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We're heading to Adrenaline alley tomorrow for a play, I'm not sure I'm up for that just yet, but we'll hit pump track Monday if weather allows and I'll try it then.
But as I say, I'm soooooo out of my comfort zone on it 🤣🤣🤣
That looks like it’s been ridden into a wall head on! What a strange shape!
Well DMR have been making bikes a lot longer than me, as it's brand new, I'll assume it's supposed to be this shape 🤣🤣
Oh Bristol, how I miss being spoilt for pump track choice, they seem to pop up everywhere in that city 😃
Little Stoke is a really good one as well. And the community cafe does nice cakes.
The boy took a while to get to grips with the bike, after the first hour I thought he was going to head home, but then he found his happy place and started getting to grips with it
The place was rammed, scooters, bikes, just loads of them!
https://youtube.com/shorts/I7v_YiHJ_eI?si=IzyJxqyLuFG66WZX
https://youtu.be/u8KhK-A-c1E?si=zmhtTMcvZ3apRsWo
We stayed 4 hours then headed to the pub. I didn't try it!
With modern MTBs getting longer, it's definitely more of a shock to the system switching to a jump bike than it used to be. It always takes me a while to settle into a much shorter, smaller bike.
My old Cotic BFe 26" had small wheels and 420mm reach so wasn't massively bigger than my jump bike. My new hardtail has 29" wheels and 510mm reach.
You should have pushed him off and shown him how it was done
Faceplants?
He seemed happy again today over at FoD, was awesome as there was about 8 of them in a group terrorising the trails.
I hit Dowie's and Shuttcastle with another parent then back for a beer before a bit of Twisted Sister
https://youtube.com/shorts/1kkUzGawrF8?si=Zsw1KAMWhzKyz_2l
https://youtube.com/shorts/0LVXyPdS99w?si=bCKCd95-S0yeXwVI
https://youtube.com/shorts/qCbZpeZC8rc?si=3bsl8MTM6BXXnSGQ
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0LVXyPdS99w
Fury collected and paid in full.
I expect we'll be seeing it again at 100% race in Dec.
Hard day of riding at Swinley today for him, he was top to bottom the new trails by babymaker about 20 times and racing his mates on every trail.
4 tough days back to back for him. I think he needs a day off before Dyfi later this week.
Pleased to see he’s getting on with the jump bike, looked awkward as hell at the skatepark but looks very natural on the pump track. Love to see it.
Full loop manuals next?
Yeah I think skate park was not only his first time on a DJ but his first on this type of riding. (He did foam pit once before)
So it was understandable that he was cautious, it's just really different.
Pump track, yeah within minutes he started looking like himself a bit. Then he's hitting the doubles, then an hour later he's hitting that triple and all the doubles.
I still think the indoor stuff will be alien for a few times, but he's working on it. He seems to have enjoyed both and you can see in his riding this week he's enjoying all aspects of it. That was the primary goal for winter, to enjoy it. Of course to learn, work hard and practice, but enjoyment was the top thing.
Thank you for the comments, it's really appreciated
The boy survived the day at Dyfi. Had a minor wheel issue which is one we've had before where the spacer on the cassette that turns it from 10 speed to a 7 speed DH is able to move about a bit and sounds somewhat clunky. Last time we had it i took the cassette off and put back on, all was fine again. He had multiple spare wheels in the van, so just threw another wheel in and out he went.
Chatting to my LBS at Rotec i need to just chuck on a 1mm spacer on there. I'll get that done tomorrow when he gets home with the bike.
Other than that, he seems to have had a top day at Dyfi..
On to Windhill on Sunday for a mates day with a massive bunch of daft sods. 🙂
ARGGHHHH a very mixed emotion day today for us.
It was a Windhill race, organised by root1 who own/run the 3 places, Rogate, Tidworth and Windhill. We've only been to Windhill once and that was last weekend. We'd heard stories of the super fast locals so expectations were fairly low in terms of results.
Morning brought a very busy practice and loads of kids out, the course looked ace and in my world fairly tech, not too bad in his world. First run or two i could see he was easing himself in as he didn't know which gaps he could hit, whether the high line or low line was best etc, so he was getting dropped by a few seconds by Drew.
Race 1 we were watching mid-way down, you don't get to see much as usual, but he looked good and smooth, so we wandered down to the bottom to see where he'd got
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53311612639_dab9c27803_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53311612639_dab9c27803_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pdXX6a ]IMG_20231105_130713[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
He'd only gone and stuck it in 1st place on run1.. Impressed. Drew had put in 3rd. Both felt they had more to give.
Run 2 was 2 hours later and again we walked down... I was met by him looking slightly less happy. 2nd currently, a kid who must have crashed on run 1 had gone slightly quicker. He then dropped 2 more places as the kid who was 2nd moved up to first and someone else split them too. So 4th place in the end for him (we think anyway, as usual the timing screen was somewhat unusual lol)
But all in all, we were arguably thinking something closer to 10th would be about right, so 4th is awesome as far as results go and we're really happy.
