... along with being a very lucky lad.
I now have a cheap Whyte T-130 to sell though.
I'm confused. I thought you went to go cycling... 😉
Nice, but can you get parts for that fork? BOS we’re a nightmare at the best of times, don’t think there’s any U.K. support now?
Maybe you could whip the fork off the t130 and stick it on the Bronson and let the BOS go on the T130?
So I ended up last. Poop.
But I went 8s quicker than last time! I'll take that all day
The boy went 1.5s quicker on race 2 but still ended 11th.
Nice, but can you get parts for that fork? BOS we’re a nightmare at the best of times, don’t think there’s any U.K. support now?
Honestly no idea. But if there's a major issue I'll just lob on a new set of forks.
Ignore the haters, BOS are fantastic forks and can be serviced easily at home as they're open bath (they also use the same seals as Fox 34's). Plush also service them if you can't do it yourself.
Great info buddy, thank you.
He's been out playing on the new thing even though he's tired. He's got a few nit picking on shifting, but nothing major.
Ignore the haters, BOS are fantastic forks and can be serviced easily at home as they’re open bath
“Haters”? It’s a suspension company man, have a word with yourself.
Genuinely interesting, and good, that Plush will still support
BOS Devile’s we’re the best feeling fork I’ve ever used (on the wife’s 2016 Capra), better than anything I’ve tried since. But they were very fussy to stay spot on (as was the shock) and BOS were a nightmare to get any help from, both info and spares.
Their performance was awesome though.
Interesting as I never found mine to be fussy at all, I liked that they always had a good ramp up and support.
Worth noting that because they're open bath they may need a few bounces to work properly if the bike has been on its back wheel to get the oil back through the damping circuits
Yesterdays racing for the lad was good... Started off hairily as i followed (or tried to) him down on practice 1 and about 1/4 of the way down he was lying on the floor in front of me. lol. Ooops.
The track was very loose on the bottom of the berms and he went in too hard i guess. We'd changed the pressures in the front and added 2psi in both that and the rear before the practice compared to his usual pressures... but he then decided it was either the Assegai (again) or the pressures, so went back to the usual 18F 20R.
It was interesting to see how he'd go on the DH bike on the Blue at 417 and after 3-4 more practice runs we sat round and waited for run 1.
He came down and looked good, wasn't covered in dirt so i know it'd gone well enough. He managed a 1.46.4 which is pretty much his fastest time down the track in races, but only by 2/10ths. He was happy though and it gave him an 11th place. The leaders was a smidgen under 1.40 which is damn fast, but up to 3rd was only a 1.43 so he was right in the mix as usual.
Race 2 he felt he had more to give and ended up with a 1.45.2 but that still only kept him in 11th place out of 33 finishers...
He came home happy and smiling, tired and snorey 🙂
Love these instalments...keep it up Team Weeks 😀
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51994186366_04cf0e6712_5k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51994186366_04cf0e6712_5k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2ndxNa5 ]2022-04-10_10-32-27[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
Love these instalments…keep it up Team Weeks
Racing gets a little quite now for a week or two...
We've got Easter holidays so he's out most days, then Weds is FoD coaching with Katy and then we'll have most of Easter weekend doing just generic stuff, then next week is Afan and BPW, then as long as they go well, we're racing at Bringewood on the 23rd with Pearce Cycles, obviously that'll be back on the GT Fury for race day, but i guess the good thing is that we can now take the Bronson as the emergency spare "i've broken my bike and we can't fix it right away" type scenario.
The Bronson has been setup this morning with his Specialized Saddle and a bottle cage for his local days out, then a bit of tweaking on the gearing, but the XT rear mech has the clutch style and the clutch is VERY hard, you can barely move the rear mech with it 'on' and it seems to miss the odd shift, i think it's too stiff even compared to what i'd expect with a clutch.
So we may whip that off in the coming days and go for SRAM GX/NX, whatever we find on Ebay with 11sp.
I'm WFH all week (apart from FoD weds) but he's off out all day on it now 🙂
but the XT rear mech has the clutch style and the clutch is VERY hard
you can adjust the clutch tension on the shimano mech - have a look at the shimano online manuals
The clutch on the XT can be adjusted and serviced, there is a runner port cover and a smallish hex key will let you reduce the tension.
Clutch is easy to take apart and clean too
Ace, that may help then... I knew some of them were adjustable but didn't know if this was.
