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oh god, he's bought another van 😉
oh god, he’s bought another van
Oh i've been tempted... more than once. But i'm struggling with what a standard Vivaro/Trafic etc sized van gives us over a Kuga and rack. I think to really get value/use from a van it'd need to be Crafter/Movano type size so we could bed it out and kip in it at race weekends.
Somewhere to get changed/shelter and somewhere to leave a bike with far fewer concerns for it going missing, and zero faff getting ready to go riding. It doesn't sound like much but having had a Caddy, Vito and Transporter it really makes a difference - still can't justify one myself mind!
You're quite right that really you need the day van and the camper . . .
&Weeksy - Security, it gives you the security to park it somewhere with the bikes inside so they can’t be seen by any thieving toe-rags when you park it up on the way to or from biking (unless you get lots of windows) and it’s harder for people to follow you home in a white van as they’re practically invisible (the choice of the discerning terrorist for that reason).
I wouldn’t leave a half decent bike on a rack unattended.
Also you and your kid will fit in with all the other van life privateers (no pun intended).
Plus vans are cool 😎
I hear you, when talking through it last night, the benefit of taking 4 bikes away for a weekend is really the biggest part. If we were doing multiple days he may want both his DH bikes and Enduro bike... so yes that's a massive tick in the box for the van side of things.
The downside is that having bought the Kuga i'd have to flog that on, but it's petrol and low miles, so could techincally work out. It's something we're thinking/discussing, although lets just say Mrs Weeksy isn't onboard... But that's a whole weird discussion lol.
The other question is, do we just accept we need a van for the big days, like the Glencoe, Fort William etc and hire one for the weekend for those particular events. Keeping the car for the normal stuff along with Gazebo etc.
Well that's the family weekend away booked LOL a nice little cottage in Fort Willam for summer
This is all brilliant fun - it's good to follow it all on here!
Fun for you, Mrs Weeksy is frowning at the £300+ for Fort William, the £300+ for Glencoe and the soon to be discussed van that she's getting slightly less frowny about, or maybe more "just buy the %$%£$%£ van"
Rhyd-Y-Felin 22-23 July NATIONAL CHAMPS
Well the boy has approval from the health and safety committee to get back out racing this weekend.
It's Forest of Dean. Likely on a course we know well.. So a decent little entry back for him. I'm properly curious as to how he goes out there back on the bike, especially as we'll be flying with the new air Boxxers instead of the coil XFusions. But with the Shockwiz installed and a decent bit of feel he's now seemingly developing, we should be golden. Debating where we do Saturdays testing but i fully expect it'll be at Forest of Dean knowing him. He loves it over there, obviously i'm a fan too so it'll be a good little weekend of it. If a little on the chilly side !!!
Well the race was cancelled due to crazy amounts of snow at FoD meaning you couldn't see the track.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52556070641_c400deac40_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52556070641_c400deac40_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2o5cALZ ]2022-12-11_11-19-10[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
So on way home we jumped onto the local woods and went practicing and setting up his forks.
https://youtube.com/shorts/k-WCKPBU29g?feature=share
https://youtube.com/shorts/tbWqNHuyEUY?feature=share
Getting the forks dialed in. Obviously we're using the Shockwiz, but it's as much the boy and me getting the feel for things too. I can get it pretty close, he gets it closer, then the Shockwiz fine tunes it.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52556366569_24b0f07428_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52556366569_24b0f07428_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2o5e7Kc ]2022-12-11_11-18-51[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52556541625_2f199d662c_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52556541625_2f199d662c_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2o5f1Mp ]2022-12-11_11-19-01[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
@weeksy, Just catching up on all the news on here from the last couple of weeks. Great to hear everything that has gone on of late, and look forward to seeing him at a few races next year. You mentioned that you might be concerned about racing the SE events a couple of pages back, do you mean from a technical perspective? If so, then don't worry, if I can ride them anyone else will be fine 🙂 Just ask Katy. I will be doing the South East series and maybe the Minehead one if Scott can talk me into it. That is the only one I have avoided in the past due to the apparent toughness of the course but Scott says it's OK. Are you doing the new Western series Enduro?
