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The boy got his own first real sponsor as well. (all the others have been part of Katys arranagements with sponsors) We're currently signed up with https://oxfordmint.co.uk/
Who will provide all our cleaning products/ lubes etc for the season for him, which lets be honest, at the moment is pretty damn important LOL.
We've been using their stuff recently anyway and by pure chance we were chatting to their Sales Manager who was looking for someone and was aware of us, so asked us to sign for them.
So expect a little product placement on some of his Instagram and pics in the future. It's hopefully a relationship that will grow in the coming months and years as they don't just do cleaning/lube stuff but a whole plethora of kit, clothing, bits, helmets etc through Oxford Products so we'll try our best to make it work for everyone.
I wouldn't normally steal a pic, but this is only until he gets home from school and we buy a set.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53553573603_d9ef101072_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53553573603_d9ef101072_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pAm4DV ]Tbog[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
Those in the know call this a T-bog. You take your hand off the bar and grab your seat in the air...
cocky bugger.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53554020633_f342a28c7c_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53554020633_f342a28c7c_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pAomxk ]IMG-20240226-WA0020[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
Does he wear any body armour?
Yeah he varies between a Fox upper body protector, chest/back type and a full on suit/jacket type. On Sunday he was running the chest/back type as it's more comfortable. If i'm honest i prefer when he wears the fully jacket, but can understand at times why not. At places like FoD i don't enforce it, but at harder places i do.
Having a bit of a dilemma, not really sure anyone can offer much here but i like writing things out so they're clear in my head too
So the Session comes with https://fifecycles.co.uk/products/bontrager-line-dh-30-tlr-29-mtb-wheel?variant=44251399323822 Bontrager DH Line 30 wheels. On the Rear, Shimano 7-speed implies to me/Rotec that the cassette is optimised for 7 speed which is what the bike comes with.
We also have a Hope Pro5 in orange which comes with a 9/10/11 speed hub and you run a cassette spacer to offset from 7-10
[img] 
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This is quite common on many DH bikes running 7 speed. However, here's the minor issue.
If we run just the cassette/spacer on the Hope Pro5 the cassette comes loose after 1-2 runs. This is because you need an extra 1.6mm spacer fitted which allows a smaller cassette stack height onto the larger free-hub. Now that's all kinda fine.... apart from one minor issue that when you do that the cassette is then out of sync in terms of positioning for indexing on the gears... So swapping a wheel means you then need to re-index the gears, which can be a 2 mins job or a 10 mins job if it's feeling fussy as you sometimes find the gearing is OK on the stand but when rider sag takes into account, it can then be out.
So i'm thinking of binning/selling the Pro5 (or keep as very very emergency spare) and buying a Bontrager as that's got the same offset, same layout etc, so theoretically will be a simpler swap.
So is the hope hubbed cassette 1.6mm further to the right as you look at the bike from the rear?
If so a super simple option would be to get a 1.6mm spacer made up that goes between the hanger and mech for quick swaps.
That's correct yes... must admit, that solution never came to my or Rotecs thoughts, but i'll certainly get his thoughts on it. We were thinking more along the lines of a spacer that goes on the outside of the 11 tooth cog, between that and the lock-ring, but still allows you to tighten the lock-ring.
Good thought though mate, thanks.
That was my other solution
Never a perfect solution when dealing dissimilar wheels especially when in a rush
Is the mech externally routed?
Option b if so is to get a spare mech and shifter that is setup for the order wheel and swap over mech and shifter at same time as wheel
If internally routed ignore
It's mostly external but some bits are internal. So wouldn't really fly.
Bit lacking in clips this weekend sorry, but it was horrible.
https://youtube.com/shorts/lqyHprdsfEo?si=8KyFXVjJomeq_GVC
May only really be of interest to me. But yesterday i was at RSR Bikeworks picking up some race rubber for the boy and we got chatting about frames and suspension as always and i was telling him about the spacers in the Session.
Funnily enough, he had a new shock for a Session in that he was doing last night for a customer and sent me this below.
A bit of information for you……..
I fitted that Ohlins shock on to a Trek Session last night. Struggled to assemble it with the 25mm shock hardware. Measured the RS Super Deluxe and it had 24mm hardware and had bent in the frame mounts.
