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Race day and it's not dark!
First one of getting up in sunlight in a very long time.
Lots of practice time for the lad, so a bit of a long morning standing round for me today
Are you going to fod to ride the elephant man trail?
Was there with the kids yesterday so rode it. Was surprised how little tech was on it for a downhill race, must be all about having big balls and going flat out constantly!
Good luck!
Run 1 2nd place
👍🤞
Crash on run 2. Waiting for results
Still a solid result
Congratulations!
Another day, another race meeting.
Sunshine and warmer temps were nice. As always the lad was flying in practice, him, drew and a couple of others playing and testing lines.
Run 1 was smooth according to the lad with 2nd place but a pack all close to him. Numbers in the race were low with only 28 in Youth and less in other classes so it was a quick turn around for run 2.
As he came past us he stacked it and has twisted his ankle a bit. Which may or may not affect his ability to race next weekend.
2 people went quicker and he led home the bunch with his teammate in 12th.
He's putting in epic performances and flying at the moment, again today he beat several riders he's never beaten before. Hopefully he'll start to believe he's got what it takes to do it at this and all levels.
Back home with beer for me and ice on his ankle for him
Great result! That’s a close field!!
💥 Ace result 😀 Well done Team Weeksy 💪🏻
Every race is like that at the moment, 1 mistake, missed corner, boom, 10-15 places lost. They're just completely on it, every second of every race. It's crazy.
Best part of the day though was the friendships he now forming with the lads, we barely saw him for 2 hours as they were talking crap, checking out lines etc, then hanging round together by the vans messing around and chatting. Assuming he's ok with ankle, it's the same 4 lads from this weekend who are all racing Southern Enduro, so if he can make it, it'll be fun.
ah man, my prediction was almost right!
Good effort from the lad.
Bloody hell, that's closer than F1 qualifying haha! Nice result
Sometimes you sit there and think "must be time for a bit of a breather now"
But the answer is NO of course.
New Tech3 V4's installed on the Privateer this morning. Bit of a pain as i had to bleed the rear, but it's fairly easy, just like motorbikes really. Due to buying them off a mate he gave me a bleed kit, but i already own one, so i've now got 2 of those, obviously one will be sold. But the brakes are on and ready to roll. We've now got 2 sets of spare Codes and a set of Guides in the box of everythingness. He'll have to do a bit of testing on them to make sure he's happy with bite/reach and bleeding, but i'm fairly happy they're close to where he likes them.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52759692948_046fbff3e5_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52759692948_046fbff3e5_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2oocdAq ]2023-03-20_09-19-53[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
Then we've got the new mech to go onto the Fury in the next few weeks.
Along with that i need to have a look at my dropper post on the Slayer as it's not very responsive at times, so likely needs a bit of a clean/service inside. However, i don't want to take it apart today as i've got BPW Enduro race on it on Weds. I suppose if i broke it, i could just use his Privateer now 😀
Then we're straight into the weekend, Sat lunchtime driving to Plymouth are for Newnham Park enduro with Scott at Southern Enduro. This is of course as long as the lads ankle is OK, but he hobbled to school this morning without the crutches he was using last night, so i think he'll be OK there for weekend.
Straight after that we're into the big boys DH stuff at Rheola for Gravity Events, this is a warm-up type event for the National DH 2 weeks later.. All the big boys will be playing, so we'll need to be fit and healthy for then anyway. It's all a juggling act of time, finances, fitness, training, coaching and riding... Not to forget a bit of recovery in there too... For him and one day, maybe even for me 😀
Well happily it looks like the boys injury from the weekend was superficial and he's all good for this weekends race down in Newnham Park.
It's our debut for Southerns in 2023 and also our debut for van-camping and tent-camping... But we better get used to it as we're doing it 3-4 weekends on the bounce.
The Privateer is ready to roll... the competition is a tough one but i wouldn't be too shocked to see either/both him and his team-mate in the top 5 if all goes well. We know a few others from previous races and they're proper quick, but so are the 2 in the team, so it's not impossible.
I need to get BPW out of the way tommorrow first and then do any last checks, setups, kit, even building and testing the tent on Thurs/Fri when the weather allows.
The advice to get an enduro bike to supplement the dh about a year ago was spot on.