What local trails are those? Slanting Hill? Look like fun!
I just find them technically hard mate. But sort of manage.
I've done Minehead and several others.
Western, we're still waiting on Pearce dates before booking anything at all. As much as Privateer want him riding their bike, there's no restriction that he has to race it. So Pearce are still our B races for season and Enduro is C.
I certainly see us doing Enduro though to help with conditioning and fitness for him. But will all depend on date clashes.
Thank you for the post. As much as I write this thread for myself and a bit of "look at my boy" I guess, I also hope it's entertainment for you lot. I'm still massively enjoying our journey, even if at times it can be somewhat complicated. It's always a laugh for us.
Yesterday we were chatting with his team mates Scarlett and laughing about a gap jump from drop line into jump line "don't be daft, no one would do that"
"Hold my 🍺"
When you consider this was the first ride since the massive crash at Rogate it was amazing to see how quickly his confidence and balls came back
Great! Now I am going to have to look at that next time I am there 😂
Now I am going to have to look at that next time I am there
I was quite surprised by how big/long it looks considering it's not a big take-off ramp, plus if you got 12" too far right you're then hitting a bloody big tree 😀 😀
He hit it, looked very relieved... He wasn't impressed with my reply though
"oh, sorry, you'll have to do it again, i missed it and took a photo of you by that tree up there"
So had to go back and do it again 😀 😀
Loving following this thread, but hating what TikTok has done to everyone's videoing habits!
Loving following this thread, but hating what TikTok has done to everyone’s videoing habits!
That's Instagram sorry mate and Youtube. Has to be in portrait... i dislike it as much as you.
Well it seems the boy has settled on the Boxxers being the forks of choice for this season coming, which is good for us as it gives more compatibility with the world in general being a 110x20 standard boost. Add that to the 148x12 rear on this one and it makes the world pretty simple really.
As always, on practice day i was chatting to a few people about various aspects of racing, i like to try and get as much knowledge and perspective as possible.
One of the guys was a parent of Preston Williams, who i must admit, i'd not heard of... but is clearly incredibly quick on a bike.
https://www.rootsandrain.com/rider140144/preston-williams/results/
He was saying the first thing they really really noticed was a massive number of wheels being trashed at bigger races. Which made me think "well, how many wheels do we actually need then". We've currently arguably got 4 sets ready to roll, with 2 bikes and 2 spares for each... but they're not compatible with eachother so it's 2 pairs of 2. But that should really be enough i'd think.
It's a shame that he runs 27.5s in a way as we could've stolen then wheels from the Slayer for 3rd choice hahhaha.
Now we've bought the van though i do need to give some consideration to how we get everything in it and stored for a weekend of racing, i've got all winter of course, but i'm sure that'll fly on by.
It's the little things like tools, footwear, wheels etc i'm thinking about, more so than the bikes themselves as i've got the bikes sorted on stands and they seem to work really well. But things like the wheels i'm thinking a cargo net onto the side panels and sticking them on the side, i think they'd be a bit too big for the doors, but on the sides, maybe above the wheel arch will work pretty well i reckon.
Was also looking at one of these. But not sure it's actually big enough to hold anything of real consequence. e.g a Full face helmet, trainers etc.
Could you just make one that’s a bit deeper and just accept you lose a bit of floor space that side?
Or you could build something against the back of the bulkhead behind all the seats - some kid of cupboard with doors to hold everything in so helmets don’t fall out? Shouldn’t be too hard to knock up out of mdf or osb.
Best thing eldest has in his van 'boot' are good solid hooks, some bungees on the wall and a variety of IKEA or mesh bags. He can hang all sorts - mesh bag if it needs to dry - and even bungee in place to stop it all swinging while driving. He also found a couple of cheap Decathlon drybags worked really well - they are easy to take out/in, easy to shove in a corner and not move.
