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Well done to the lad (and his dad!). Pretty demanding weekend by the sounds of it. He has some guts to race his first National in such conditions. 👍
It’s amazing just how physically demanding the weekend is just ‘doing stuff’ and i’m properly knackered and aching today.
You need to be careful with this. There is no easy solution to it, but lots of driving, constantly thinking and doing 'small' jobs can have an effect on your health.
I am nearly 50 and taken my son all over the midlands and further every weekend for football matches and during the week for training. The driving alone is very tiring. I try and go for a run 2-3 times a week whilst he is training/ at a match and then my wife will do occasional weekends and I will have a complete weekend off, you need it for yourself.
Yeah i hear you.... i'm lucky that the rest of the week/weeks are generally not demanding in the same context.
This weekend i'll be racing Southern Enduro too though 😀 😀 Just to relax like.
It's slightly tricky in terms of Mrs Weeksy getting involved as she doesn't have the tech skills and along with that she really struggles with the "is he down yet, is that him, is that him" if she's at the bottom. I don't usually struggle with that side of things, but i must admit on his race run i was pretty nervous waiting at the bottom. When the commentator says "... is now on track" i'm sure my HR jumped 40bpm....then you're sitting watching the clock and trying to see something/someone through the trees.. It was made harder at Rheola as you have no time context to gauge where and when he'll be coming into view. Most tracks you roughly know when he'll be getting into sight, but with the conditions as they were you didn't really have much idea.
Thing is, you're far from alone at the bottom in this boat, every other parent is there with the same anxiety and it does bring you closer together with them. Especially as with yesterday one of his mates from Swinley Summit back in the day, Ed... I was standing with Eds dad, my boy was down with his time and Eds time went to 5.00, then 5.30.... you then know something has gone pear shaped... 6.00.... 7.00... "ah crap" you're thinking... Eventually his time disappears but Ed still ain't down and his dad is now freaking out.... somewhere inside you're freaking out for him too, but you try and keep your cool with "i'm sure it's fine and just a mechanical issue"...
Happily, Ed had just had the same as my lad the day before and a flat on the rear, no crash, no issue and he appeard back at the bottom looking somewhat dejected... It's a tough game at times like this, all weekend, trail after trail, crashes, near crashes, adrenaline.... all for nothing... Was gutted for him that's for sure.
It's a weekend of lows, highs, intensity...
The kids who put themselves through this in the name of 'fun' i have nothing but respect for, no matter where they finish 😀
He has some guts to race his first National in such conditions
He sure does... there were far less experienced riders/racers out there going through it, without being too harsh, without his skills as well... They're brave little lads/lasses (and grown ups lol)
Just been checking and the riders all thought conditions were worse than the weekend before at Gravity regional race...the lad went 12s quicker yesterday... Got to be pleased with that 😀
Well done to the boy, that looked, quite frankly, a mess of a track 🙂
He can relax now and look forward to the far more simple task of getting down 5 stages of SE. Fingers crossed for the weather.
He can relax now and look forward to the far more simple task of getting down 5 stages of SE. Fingers crossed for the weather.
Yeah just got riders briefing which slightly surprised me that there's no track walk on the Sat... We were going to shoot over for a looky. But that'll mean he can spend the day with Mrs Weeksy instead which will keep her happy 🙂
I think it'll be an excellent weekend though, he's got 4 mates racing, who will all be chasing eachother down for a bit of entertainment.
are you racing Weeksy? I couldnt see your name in the list (although could've easily missed it).
are you racing Weeksy? I couldnt see your name in the list (although could’ve easily missed it).
That a question i've just asked Scott 😀
I thought i was... but maybe i'm not 😀 lol... we'll find out.
I was in the 50-59 Ebike list... Which is a shame as it would've meant i could pedal less 😀
I'm in the manual bike Cat now
I see we have Brendan F there again. Another chance to roll out the gap jump video from Rampage and tell everyone I raced him 🙂
See you on the start line along with the other oldies Weeksy
See you on the start line along with the other oldies Weeksy
I'll be there matey... if you can wait long enough at the end, we'll crack open a beer or 2 🙂
We'll be with the team all in kit as above if it's easier, red gazebo.
I need to get out one day this week as i may have forgotten what it's like to ride a bike and steer.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52824908806_4e6b84eb32_5k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52824908806_4e6b84eb32_5k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2otXsZL ]2023-04-17_06-13-47[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
I'm assuming this thread is being edited as I have only found it on searching, not by date, and the last poster's comments removed it appears.
In the event @weeksy is back on the forum with this, and it's IMO only, I thought the last comment was harsh, and unfounded.
Well that's a bit weird.
I noticed when checking something today that his chainring wasn't quite straight. So I took it apart and fitted a new chainring. Guess what , still wonky. You can see the chain line go in and out. (Maybe not with the rubbish camera work).
So it's either the frame/BB or crank spider.
Took cranks off the spare bike and yup, straight and lovely on the blue race bike.
Fitted the wonky cranks to the purple and it now drops the chain off front when pedalling backwards. He's dropped it a couple of times when riding which is now explained by this.
So I fitted a narrow wide chainring to the wonky arms, which keeps it on. But sadly I think we need some new cranks. It's Shimano style so any Shimano like a Zee or Saint will be fine, or a compatible Raceface crank.
Southern Enduro this weekend. Was great to see a few forum regulars out there in the old boys cat along with me.
It was at Milland, so whilst techie, it's not impossible like some places.
The rain mostly stayed away but the over-night rain meant that the stages pre-practice were 100 times different on race runs, so much so that Stage 1 went from run, to almost unrideable.