Had to open the frame up a little to get the 25mm hardware in.
So it’s not just your shock with the wrong hardware.
All in all we both find it a bit weird that Trek built it to 25mm mounts and fitted a 24mm spacer.
At least you’re in the van rather than riding today aren’t you?
We have a few inches of snow here but it’s now raining and it’s so wet under the snow as we’d had weeks of rain before.
Meant to be off to FOD tomorrow - best take my bog snorkel with me.
I stayed dry all morning. The boys got proper wet and cold.
Seems happy though
https://youtube.com/shorts/MoyNun056GY?si=fOhRabF7WpX1bcqr
Still haven’t got to that place to scare myself yet. The lad looks stylish there berm to berm
Well the bike survived the day without any rattles and wobble, so hopefully that's it now, shock mounts sorted and it'll run happily.
We have been having a few issues over the last few months with the cable ties snapping on the front mudguard.
The boy got a message from Mudhugger to try and work out a solution or send him something different to try.
However it transpired after letting all the air out of the forks, it's the race number board which is hitting the cable ties and snapping them. You wouldn't think so, but you can see the little marks when you look. Then with the air out you can see it's hitting.
So 5 mins with a craft knife and we've trimmed about 8mm off the number board, sanded it and it doesn't hit any more.
This does highlight that he's bottoming out his forks at times of course, but there's always a compromise between plushness and bottoming out I guess. It's not like he's hitting small things, but maybe we need to tweak his pressure just a few psi higher as maybe he's getting a bit heavier.
Still haven’t got to that place to scare myself yet.
It's not my favourite place to ride but the fact that every week it's stacked with fast DH racers from juvenile to elite tells you it must have something about it that makes them return time and time again.
You've got to be better than me to appreciate it, which you are of course, so maybe.
I uplift him but I have pedalled it myself 5 times in a morning, it's a road slog, but in an easy gear it's not terrible
https://youtube.com/shorts/FK8ovSKJHV4?si=jK9hkeNmrQxvkukh
He's a daft lad at times, the vertical is about 6' but by the time he lands it's 10-12' drop.
I'm not sure the Rise approved 😯😯
This does highlight that he’s bottoming out his forks at times of course, but there’s always a compromise between plushness and bottoming out I guess. It’s not like he’s hitting small things, but maybe we need to tweak his pressure just a few psi higher as maybe he’s getting a bit heavier.
Also think about adding a token in the fork for more ramp up.
Reference cable ties, currently the screwfix ones are pretty good, unless you go panduit or T&B
Also think about adding a token in the fork for more ramp up.
We've got a day in the reasonably near future with @tftuned as part of the sponsorship from them for setting up the DH bike, so we'll discuss that there with them. I'm not seeing it as a massive issue, because like i say, he's hitting some pretty massive jumps and suspension is always a slight compromise in some way.
Now we've trimmed the number board we shouldn't get any hitting though, so at the very least we've removed the problem in that sense.
His Boxxers have 3 vol spacers in, came with 4 as standard. We've got plenty we could/can add if that's the road we go down though. Thanks for the thoughts.
The boys latest Instagram clip has gone bonkers
Usually he gets 200-400 likes.
I got up at 7am yesterday and he'd got 1700, in the last hour he's gained 400 more. I'd love to know how/why so we could take advantage of it in the future.
He's now at the best part of 6000 likes and oer 56,000 plays... WTF
3 races in on the 2024 season and ranked #1 in UK.
With the big races (more points per race) and racers coming out to play in April, we're likely to see him drop positions. But hey, can't argue 🙂
It could be argued that ranking points don't matter until next year, but we've been learning a LOT lately about who from difference companies/places reads and pays attention to details, surprisingly so at times. (more to follow on that in a few days maybe) Things like Social Media, Rankings, etc all play way more of a factor than you'd sometimes imagine,
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53567718040_2a0a091dec_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53567718040_2a0a091dec_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pBAyiw ]UKRankingsMarch[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
It could be argued that ranking points don’t matter until next year, but we’ve been learning a LOT lately about who from difference companies/places reads and pays attention to details, surprisingly so at times. (more to follow on that in a few days maybe) Things like Social Media, Rankings, etc all play way more of a factor than you’d sometimes imagine,
I'm surprised by this. I know plenty of sponsored riders and I've never heard anyone other than yourself refer to these rankings. Standings in national series etc, yes absolutely, but not ranking points.