Weather is wet all week for Plymouth but its still firm underfoot
The advice to get an enduro bike to supplement the dh about a year ago was spot on.
IT was and wasn't.... The plan we went for clearly has worked and he rides as much or more than any of his mates with an Enduro bike. However primarily he's a DH racer at heart currently and at the time a 2nd DH bike made sense to have to progress and keep him in races with a mechanical problem.
I was never the one who's been against the idea of an Enduro bike, i even bought him the Specialized Status which he then decided he didn't want to ride.
Honestly it's not all just quite as simple as "buy this, that's it..." as you've got teenagers and emotions and their wants and desires in the mix.
His team-mate has spent the last 12 weeks barely sitting on his DH bike, preferring his Enduro and now his 141... With the thoughts in his head of "nah, just not feeling it"... then the last 2 races, he's been back on the DH bike after back-to-back testing of both the DH and Enduro the day before races.
There is no right and wrong answer, other than "the bike they'll ride instead of sitting at home on Snapchat" it's that simple really.
However, i have no doubt that having and riding the Privateer in races will help with skills, fitness, bike time.... No argument at all.
However, to think "you've done it all wrong" by doing it the way we have, is just plain and simply incorrect.. We've done what's right for us.. The boy has had fun, enjoyed riding, still got the passion and the love for riding and racing.. So we've done it perfectly IMO.
There's still many things i've either not yet shared on here or not allowed to share yet about certain aspects of who sponsors/supports the team (and him) and what other things we've got going on in the background, but some of the sponsors like to do things in a certain way/method and we've learned a few lessons on this and we don't rock the boat. But trust me when i say, these decisions on bikes, kits, stuff etc and riding time, style, races, series, gets a riidculous amount of thought and planning.
Don't get me wrong here, i don't see the lad becoming a superstar of DH racing, that's not how i see the world going. HOwever what we are doing is giving him a way to either ride, race, work in the industry in his future.
We can debate the right and wrong of any decisions we make until the cown come home, but it's exactly that WE make... not me, not him, me and him... WE decide or plans, our future, our riding and we live with the consequences of that ourselves. I never know if our decisions are right, wrong, good or bad... but we're both happy with where we are in the world of riding and racing.
My message wasn't trying to suggest you had done anything right or wrong, that's for you and your boy to decide. I just meant he is using the 141 and supplementing that with the DH on less challenging rides and that will only improve his all round skill set. So seems to make sense. Apologies if that didn't come across like that, not my intention.
No need for apologies fella, I didn't take it like that. I was just trying to voice that decisions are not always quite as simple as answer X or y.
I 100% agree it will help him and I'm pretty sure it very much is doing. I do have a habit of splurting out lots of words and often are not quite how I set out with the reply
Due to buying them off a mate he gave me a bleed kit, but i already own one, so i’ve now got 2 of those, obviously one will be sold.
not sure it's ok to ask here... but how much would you be after?
Take a fiver off the best posted price you can find. I'll do it for that?
PM sent, I am assuming that functionality works... Let me know if you've not received anything
Todays thoughts move onto tyre inserts for the DH Nationals.
Currently we run none, ever... However, should we ? That's the big question really and if so, on which wheel or indeed should we run on both ?
We don't get punctures.. it's about 2 years since he flatted and that was we think down to faulty taping of the wheel.
But considering inserts as at Nationals you only get 1 run... So if you flat, you're out.
But there's 'feel' in the discussion too of course as inserts feel differently to standard tubeless.
So just looking for thoughts and ideas really.
I think inserts, if you, or he, is concerned they might alter the feel, is really something that is a "suck it and see" option as I cannot imagine being able to describe how "feel" is altered...it's very very subjective.
FWIW, I put a rimpact in the rear wheel of my bike, but it's merely a 130mm travel lightweight trail bike and I run a Rock Razor. But I ride in the Calder Valley where it can be very steep and very rocky and sometimes, when I'm feeling brave, I do go quite quick. I have had a few rides spoiled with snakebite type punctures so I thought it was a worthwhile precaution. I can't tell the difference TBH, with how the back end feels, and no punctures to date. Coincidence?