The Privateer didn't miss a beat as always, just did it's job. We did debate whether the Trek would have been better, but he thinks the 141 was about right (but maybe a 161 lol). Having a beer now and relaxing after getting home and cleaning the bike and kit and then stripping out the forks and shock as they're both being collected tomorrow for a service from TFTuned.
4 weeks now until the final race of the year... bring it on 🙂
Yeah official results up... 4th place.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53312187002_de3ac0ee2a_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53312187002_de3ac0ee2a_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pe1TPY ]IMG-20231106-WA0002[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
As always, it's SO SO tight at the top... Cracking little race though and he really enjoyed it.
Not sure the GoPro footage shows the speed the kids go.
But it's what we have due to some rather poor camera work from me 😭
Sent the forks and shock off for a service at TFTuned, as always, their service was superb, quick turn-around, great comms and they're back and ready for the weekends fun. Always impressed by their professionalism.
Quickly fitted into the bike and ready to ride.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53320171451_1e7db41174_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53320171451_1e7db41174_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2peHPjT ]IMG_20231109_123024[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
Being daft in the local woods yesterday on the Privateer with mates.
Just debating whether to risk Antur Stiniog in a couple of weeks.
Woo hoo. We have 2024 dates.
National DH series
13-14 April Rheola
25-26 may fort William
22-23 June Antur Stiniog
3-4 Aug Glencoe
14-15 sept rhyd-y-felin
20-21 July rhyd-y-felin national champs
Muddy day at Bucknell for us yesterday. Spanner and cleaning duties only for me.
He had lots of fun with Katy and Drew
https://youtube.com/shorts/5ku65gQY_YU?si=K8W8g58BMiUpmzZw
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Czy2RgYNxFO/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
I thought the shittty weather was for indoor riding at the skatepark?
Yeah at times it is, but there's still outdoor coaching/fun rides, picking apart technique and working on stuff, along with spend time with mates and getting mucky. The Pearce days are massively important as they're an integral part of racing, so more track knowledge can only ever be a good thing.
We've both been hitting pump tracks of an afternoon straight after school in last few weeks.
He then went out at 11-5 today on the Privateer messing about with the boys.
I'm never going to knock him for riding. But at the moment it's deffo less pressured and intense than at other times of the year.
Hopefully we've got enough for the start of 2024 🙂
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53352877929_228ddf8b29_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53352877929_228ddf8b29_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2phBrPF ]IMG_20231124_100438[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
It looks like we may have a bit of sleet or snow this weekend. But not enough to cancel the race anyway. The boy has 75 to race against up to now this weekend, which i think is the biggest race field he's faced potentially. Considering the size of the venue, it's a massive field. We've devised a few plans to put in place to try and keep him somewhat warm before his runs, but i have little doubt he's still going to be a bit chilly this weekend.
But hopefully it'll be a fairly non-pressured day for him with some laughs and a lot of messing with his riding mates. He's obviously quite a regular in FoD these days and with that comes a massive pile of riding mates, so there'll be 8-10 at least of them all arsing about on bikes on both Sat and Sun.
Another weekend of epicness with the boy.
FoD race so Saturday was spent with race practice and he was feeling good, back home for 7pm for food and a couple of hours rest before a 5am start to get to FoD for ra e. Parking can be tough so getting there handy can play a factor.
The bike was good but it was icy, frosty, frozen and cold. He was first off in practice as we wanted to try and get 3 runs in. All went well, no major issues.
Race run he was off 69 out of 75 in his class, not a problem whatever order really. He came over the line with 6th place. Awesome. Made all the better by his teammate being in P1.
Cold, wet, cold, wet, muddy, wet, new kit, new new kit, more kit. Off out for run 2, I was at the top on hand warmer carrying , jacket, wooly hat and jersey. He improved by 1.2s but still came in with a 6th place. Drew came in with P3, awesome.
Really tired now after coming home to wash bikes, kit, more bikes, more kit. It'll all need washing again tomorrow I bet too
I love these updates; despite having never met either of you, for some reason I feel really invested in his progress. You've both been a contributing factor in me buying a DH bike again, and although I don't plan to race, I'm thoroughly enjoying uplift days again so thank you!
wow, that means a hell of a lot honestly. Not looking for anyone to reply to this bit, but i do sometimes feel people are thinking "FFS man, give it a rest" as was pointed out (and liked) a few times. But it's about bikes and hopefully for some is good interesting reading.
There's so much more depth i could go into on this of the ins and outs of sponsorship, teams, bikes, riding, racing, dreams, goals and targets. But honestly i don't think i can get many of these things out of my head without seeming very self-absorbed and a complete muppet. But they are real to me (and him) and a massive part of our life.
