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you say "our" goals is top 10
you say he will get top 5 at newnham
no other kid has dad talking like this
BC rankings mean nothing. i bet other faster kids don't even know they exist
A little headsup weeksy. If you put it into your diary for about Jan/feb time next year to apply for GLLSport Foundation Athlete support applications.
They do it every year and although its not a huge amount every little helps. My daughter just got a small sum of money plus a 12 month membership to all their gyms/pools/physios. It took me about 15mins to fill in the application form. Havent checked if cycling qualifies but i expect it is.
@vinnyeh - agreed. I'm not going to comment on it anymore as it frustrates me seeing advice from more knowledgable people being ignored, but can't fault the enthusiasm and dedication. Will still keep an eye on the thread as I love MTB racing.
manorath-j i know where you are coming from and tbh i sounded a bit like that at first. Really i think its a bit harsh on weeksy to go at him because he has some passion for it and if that helps his lad then where is the harm. The harm i think you are feeling comes from the inequality in kids sport which you are 100% correct about. It riles me something horrible to think of kids with talent and ability missing out because they are not given the same opportunities. Buts thats life.
With regards to the points. Well its the same in lots of other sports. Those with the time, funding, motivation to attend more events rack up more points. Those who rack up the highest points tend to then develop into higher performing athletes and soon find they cant commit to all the events and have to structure their time towards training rather than just competing. Is there anything wrong with this situation....really? At the end of the day its down to athletes priorities. My daughter turned up at the first national comp this year and won. She is already down into about 10th place because she hasnt had time to attend the others so far. Is that the other athletes fault? Should that diminish their efforts? Let everyone compete at their own level imo.
Dropped the Privateer into Rotec Cycles today and he dropped everything and jumped on it to sort, was only 15 mins works re-tensioning the spokes, but i do find spokes/wheels a bit of a fine art and a bit wizardy, if i get a loose spoke of course i’ll tighten it to get me out of a bind, but when i want it doing fully, it goes to Rotec. He’s quick and efficient at doing them.
That’s Steph right? He’s a top bloke, spanner’s a few of my mates bikes (too far away for me) and comes on the odd uplift with us (I can’t keep up with him). Think he’s up at DYFI with us in May.
Yup. That's the boy. We've known him for ages
Neither can I based upon our times at BPW Enduro a few weeks ago.
I’m not suggesting you buy him a new bike, but you do seem to be swapping bearings a lot on those Furies compared to a lot of people I know who ride every weekend in all conditions.
Keep up the good work.
Sometimes feel that weeksy is best dad ever, other times feel like taking an axe to him, but the most astonishing thing on here is his unfailing politeness under extreme provocation.
Agreed - though the "provocation" seems almost all well intentioned.
Neither can I based upon our times at BPW Enduro a few weeks ago.
Though he did say he went OTB about 10 metres into the first stage so there’s hope yet.
zerocool
Full Member
I’m not suggesting you buy him a new bike, but you do seem to be swapping bearings a lot on those Furies compared to a lot of people I know who ride every weekend in all conditions
There is nothing wrong with the bike. It’s weeksy Jnr sneaking into the garage, popping the bearing seals and filling them with grit. Then leaving all weeksy’ IT servers and kit logged into the Santa Cruz V10 website…..
Mind games….
That's only the 2nd set of bearing pairs i've swapped. 2 main pivot and 2 trunion mount bearings. The others have been headset or wheel bearings. So i'm happy that it's not been too many, certainly no more than on many bikes we've owned/ridden. I've probably swapped more bearings on his mates G170 for him. I can't honestly think of others, but may be mistaken.
I'm pretty happy with it in terms of maint. It's a simple enough bike to work on with most bits and i know it pretty well now. It deffo has some 'quirks' like the 7/10 speed chainlines, or the high pivot idler, but it's as simple/difficult as most other comparable bikes.
I think where it's slightly different is that i do 99% of things on the bike myself, some people either don't do them, or give them to a spanner bloke. I'm arguably also fussier than many other people.
New team kit 2023 TLD
New D4 helmet, gloves etc.
Track is just insane. I can't even begin to work out how they get down it. Bonkers
That looks an absolute stinker for the kit man / mechanic / van cleaner!
Lol ain't that the truth. Although I'm hoping overnight dry and tomorrow being dry makes the track a bit more friendly, but it didn't help last weekend even when it was dry at times.
It'll be a tough one. The track walk was eye opening for me as I've not seen some bits previously and the word I used was 'ridiculous'. It certainly shows me where my level is. I'll ride reds all day anywhere, I'll ride some blacks at say BPW, but Rheola, nah, couldn't get down it. Not in less than week!
We have a portable jet wash. Fortunately we're also right next to a stream tomorrow as it'll need more than 1 clean during the day. 😄👌
Hydroshot has served us well when the course has been a mudfest especially when it's near a stream.
https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/mobile/mobi-v-15-portable-bike-pressure-washer/rp-prod34761
We have a mobi v15. I think we paid £50 in CRC sale and it's been fab. Some have had issues but ours has been excellent to us. That and some pink muc off stuff and we're ready to roll.
My Mobi V17 is still going strong after over about 15 years of use. Although it’s had a new hose, gun and charger since the main unit (and battery) still work.
Well that was as always, an adventure.
Wet, muddy messy, yup all of those.
Dry sunny skies though.
Practice went well enough, but lots of stoppages so didn't get a single clean run. But then again, no one did. Nightmare.
It's grim in the trenches.
https://flic.kr/p/2otr5oZ
Seeding/qualifying he felt his tyre going soft about half way down, completely flat by the bottom 1/3 and pulled off.
I'm standing there anxiouly watching the clock tick by and I get tapped on the shoulder, it was him
Inspection revealed
https://flic.kr/p/2otuEX9
So it's new wheel fitted for practice and runs tomorrow.