If nothing else, an insert might give more confidence to hit stuff harder, and if it does save even that one potential snake bite of disaster, then I'd probably go for it. But I'll concede to being no expert on the various heavy duty carcasses used on DH bikes, so would defer to those that can comment.
DH casing tyres with no inserts for me, and I'm probably 40kg heavier than your son. However I will caveat that by saying I've never raced Fort Willam or Glencoe...
Feel wise, he won't notice. I've got a set on my trail bike and there is minimal obvious difference. I'm sure it would allow me to play with pressures if I was inclined, but I'm not. Considering you've said how little he cares for bike set up, I think there's nothing to be gained here.
If he hasn't flatted in a while then I wouldn't bother, he's still relatively light so it's not a necessity. It's something you could test away from racing but there's no guarantee that an insert will stop a puncture anyway so you may not feel it's worth the faff
If you've got spare wheels get insets for those and then he can try both in practice?
If you’ve got spare wheels get insets for those and then he can try both in practice?
Course we do 🙂
But the inserts are sodding expensive.
Mountain biking is sodding expensive.
We don't run them but more for your info Abigale didn't and touch wood once she went to BlckDmnds she never flatted in a race be it DH or Enduro and some of those EWS races were punishing tracks.
There's a video around of the UK Enduro Team in Finale last year showing Matt who flatted early on in the race with an insert.
If you can give me a couple of days to check the garage loft there may be one or two new Vittoria inserts that Abigale won. I don't know what she did with them and cant asker her as there's a time difference and she will be in bed.
If I can find them and you want to experiment then I will send them down as we wont ever used them.
Let me know if you want me to look as I hate going up in that loft.
That would be very kind of you @tracey and it would be quite interesting to find out some answers. He's running 27.5 rear 29 front.
Will get back to you. I can picture the bag so it should be easy to spot if its up there once I get up and fight my way in.
If you need to buy new we found Nukeproof to be the cheapest (from CRC)
My son's had to start using one in the rear, not because he punctures, but mainly to protect the rim. Serial dinger 🙂
They do a pair for mullet, £45 - [url= https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/s?q=nukeproof+horizon+advanced+rim+defence+-+ard+pair&cat=previous-search ]here[/url]
I wouldn’t worry too much either way about inserts whilst he’s relatively light.
I’ve got them in where I’m running a flimsy tyre on the back (Forekaster / reckon / slaughter) but so far I don’t think I’ve damages an insert at all so I’m probably not going hard enough to really need them.
I found Hunt wheels sell the standard Rimpact in singles - whereas everywhere else you have to buy a pair. Standard rimpacts are on the lighter end of things - they do a pro version that I think competes more with cushcore. Supposedly the heavier ones give more sidewall support for lower pressures but can’t say I’ve tried them 🤷♂️
Cheers for all the thoughts guys...
Anyway.. onto this weekend. It's Southern Enduro at Newnham. Katy is racing with them too so will be good to see how she can push them on and give them tips and thoughts, as well as just being her cheery infectuous self. Will be great to see the team out in race kit, pushing eacheother, driving eachother and seeing if they can have a laugh.
It's obviously both the boys first races on the Privateer 141s and it's a tough field. Plenty of quick kids/guys in there and due to the age being 'at Dec 31st' my lad will then be 15, so he's in the U18s... So plenty giving him a good couple of years.
We know a few of the racers who are playing and he's not been as quick as those guys previously, so it'll be a toughie for him and Drew.
In terms of targets, goals and aims... Well, a top 10 is the first step, which barring any issues/crashes, should be fairly possible. Plenty of laughs, plenty of fun, some testing of our camping/vanning setups and gazebo stuff etc. So it's all a bit of trial and error stuff this weekend, along obviously with a fair bit of driving as it's way down south west.
I've scaled the stack of tyres and boxes of spares and found it. There is only one in the bag. i think she only one the one. Its a Vittoria Airliner 2.25 to 2.5 in 29er but looking at the instructions its one size and you cut it down. if its any good you can have it. Let me know and if so I will get it pasted down
Superstar ! PM'd you.... but just wanted to say a public THANK YOU.
Yay!
Here, just found out my son's Exeter Uni crowd are racing at Newnham this weekend too 😀 (Fun cat)
Say hi if you see a handsome dude on a black & red Remedy 🙂