Seeing his recent progress is absolutely brilliant. Sure, he's not at the pointy end yet in the big races, but he's getting closer, faster, better and seeing him turn up at a race like yesterday and on the way he was saying "Top 15 would be OK, top 10 would be great"... However me sitting next to him "top 6 mate.... " .. Now even 6 months ago, that was a complete work of fiction but i have massive belief in what he can do, even if he's not quite as convinced. But 6 months back he'd have gone in with "top half" as his target. So we're starting to see progress in his riding but also his mindset.
Next year is a fairly important one as some of the results next year in his 2nd year of youth can decide quite a lot as to what he can do as a junior in terms of events. But that's by-the-by and all in mine and his heads at the moment. We'll just keep sticking in the practice, the training, all the gym work that i don't go into on here, the other random stuff.
I do wonder if sometimes people think i'm doing what a lot of parents we've all seen do and end up trying to live their dreams through their kids... But i'm REALLY hoping that's not the case and i'm more just facilitating what he wants from the world at the moment and every time i think "i think he'll want a weekend off", he's there, chomping at the bit "oooooh can we go to....." so i'm hopefully not being the pushy parent with him, just, well, helping him along really.
But i massively appreciate the comment mate.. Thank YOU !
I dont think it comes across at all as you trying to live your dream through your son, you dont come across as a pushy parent like you might see on the touchline of a football pitch. You give the impression that you're quite realistic with goals and expectations.
Well, for anyone not interested in what you have to say, it's very easy for them not to click on the thread... mind you, this is stw... 😉
Personally I find it great. I'm always interested in the "behind the scenes" aspects of racing, so getting a first hand view of this as your son develops is fantastic.
As for your "pushy parent" fears- that's certainly not how it comes across to me. It sounds like he's having a great time, and you regularly point out that if he didn't want to ride then you wouldn't go.
Anyway, wish him congratulations from an internet random!
You give the impression that you’re quite realistic with goals and expectations.
Oh i don't know about that LOL... my mind does work overtime at times, but quite how we'd manage some of these thought in the reality of time and money, i can't even begin to imagine.. but it doesn't stop me (and i hope, HIM) dreaming along.
There's the massive stumbling block not only of talent in his ages, but also numbers along with talent. There seems to be more in the 13-16 age group than in ANY of the other classes. Not only are they all fast, but they're all exceptionally skilled and talented.
https://www.pinkbike.com/u/commencal-bikes-skis/blog/kids-are-coming-finley-davies.html
For example was the kid in 4th in his class yesterday, a fully sponsored Commencal Rider. There's riders who are fully supported and go on training camps with Specilized youth team, there's Madison Saracen factory riders in their cat... It's just insane, the talent is ridiculous in the younger classes and the fast kids get noticed and get 'rides'. 2 of the lads he knows and races have just been given GTs and a lot of support from GT.
It sort of used to be the case that if you were fairly handy and just stuck at it, you'd get to the big leagues purely because so many drop out as they get to 16, 17, 18, so the fields were shrinking and you'd get it just by hanging in there. But i'm not sure we're going to see quite as much of that. Although i think expense may kick in for many.
I put something in another thread about "how much you spend in a year".. I think this year we're up around the best part of £15,000-20,000 (although that does include his Trek) and that's with a LOT of help from Katy and sponsors. I don't know how many people (and indeed ourselves) can sustain that. People keep suggesting i use a go-fund-me type setup for it, but i'm not comfortable with that, despite the fact i think he'd raise a few quid. This is our dream and our job to fund it IMO.
We're coming now very much to the end of 2023 and there's only 1 event left we can do, Stile Cop next weekend. But jeeeeeez the forecast isn't filling me with inspiration, wet until the day, on the day, after the day, just sodding wet. But British Cycling don't give 'points' in Dec anyway so there's no other reason to go and race than "because it's there".. .We'll see 😀
I thought I'd add a point to the above. I've never met you, don't know anything about you or would know you or your son if you passed me in the street. But, I regularly read this thread and am invested in hearing about how racing is going.
I'm a relatively new Father of two boys (2 and 6 months), and I'm trying to figure out (among many, many things) what sort of parent I'll be in this context. I truly hope my boys will share my passion for cycling, adventure etc, but realize they might not. So for me it's really interesting to read about your approach as a parent, how you justify spending the money and time and how you try to guide your son when things go right and especially when they go wrong. Parent to parent, it is very useful to read about your perspective.
I don't post on here very often but thought that might be useful to add.
TLDL: Keep writing, because people will read it for various different reasons. Those that don't, won't.