He also said having 20lt of fresh water was a total win - his is on shelf as he has converted the van.
Yeah sounds about the same sort of lines matey. Just need to work out what style of hooks to go for and whether to bolt into framework of van with a nut on the back-side, or just smaller screw in types into the Ply lining. I'm sure it's the sort of thing that when i start the process will become a lot more apparent.
Or you could build something against the back of the bulkhead behind all the seats – some kid of cupboard with doors to hold everything in so helmets don’t fall out? Shouldn’t be too hard to knock up out of mdf or osb.
I'm sure someone could 😀 😀 But it's deffo not me. I'm a complete incompetent at this sort of stuff. Give me a MTB, a motorbike, even £100,000 of HPe servers and i'm all good... but give me a saw and a piece of wood, it's a car-crash 😀
Give me a MTB, a motorbike, even £100,000 of HPe servers and i’m all good
ahem <cough>backwards tyres</cough> 😉
LOL you do something wrong just once.... they keep beating you with it... mannnnnn 😛
Just need to work out what style of hooks to go for and whether to bolt into framework of van with a nut on the back-side, or just smaller screw in types into the Ply lining
Halfway house - roofing batten direct into van structure on a couple of self tappers. Then just woodscrew into that and the underlying ply.
Not sure which van you brought in the end weeksy but thsi might help so you know where you can and can’t drill. Check chapter 5
Awesome, thanks Robbo.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52562638836_63b29169f0_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52562638836_63b29169f0_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2o5MggJ ]S44860V1278057[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
Bought that... 42,000 on the clocks and really nice. It's the nice spec one with heated seats, air-con, DAB, heated screen etc... No Nav sadly, but that's OK.
Nice van, a few tips if any helps
After quite a few years with Abigale on the race circuit our spare wheels are in Planet X double wheel bags, when they aren't with us on the road they are hung high in the garage.
Spare tyre are rolled and then held with clear parcel tape, found out they take up less room that way
The rear door has a five hook coat rail mounted on a plinth, cheap as chips from eBay, at the top which holds the helmets. Hung from that is a Thule storage bag which takes shoes, gloves and anything else we want to put it the slots. Its as robust as anything else out there.
Tools are in an open tote tool bag. It lifts of the shelf in the garage in into the van. That way we know we haven't forgotten anything. Bleed kits, pedals, lubes, cleaners and chargers are the same but in plastic drawers so can be lifted from the garage and into the van.
All the bikes have bike shrouds over them to protect in transit and pedals removed for ease.
If your van has the inverter fitted, ours is on the left under the handbrake then the Aldi compressor will be a godsend and takes up little room.
The Camper, Custom and Connect all have Cross Climates fitted.
Sounds like we have most aspects covered then. We have all the race tools which are duplicates of the workbench/pegboard tools in a black and yellow toolbox, with bleed kits, fluids, all tools, bearings, headsets, hangers and various spares
Things like pedals, grips, brakes, chains etc are in a red box, another one holds armour. They're the ones i'd ideally like 'shelved' as they're a set size, 2 of them and should fit nicely in/on 'something'.
Wheels are currently not in bags, but hung on hooks in the garage on the wall out of the way. Spare tyres are one of those slightly irritating ones as they can't be folded as they're DH22s which i'm not sure would actually fold even if i sat on them 😀 The sidewalls are more like motorbike tyres lol.
All booked and paid.
Add that to spending nearly £17,000 on a van this week... it's been an expensive one !!!
British National DH Series.
Rheola 15-16 April
Fort William 6-7 May
Llangollen 8-9 July
Rhyd-Y-Felin 22-23 July NATIONAL CHAMPS
Glencoe 19-20 August
Antur Stiniog 23-24 Sept
Jeepers !