Beer and Indian now.
Rheola was always one of the gnarliest Dragon tracks and that section, Star Wars was infamous.
I raced there years ago and while marshalling, had to red flag Steve Jones coming into Star Wars as someone had crashed (someone always crashed)
Dry sunny skies though.
The only thing worse than a soaking wet tracking is a drying, claggy, track. Doesn’t look like there’s a hope of it getting fully dry so fingers crossed it stays properly soft
It’s grim in the trenches
What portable shower tent 🤔😉 keep enjoying 👍🏻
Living the dream. Beers and curry with the boy.
Window shopping on the way hom
In 1975
😄
What’s he doing in the phot in the curry house, sleeping?
Also, where is home, in this context, local digs or home home?
Again, I’d suggest a waterproof onesie style riding outfit for everything but race run. It looks absolutely gopping there and to be able strip off and be “dry” underneath must be better than all that wet kit.
Nah he was updating Instagram lol
We were staying in a bungalow about 9 miles away from track. Lovely place with everything needed. Just waiting for morning practice now
Wish him good luck, and safe descending!
Oh, and straight rims.
Let's hope so. Thank you.
He's done 3 runs of practice and it's sloppier than ever
24/lots.
I think 65+ riders appeared Sat morning but the track claimed many victims in all classes.
So he got 24th overall. Which we're pretty chuffed with.
More reports when I've cleaned the van, bikes, kit and cooked us food.
Your priorities are way off, the van can wait - update us!!
https://m.pinkbike.com/news/race-report-uk-national-downhill-series-round-1-rheola-uk.html
Can't type man. Tired. He got 24th and it was somewhat of an epic weekend. Fraught with so so many crashes, plenty for him as well, so many red flags. The most insane sections of trail I've ever seen.
Proper racing, beer time now
Top result in those conditions 👍 Mechanics job is never done 😉
Well done guys, love this thread, it’s great to follow the fun! Enjoy the beer 🍻!
Was spectating today - hats off for racing a tough track
Just seen matt walkers crash ouch
Not seen that. We were at the bottom. Link us up?
He won, so must’ve been ok!
Sunday was race day and was damp once again... more race/riding kit... more water.... more mud... more trips to the river to fill the Mobi washer needed.
Practice was again carnage, with people crashing everywhere, all the time. The boy was following Mary, one of Katys students/mates... they're a similar pace so was good. She chucked it in the floor 3 times and then let the lad past, who then chucked it in the floor in front of her lol.
He had a few long chats with Katy before the race as she was watching in various positions on track and offered some wisdom.
We went out for his race run, due to being a DNF he was down early... Which was good because after him were plenty of delays on track with various crashes and issues. He came down and was sitting in P2. (we took a pic of the leaderboard lol). As rider after rider came down it was slowest > fastest from Seeding and the boy say in 2nd place for a fair few riders, before eventually the faster guys came down and he dropped into his finishing place of 24th.
Considering it was our first National and conditions as they were, he was (and so was I) more than happy with that... As usual when he saw 65 riders on the start list, he was looking more at getting close to top 50. He's quite harsh on himself in terms of where he thinks he can finish and i was hoping for a bit higher up for him 🙂
Katy was really happy with his effort, but knows he's got a lot more in him and will be attempting to drag the next level out of him of course. But it's all a learning curve, in terms of how it all works, the tracks and within himself. It's a full on weekend with run after run of crazy hard stuff and it must take it out of him. So just to register a finish was bloody good 😀
As far as courses/tracks go it's probably the 'worst' for him in terms of what he generally 'likes' as a type of track etc so we hope a few of the others will suit his style a little better.
Out of the 5 lads we know really well there and class as mates, my lad was only one of 2 of them who actually registered a finish time. It was DNF after DNF. His team-mate spent the rest of the afternoon with the medics, but happily no breaks 🙂
It was then onto bike cleaning, getting the van loaded and dragging ourselves home.. He slept half of the trip home, i wished i could. It's amazing just how physically demanding the weekend is just 'doing stuff' and i'm properly knackered and aching today.
Next weekend is straight into a Southern Enduro on the Privateer 141, so there's very little in the way of rest, but he'll be taking on a decent bit of rest this week to recover.
He won, so must’ve been ok!
No he never. Jordan Williams did.
Oh right, I musta been looking at some prelim scores, or summink. Looking at his times, pretty obvious which run involved a crash 🙂
yeah the timinig system can be somewhat confusing... even more so when you're trackside and as always at events, your internet keeps dropping in/out every 30s
I think this weekend goes down as the most tension i/we have had in terms of DH, it was about 50-50 at times as to whether i expected to see him come down to the bottom of the run. Usually i'm pretty confident in him making it, but this one... not so much. Although i guess that's the difference between a MIJ race and a National race.
Things to take away and learn are really on flats/wheels and that's an internal debate in my head at the moment. He doesn't often puncture, very rarely, but obviously he did. When i pulled the wheel, it was an old tyre, it had purple gooey sealant in it which is something we don't use, so was a previous installation.
I then fitted the wheel that had the insert in it from Tracey (thanks again) but that felt absolutely horrific to ride but along with feeling horrific it was a complete and utter nightmare to remove the tyre afterwards. So i really don't know if we run one or we just leave the inserts and go a couple of PSI higher.
I need to get the rim repaired/replaced but that'll get given to Rotec tomorrow with "make it right", i don't mind if he fixes it or if he replaces it, whatever suits me.
The chaos obviously continues from here on and we have
Southern Enduro next weekend
Weekend after is free but the Pearce uplift and BPW are both fully booked, so unknown
Then we're straight off to Fort William for the next National DH race.