I think he'd still prefer SRAM to keep it the same as the DH, so if anyone is considering a need for an XT 11sp shifter and mech and has a GX11 then please message me and we'll sort out an exchange.
but he then decided it was either the Assegai (again) or the pressures, so went back to the usual 18F 20R.
It’s because you’ve got his front tyre on back to front 😆
The shimano clutches are serviceable, it wants a clean and regrease.
It’s because you’ve got his front tyre on back to front
I fell for that one a few weeks ago and had to check.... i'm sure it's on right
(walks into garage to check) 😀
I fell for that one a few weeks ago and had to check…. i’m sure it’s on right
joking aside - its hard to be certain, but it does look like it could be on backwards in that photo of him and you a few posts back
Sound weekend result for him 👍
If you are going to swap to SRAM it may be worth considering going up to 12 speed Eagle at the same time.
The bigger ring may help climbing if he decides to compete In Enduro.
There are still good deals around on used stuff
That's a cracking idea... but i'm properly financially challenged this week due to the surprise of the Santa Cruz. I'd really thought we could get him happy with the Whyte, but maybe that was crazy thinking from me, it simply didn't and i don't think ever could/would happen in hindsight. Either way, I wasn't planning on such an outlay this weekend that's for sure.
I do have £800 coming back from the T-130 which sold in less than 10 minutes on Ebay this morning.... but i think we need a sugar daddy/sponsor 😀 😀
Mrs Weeksy keeps offering me money, but i see the riding/biking thing as being my responsibility so say no.
joking aside – its hard to be certain, but it does look like it could be on backwards in that photo of him and you a few posts back
oh "$%^%$%& Q$^"^%&$%
it IS on the wrong rotation !!!! jeezzzzzzzz
Maxxis tyres always have the tyre name and maxxis on the drive side, just maxxis on the non drive side.
Edit too slow
You could recoup most of the cost by selling mech, shifter, chain and cassette on and getting 12 speed on it now rather than later. It would be a no brainer in our house.
That's what I'm hopefully going to do with the Reverb AXS
i don't like you any more 😀
He will if he gets 12 speed 😉
oh “$%^%$%& Q$^”^%&$%
it IS on the wrong rotation !!!! jeezzzzzzzz
ha ha.
Your son needs a better mechanic!
Front tyre on backwards probably rides awfully - I bet he'd be a load quicker with it on the right way round.
ha ha.
Your son needs a better mechanic!
Well i must admit i'm either feeling quite guilty or reading too much into it... but both at Rheola and 417 he moaned about not quite feeling the front end grip he wanted, we'd have gone back to the Shorty yesterday but didn't have it with us as we had the new spare wheels with DHF/DHR combo fitted, i did offer to swap to the DHF wheel at one stage but i think we both just thought "it's quite loose, so just get on with it"
I don't know exactly how i managed to do that wrong, i'm usually very good at checking them when fitting.
but both at Rheola and 417 he moaned about not quite feeling the front end grip he wanted,
You live and learn.... at least now he will know what it feels like to have the front tyre on the wrong way round , will all help in him getting to know how various changes affect bike feel.
I reckon there was probably a couple of seconds lost because of that tyre being on backwards- maybe more.
i'm not sure i wanna know the answer as he was only 3.1s off the podium hhahahaaha. But i can't go back in time and he'll race there again for sure later in the year.
Given you’re spending loads of money on bikes for him and doing all the maintenance I wouldn’t beat yourself up about it. It’s easily done to make a simple mistake sometimes on bike stuff - we’ve all done it.
On the xt stuff I’d just tweek the rear mech - either loosen the clutch tension off slightly - if that doesn’t do the trick then the pivot needs dismantling / cleaning / regreasing.
I have one bike with XT 12 speed and one with GX 12 speed. They’re slightly different but within a few clicks it really doesn’t make a difference to your ride. And gx 11 speed isn’t exactly the same as gx 7 speed DH anyway.
I’d save the money for something else.
Remember Eagle cassette will require a new freehub if upgrading from Shimano 11speed.
The eBay link above to GX has a new NX cassette so it should fit without the need of a new freehub
Right now i'm not sure there's anything about the thing he likes...
He doesn't like
gears, shifting, brakes, suspension, handling. Errrrrm not sure that leaves a hell of a lot.
I did ask him to be honest ..... but FFS i thought he'd be raving about how brilliant this was.
That suspension set up day has turned into a double edged sword hasn't it.