Massive thanks to Charlie and Hannah at STW towers. The boy has a load of new kit to wear, probably in spring when it warms a little, but tonight he's been living in the Camo hoodie
Coaching was canned this weekend due to being closed.... We were supposed to be at Cwmcarn with Katy and the team getting coached and having uplift. But along with the rest of parts of UK, this was canned.
The day before we were also booked to race a little one at FoD, but that too was canned as the Ambulance couldn't get up the road if needed to mid-point.
So the boy has been off the bike, which probably isn't a bad thing with his shoulder, whilst he can ride, he's still far from 100% with it and some of his exercises are troubling and difficult. So we're taking it easy, hitting the Zwift bike and doing the best we can not to make things worse.
We need to make some plans for the coming week, but with the new Privateer 141 potentially arriving and a new request in from Katy to jump on a race at Western Bike Events in an Enduro in March, we're hanging off plans of where and when to ride over the festive time as we'd like to dial in the Privateer if it arrives in time, so would be more like a day at Afan and Surrey Hills, rather than a Rogate and a BPW. But we'll see how things play out in the coming next few days and what the Postie does or doesn't bring.
I was also considering a bit of a crazy one and an IXS Downhill Cup race, but both date conflicts and also the "WTF" from Mrs Weeksy seems to have taken that idea firmly away from us/him lol.
He's still not worn anything other than his new Singletrack clothing since it arrived... 😀 😀
If Glecoe is on the Black DH, which I suspect it will be, it's ferocious. I reckon it's got to be one of the hardest track open to the public, if not the hardest. I mean, you can get down after some practice, but race down it? Beyond me
We're thinking of extending the Glencoe trip to longer than the 4 days we've booked up there currently. But don't know if we should add in a few days before (for practice) or a few days after (to holiday).
After all, none of his benefits are race result orientated, but of course we'd like to do as well as we can. Watching the video, there's nothing that scares me in a 'oh, can he ride that' context.... but heck some bits look ROUGH !!!!
Bit i'm not sure we want to knacker him out too much by going crazy for days before... so maybe just head up and do say a little morning there or 2... Dunno...
Thoughts appreciated on that one.
Extra practice at Glencoe would go a long way. Either a relaxed full day or just a morning as you suggest. Day of practice, day off then the event itself maybe?
Extra practice at Glencoe would go a long way. Either a relaxed full day or just a morning as you suggest. Day of practice, day off then the event itself maybe?
Yeah it's making a lot of sense doing it that way isn't it..
Thanks guys... i'll swap things about a bit.
I know, landscape mode! But, well, Instagram lol
https://youtube.com/shorts/vQYTZS4gJjM?feature=share
I was also considering a bit of a crazy one and an IXS Downhill Cup race,
You could always have a dabble on a French DH cup race. Looking at the results and knowing some of the lads in his age group, they're no less competitive.
11-13th August is Chatel, the weekend after it's at Les Menuires.
IT's something to consider for sure. Out of interest @ocrider where would we find out this information?
it all depends on what else we have planned with the team really... But it's not impossible to think if we could get something in Aug summer holidays that we could attend. The results are not important, it's all about the experiences
You can use Roots and Rain and filter out what you want by region. the 2023 isn't fully up but 2002 will give you some idea. We used it for Abigale for Enduro.
https://www.rootsandrain.com/event-list/filters/2022,dh,eu/
@Weeksy the dates have been published. Here's the full list:
13/14 may cdf DH la Grande-Combe (Alès)
23/25 June cdf DH Les Carroz
11/13 August cdf DH Chatel
18/20 August cdf DH Les Menuires
8/10 September cdf DH Valberg
There's also a French enduro cup 26/27 August at Peisey Vallandry that may be to your interest.
For foreign rider registration here's the link to follow, once registration is open. For the time being it's still got the 2022 dates up on the page.
I'll give you a heads up when it comes around to opening rider registration.