I also don't see the value in boasting about a position when most people won't have even done their first race yet.
Well from experience, sponsors look at how the riders are doing, both in terms of promotion and results/rankings.
Rankings/standings are the same thing, British Cycling refer to it as 'national rider rankings' on their menu systems.
As we move into this year then world championships are open to racers and jerseys given to a number of riders to race by British Cycling, of course one of the things they look into is of course National rankings/points.
Next year the same is true as above in terms of World Cups. There's a number of jerseys given to non pro team GB riders, they don't just pick them out of the hat, they're so e on who's the likely rides to do the best.
At the start of the season 'early entry's to events at Nationals is by riders who have a scored XYZ points in the previous season, which means you get to enter 4 weeks early and therefore no chance of missing out on races that fill.
By entering and doing well, the lad can only be getting looked at favourably from sponsors and BC. It's likely to mean nothing longer term as I'm still not convinced he's 'there' yet but it can't do any harm.
We regularly get emails and Instagram DMs from various sponsors and you'd be surprised at how much attention they all pay to their riders media and results. We've got a load of new parts arriving this week for the Trek purely based upon some of the above.
Fwiw, I wasn't boasting, it was a light hearted post with a bit of fun. I'd have thought that was pretty clear from the rest of my comment.
By standings I mean actual position in a series. I've honestly never heard of the BC rankings and I ride with people who will have probably topped them at times.
Obviously BC don't pick names out of the hat for worlds, but they're also not sending riders well outside national top 10s to World Champs based on results from Stile Cop, but yes of course sponsors are likely to be taking note of any good results.
You say it's light hearted, but you've been open about chasing ranking points in the past... so it comes across as boasting.
Comes across as Weeksy being proud of his son's achievements to me. That seems like a perfectly normal thing. Especially for this thread. If you don't like or agree with it, probably a thread you should avoid eh?
"Obviously BC don’t pick names out of the hat for worlds, but they’re also not sending riders well outside national top 10s to World Champs based on results from Stile Cop,"
Of course, both me and him understand that which is why the goals for this year is to do as well as possible in Nationals. How high or low that is, remains to be seen but we have goals for 2024 we'd like to see. His progress has been fantastic in 2023/2024 and we're toping for top 15 to be somewhat realistic. Whether that's viable or not, we'll see in 4 weeks, there's a LOT of fast riders out there for sure.
I doubt top 15s would get us into a jersey in reality... but it's not completely impossible.
"By standings I mean actual position in a series. I’ve honestly never heard of the BC rankings and I ride with people who will have probably topped them at times."
But that's what it's all about at times. When he hits juniors next year, they're irrelvant, however the year after decides if he goes into Expert or Elite, which changes what events he can enter in the future when he's in the 19-29s. As i say, in the Youth rankings that gets you WChamps jerseys or not, but there's other things like the British Cycling development squad which again goes to riders who are 'proven'. You can only become proven by putting in results.
The fact that his latest results have been at non-national levels i cannot change, that's all that was available in Jane/Feb/March. Does that detract from his results/win ? Well maybe a little... but he still beat 73 other racers trying to win. Admittedly they're not all National racers... but they're far from novices either.
I don't really know where the right side of the line is with this thread, as you've gathered the details are all important to me, whether that's the correct shoes/grips, the correct bike, the correct setup, being at the right race, being at the right number and type of coaching, etc etc... It's all about the details. I let him worry about the riding the bike, but i look after all the 'bits'
With this thread i was trying to give an insight into what happens out in the racing series.
You may not see all of this with riders you know, but trust me there's lots and lots of parents who put in the same level of detail, thought, planning as i do, i chat to them regularly and each and every one of them is trying to put in place all the little things to help make their kid/kids the best they can be.
Of course the 'enjoying it' is as important as any of that, but as you may have seen from some of his videos, we have that box ticked and he absolutely loves the riding.