This weekend is the final race of 2023. I'm half happy and half sad... But mostly i'm also a little nervous as i'm racing too. As you've gathered, it's not something i do a lot... So when i do it's quite a concern. I'm not that concerned about getting down it, but more worried about holding the fast people up in practice. So i'll probably go off in front of my lad for practice, that will mean the only person i hold up, is him 🙂
He's got some feisty competition racing this weekend, including the boys from Trailrippers of recent STW article, he'll be fast as always will Nathan, there's George Cawdell who races for GT as well, although my lad was quicker and beat him last weekend at FoD, but George is more local to Stile Cop and will know the place well. So the boy will need to be on his A game.
But it's more just for fun this weekend, mostly as the weekend was quiet in terms of other plans and we couldn't get a space on the Pearce uplift day at Bringewood, so we've headed to Stile Cop instead.
Time to get my big-boy pants on !
Have a great weekend keep the fingers of the brakes and enjoy it. Don't give a thought to anyone behind you. 😎
I always enjoyed the last weekend of the race season with Abigale which was usually in Finale so the weather was always half decent.
As always an entertaining weekend of racing.. Well yesterday he was on Xmas tree decorating while i went out for the local riders Xmas ride/beers. Although i did only have 2 pints to make sure i was OK for today.
Me and him did a track walk in the morning and i was 50-50 (maybe less) as to whether i could get down 2 particular rooty sections. They're a bit gnarly for me.
Practice i sent the boy behind me giving me a decent gap and i knew no-one else would be filling it... It worked well. I had feet off on both rooty sections but sort-of managed them... ish.
Practice 2/3/4 went better and i almost got the roots half right, although i was taking the slower of the 2 lines in 1 of them... but the left line i didn't have in me today. Run 4 i felt was as good a run as i was likely to put in though, which was nice as then it started monsooning... Oh joy, wet impossible roots now !!!! Epic.
Race run 1 for me i came to the roots and section 1 went ok, but section 2 i had a foot off and got back in OK... Managed to make the rest of the run OK and got over the line.. Sadly for me i was in 6th place out of 6.... Damn...
The lad rocked down in P3 over the line, although it was apparently a sloppy run..
The rain was on-off-on-off for the next 90 mins and just before run 2 it kinda got OK... I sent him off while i waited for my run...
My run started in much sloppier trail conditions than run 1, i didn't go well... Pace was OK in top section and coming into a tight line i lost a foot, then clipped a step/rock with my pedal and spat me over the bars. .. I decided that even though i was OK i didn't want to get in the way of the guy behind me who'd be flying down the track and took my bike off for a DNF on run 2.. So 6/6 was as good as it got. After the crash i was never going to beat my run1 time, so just called it.
The boy went down and even though he improved he ended up 4th. Someone had snapped their chain out of the start-gate and got a re-run which put them in 3rd... Weird.
The video will explain why he lost some time though 😀 😀
https://youtube.com/shorts/KceZzs2Qsro?si=czfnttb6_1JXAOE0
An epic race day and i'm really glad i entered, despite my position i pushed myself hard and gave it a decent try...
The boy, put in an excellent race and the guys who beat him, he's never beaten before in Nationals, so to be pushing them is an excellent performance by him... impressed.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53388820413_02bd87b34f_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53388820413_02bd87b34f_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pkMEgF ]randr-photo-12253586-6000px-by-fstop-media[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
It was some daft Triple, only a few were hitting it today, on practice 3 he hit it and was ok. He hit it on run1 but made a few errors, partly/mostly due to the slick conditions.
Not quite sure why he hit it in the worse conditions lol. He enjoyed the entertainment at least
you dont come across as a pushy parent like you might see on the touchline of a football pitch<br /><br />
which football pitches is that? I’ve seen it at grass routes but not higher up.
My son is in the football world and I love this thread to see the similarities and differences between the 2 sports. The main difference I see is that football is so much cheaper !
The similarities that I see is parents giving their love and support for their kids to succeed to reach the best they can. I’ve seen pushy parents in grass routes football and unfortunately the kids don’t progress because the pressure their parents put on their shoulders.
Nice to see the results are starting to come for Jnr Weeksy , confidence is all in kids
Thanks guys. It means a lot, honestly.
@funkydunc belief in himself is honestly still lacking
This morning in van at 6am, the conversation went
"So, what's the target?"
"Top 10"
"You daft sod, top 5 easy" says me
"Not convinced about that"
He's right in there with these lads and beat some others in juvenile who used to beat him regularly. The kid in 2nd we know well as we do the kid in 1st.
Last time they raced the winner was 17th at Pearce and my lad was 23rd.
We are working on the confidence though and are paying for a sports psychologist for him, which also benefits him as a human as it makes him think about other things like schoolwork etc. As with everything, it's small gains at times. But he's getting there.
The main thing of course is enjoyment and we both had a cracking day, despite the rain (again). He's still got the fire in him to improve and is pushing boundaries