He's gone from not being able to feel any setup changes (or at least not being able to articulate them) to being as picky as Minnaar in the course of less than a month.
Right now i’m not sure there’s anything about the thing he likes…
I'm a bit lost - which bike are you/he referring to above?
gears, shifting, brakes, suspension, handling.
so to break this down to things we can help you with on the internet:
gears - looks like a fairly small cassette on there, is he wanting a winch gear. Assume it is set up and in line, including the b-tension being in the right place things to look for are:
-the top jockey wheel being worn or sloppy
-all bolts from mech to hanger to frame and the rear axle done up tight (I've fallen foul of this before)
If he wants the 12spd, do what tracey said and do it now.
shifting - cant see what it is, has he switched brands? theres definintly a shimano feel and a sram feel, and some people have strong opinions.
If not, just try shifting it around on the bars until it matches the shifteron the DH bike. having to cock your wrist at a funny angle will make any shifting feel crap.
New cable inner if it feels stiff at all or is delayed on the upshift (to smaller cogs).
"out of date" shifters can be had new-old-stock for not a lot of money.
Brakes - bleed as first port of call.
I know he's light but if he's jumped off a 200mm rotor DH bike they may feel a bit underwhelming initially.
I'd upsize rotors if needed rather than change/replace brakes.
Suspension you are hopefully experts at now, that previous gen vpp was quite sensitive to sag I think.
Handling - the stem looks on the longer side for the style of bike, plus the riser bars seem to be rotated forward a bit. Either roll them back, change stem or possibly both.
Sort suspension first, as front to rear balance will have some effect.
The lad took it down Cheeseroller (a trail at 417) and really liked it. I was up at the top at the time waiting for my race, but when i got down i chatted to him and the guy and we made some suspension changes and sent him down again on it….
Once again he was happy.
He doesn’t like
gears, shifting, brakes, suspension, handling. Errrrrm not sure that leaves a hell of a lot.
Isn't this just what 13 year old lads do?
What did he say when you asked him what he liked about it before you bought it?
If those criticisms are about the bronson, then surely its just needs setting up for him - given he liked it when he rode it at the weekend, or did he just like the colour?
I've got a friend who says the same whenever he gets a new bike - I dont like it, its not like the old bike. Its true its not like the old bike because its a totally different bike , what he means is that its not been set up in the way he likes a bike to be set up - but he cant articulate how he likes his bike set up. Gear shifter position, handle bar roll, grips, pedals, brake lever position, lever reach etc etc. Its like jumping onto someone elses snowboard without setting the bindings up in the position you like them, but with a far greater number of variables.
poor suspension setup (I mean poor setup as in not suitable for the rider ) can make a good bike feel utterly awful - the problem is there not a magic 'good' set of settings that you can just lookup on the internet and apply to the bike & person in question, the rider needs to be able to give some feedback as to what they think is wrong for you to make the right changes , or you need to know what good feels like for that person in order to be able to get the suspension vaguely in the right ball park.
Assumption with all of the above is that all the bits on the bike are actually working fine, and not faulty/worn out etc . eg if you cant tell the difference between a knackered fork,shock,brakes and one that is merely not set up optimally, then its the blind leading the blind.
Looking at the photo, and my experience from the bikes we have.
Are the bars too wide compared to what he is used to and is the stem longer. The seat post looks to be fully slammed in. Is it allowing him to get enough clearance. I seem to remember that the Whyte and this are larger frames compared to the medium he has had. It will feel bigger and less responsive than he was used to but should feel better the more he uses it.
I don't ride the two large bikes we have got for the same reasons above apart from the stem. I can jump on any of the mediums we have and they all feel right apart from a bit of suspension tuning but at 5' 9" the large ones just don't feel right
Right now i’m not sure there’s anything about the thing he likes…
He doesn’t like
gears, shifting, brakes, suspension, handling. Errrrrm not sure that leaves a hell of a lot.I did ask him to be honest ….. but FFS i thought he’d be raving about how brilliant this was.
He didn’t like the t130 - he tested a bike that you’ve bought at quite a lot of expense and liked it. He needs to suck it up now if he’s changed his mind just in my opinion. He’s had 2 pretty nice bikes bought for him and he’s very lucky.
I’d just play about with suspension pressures, service the rear mech, bleed the brakes and check if it needs new pads and general setup stuff. I think you have a box of spare stems / bars etc to swap in and out that won’t cost you anything.