But there's a lot more to being a racer than just riding the bike.
Especially for this thread. If you don’t like or agree with it, probably a thread you should avoid eh?
Perhaps. But for the most part I enjoy following the journey, and it's great Weeksy takes so much joy from his son's racing. I just find some of the enthusiasm and ambition to be misplaced; I've been close to riders far higher up the pecking order who don't talk like this. They may do the odd local race with mates, but no one is traveling round to accrue easy points.
There's a lad that got into the BC development program after one DH race - it just so happened to be a National which he podiumed.
"There’s a lad that got into the BC development program after one DH race – it just so happened to be a National which he podiumed."
I get that, some riders are simply gifted and stupid fast, Preston Williams went from first race to Worlds really quickly for example.
Some have to put in race after race to progress.
Lol at easy points. There's easier, sure. But they're all tough, especially in winter.
mark88
I ride with people who will have probably topped them at times.
Boasting you say?
You say it’s light hearted, but you’ve been open about chasing ranking points in the past… so it comes across as boasting.
Grumpy side of the bed this morning? He's a dad and he's enthusiastically supporting his lad. Better this than Jos Verstappen. Give him a break.
Boasting you say?
Using an example to explain something isn't boastful. They're not my performances to be boastful about.
@mark88 I'm a grumpy bastard who gets irritated very easily by people, whilst weeksy is a loveable weirdo I think you may have just decided to be more of a grumpy bastard today than me or what is necessary.
The thread is well known and has been going long enough for you to know the content and context so if it irks you that much, be the grown up, and step away/ignore rather than the mood hoover 👍🏻
We got a message last week from DMR Bikes who are one of the main companies who help out the team. They'd notice in the boys social media he wasn't running DMR parts on the bike. After working out the reasons why etc they simply said "send us a list of bits and we'll get them boxed up and sent ASAP", there's several parts that are waiting for shipping due to the sizes/colours wanted, but here's the first batch of bits.
Not sure yet which saddle he'll run on the Trek, he likes the new Stage 2 saddle (non-camo pattern one) and has been running that on the Privateer for a while, but i also wonder if the shorter length Sect seat may actually work better at getting out of the way when he wants it.
The Deathgrips are a staple product for us, he runs the soft compound and is really hard on grips, so we go through them pretty often.
The most interesting one for 2024 is the DMR SPD Pedals, V-Twin.
He's been running CrankBrothers Mallet DH pedals for a while now in various forms but we'll certainly give the DMRs a try in the coming weeks
https://www.dmrbikes.com/Catalogue/Pedals/Clipless/VTWIN
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53569499706_e21da8478c_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53569499706_e21da8478c_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pBKFVU ]IMG_20240305_165342[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
I don't even know what to write or not any more fella... It's a bit of a debarkle really isn't it. Sometimes i think "why do i bother" sometimes i think "i really should, people find it interesting"..
(by the way, no-one needs to reply to this post, it's all in my head either way, i'll work out the answers sometime, somehow)
p.s.
LOL. 🙂
You do know I was being facetious 👍🏻
Write what You want, if people are arses it's their issue. You can't change people so just do what makes you and "the boy" happy buddy.
Too many internet haterz these days.
If you are happy yourself then you have no need to criticise others 👍🏻
Been following this thread quietly for ages and love it. Love your input, ideas, and thoughts on the racing.
It's lovely to see the plans, targets, progress and celebrate the little wins too.
Don't worry about the haters who don't agree.
Fwiw, I've got two kids just getting into racing BMX and it's really helping me. Kind of like "this is where things can go".
Really like the Joe Bristol input too, with his boy racing BMX. My kids watched loads of the worlds coverage on YouTube last year and I'm sure they were shouting at the telly cheering him on.
We're a lot earlier on the path with younger kids but this is one of the truly inspirational threads on this site.
Well that was a bit of a surprise when moving bikes about as the Session bottom bracket on the NDS is completely dead. I'm sure it was fine, but it's really really not now.
To make it worse it's a DUB and apparently it seems the DUB tool is a different size to my BB tools.. GRRRR.
I've borrowed one and ordered a new BB from Biketart, so it'll be easily sorted and replaced.