The boy ended up 19/44 but was a bit disappointed. On Stage 1/2 he was ahead of his team-mate (and his local mates), but stage 3 he ended up with a off-track excursion and stage 4 he got mud splatter in the eye and couldn't see. So Drew his team mate ended up 13th and 11s quicker over the 5 stages, with Olly his local mate in 15th and Jack another riding mate in 18th... It's close as always in their cat and just that 1 mistake cost him the difference between 5 places . On 1& he was 12th and 14th... but on stage 3 he was 31st.... so it really hits your finish position.
No excuses though, he finished where he finished and as we know, Enduro isn't his main focus as a rider so he's not completely gutted, but i'd say he's deffo a little disappointed. The bike worked well though and he had a chunk of fun both on the trails and in the paddock with his mates (and maybe even with me)
Onto this weekend and it's Bikeparkwales for a day out on Monday, before we then head to Fort William.
Good fun wasn't it 🙂 great to see you and the boy, did you spot that Scarlett completely annihilated(that's a really hard word to spell) both of us?
I've seen her ride enough to know that was clearly going to be the case, certainly for me.
We both enjoyed it mate yeah. It certainly showed both of us what we need to work on, although as always, not how to get there.
S5 was my best stage compared to the guys around me, but I still somehow need to find 10+ sec per stage on average to move somewhere up the pack. But as long as we don't look at the results, it was a cracking day 😉😉
Yup, 30 seconds across all stages for me to really progress in results but I am seeing a huge improvement in how I ride. Think I need to concentrate on the fitness side a little more to be able to manage the pedaly bits.
Anyway, that's enough about us old folk, back to the topic of young Master Weeks. That Fort William thing is going to be a hell of an experience isn't it!
That Fort William thing is going to be a hell of an experience isn’t it!
It'll be a bit of an epic. Looks like he can ride on the Friday too once we arrive about 11ish, so should with luck get some runs in. It'll be a weird one as in some ways it's 3-4 days away, but the reality is, van, hotel, van, trackside, trackside, trackside, van.
It could be anywhere 10 mins from home, not 10 hours.
But we've got an insane lineup of elites that would grace any world cup. A massive track and a gondola, heck it'll be fantastic! Beers and airhorns at the ready
Due to the wonky cranks i've now fitted a new crankset onto the purple bike. It was running a 32T front chainring, but the race bike has a 36T, so i've set both bikes the same, so if he uses it, he's got the same gearing on both bikes.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52853180948_c572096db8_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52853180948_c572096db8_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2owsnju ]2023-04-28_09-46-45[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
He’ll just keep breaking things with a hammer when you’re not looking until you buy him a V10 😉
Get that tyre clean!
LOL give me a chance... I've not had an opportunity but it'll be cleaned before we head to Fort William. It's his usual race wheel/tyre, but we went for the Hillbilly. He used this one in practice and then it just got chucked in the bike and back in the van as he stuck with the Hillbilly. The bike hasn't moved since.
It'll be getting a test at BPW on Monday though to make sure it's good to roll.
Phew. That's that done.
Today was BPW, arguably it was a potential banana skin with us heading to fort William this week. But if you take time off before every event, you'd never ride.
The boy spent the day trying out a few little things on the bike (as did I) and just being a smiley happy lad. His mate Pringled a front wheel which ended his day at 3pm and after a last run we called it a day.
We did have 2 instances of dropped chain on the blue Fury which surprised me, but it looks like the chain guide is simply a little far away so a quick 1mm spacer behind the arm moves it a little bit inwards and should mean the chain can't drop now. I moved the lower arm position in slightly too, which may make it a bit grindy now, but I'd rather that than dropping chains.
Other than cleaning and lubing, we're good to go for the weekend I think
That video is great! Hope you have a brilliant weekend
Wow, love the vid - he nailed that!
Thanks guys. Using the video we measured the jump at 54' with a measuring thing.
Looking very good there, Weeksy jr.
Rocky, windy and only missing horizontal rain for the true Scottish DH experience 😆
You'll be seeing some of our young local talent on the track over the weekend.
Awesome video. Very fast and I've watched a few vids of Fort Bill recently and loads where they skirt round those jumps...i was scared watching that 😂
He is ridiculously fast
The crazy part is, he's not. It's just bonkers how fast the fast fast ones are.
That was run3 down there and 2 of the jumps are 40' plus and bigger than he's ever hit previously. But jumping is one of his strongest points usually.
You’ll be seeing some of our young local talent on the track over the weekend.
I can imagine so. Just listening to some of them young and old on the track walk was quite funny with how, where and why in terms of lines.
Charlie Hatton was chatty on way down. We saw Coulanges, Greenland, Peat.
Funny one was that was you see the people almost on the track on the 2nd last jump, one of those was Loic Bruni, so he overtook him, arguably lol.
Hope you’ve got some lead weights so he doesn’t get blown off the track tomorrow 😉 OTOH, hopefully a midge free weekend
But jumping is one of his strongest points usually.
Can't wait to see the vid of the road gap then 😬💩 (the poo is mine just thinking about it 😂)
Road gap isn't included. Rocky Rooty thing instead. River gap is.
The rocks look 10x harder than the jumps.
I think I could ride 5% of course, maybe 7, but I'm then off to x-ray
👍
Just the thought of a single top to bottom run has me feeling tired. A race weekend must be brutal
Good luck to you both , fair play thats racing at the top level . It will give you both a great idea of where hes at . Though he looks brilliant and not out of place there in that video .
Looks great. A little bit jealous that you get to do that with your son.
First or last, something mint to look back on.
Good luck weeksy Jnr!
33rd in qualifying. Wasn't going nuts. May have a bit more tomorrow