That year of Bronson is quite outdated geometry - SC were quite slow to get up to date. Even my mate’s SC 5010 CC v3 needed the large (for someone 5’8) to get a sensible reach.
Can someone check my summary here? Feel like I’ve missed something;
T130 - blind buy by Weeksy, boy hates it
GT - blind buy by Weeksy, boy likes it?
Bronson - chosen by boy, boy now hates it?
just out of interest, you arent considering adopting are you? I'm not that fussy about bike setup...
That year of Bronson is quite outdated geometry – SC were quite slow to get up to date. Even my mate’s SC 5010 CC v3 needed the large (for someone 5’8) to get a sensible reach.
Not mega LLS but neither was the Spec Enduro that he had. I had that model (Alu) Bronson, 5’10 and large was fine (wouldn’t have wanted smaller though). Mine had a pretty basic RS shock and rode fine so maybe a bit of playing with the shock.
Gears can be fettled to work well. The stem and bar don’t look ideal but assume you’re playing with options here.
Brakes look like Magura. If he doesn’t like them for not much outlay I’d get a set of Code Rs for the GT and swap the guides from that onto the SC. You’ll probably recoup most of the cost selling the Maguras.
Thanks all for the ideas... without derailling the thread too much as this is more about the riding than the bike as such, the Bronson has been returned and we no longer own it.
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/reccomend-me-a-trail-enduro-bike/
So we're currently in the process of looking for a replacement.
Not sure if this has been covered before and it's lightly covered in a few of the posts above. Have you considered that you are making a bit of a monster. Maybe switch to treating it like he's a sponsored rider, you've signed the deal now, you may not like the bike any more but it's the one you are being paid to ride this season so get on with it. I know that is the opposite of the marginal gains you generally seek but... The boy is getting close to having more bikes in this thread than I have had in my 45 years.
Aka I'm jealous too but aren't quite at the point of pleading like jam-bo 🤣
Not sure if this has been covered before and it’s lightly covered in a few of the posts above. Have you considered that you are making a bit of a monster
Of course i've considered it yeah. But despite how things come over at times on the forum/posts he's honestly SO far away from being the screaming spoilt brat that he may be percieved as in my posts. He's a really nice kid and never honestly done or said a bad thing wrong (or been caught anyway 🙂 )
I absolutely agree we can and maybe are falling into that trap, but i think that's at least as much my fault as it is his fault. "Be honest and tell me...." so he does... i then go nuts and change things etc... Which is probably at times a massive over-reaction from me... but i can't help that, i'm just me and trying to do my best.
Using the sponsored rider analogy is pretty close though to where i'm feeling right now, i just want to get him on a bike and happy. Even just a bit happy 😀
Not a dig at you Steve, but this thread always reminds me of this series which is extremely funny, episode 2 in particular always has me in tears of laughter.
Get him a Remedy 🙂
After growing out of my old bike (which he never really loved), my boy demo'ed a Remedy at BPW, loved it - we found a carbon Remedy on Pinkbike, sold my old bike to fund it. Went and bought it. He still loves it about 5 inches height and 4 stone weight later! It's in his Uni lock up so gawd know what state it's in. (He brought the front brake home cos it wasn't working properly and the lever pivot was absolutely full of dried mud) 😀
Do keep up - Remedy has already been discounted 😉
TBH i think he'd LOVE a Remedy... but after riding his mates one he wasn't exactly blown away, which is a bit of a shame if you ask me and was more than likely as much down to setup/suspension as his mate likes his bikes quite differently set up to my lad.
after riding his mates one he wasn’t exactly blown away
Whereas... the Bronson 😀
I know what you mean about when they're good kids - you just want to do the best for em. Good luck finding something (or just make him ride the GT for everything) 🙂
Reports are, it's really good. Apart from brakes which are on cheap organic pads and can be easy sorted.
But he seems happy. Didn't get to ride it too much as he spent the afternoon with Coach on DH bike.
That looks proper jumpy / lairy.
Surprised the codes are on cheap organic pads - they normally come with Sram sintered ones that are really good (if a bit expensive). I normally replace with Sram sintered again or Uberbike Race Matrix. The Race Matrix are good for 3 seasons but I think in proper slop they’re a bit lacking / get overwhelmed and I’d take proper sintered pads every day of the week.
Don't forget the bike wasn't new. But they're blue pads which I suspect are Noah and Theo organic.
I've ordered new ones.