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We ended up coming back last night instead of today, i think everyone had peaked and just wanted their own bed, so instead of stopping half way down for the night, we just stopped for food there and i made the final jaunt getting back at 10.30pm .. So everyone a bit tired.
The weekend though was awesome again, the Highlands of Scotland are a lovely place (if you ignore the midge bites i have now) and the track/racing is incredible there
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53750951437_d3ce9668b5_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53750951437_d3ce9668b5_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pTMFd2 ]SDA-Fort-William_DSF9603[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
He'll have to get on the case of picture purchasing, but for now this one will do.
It was great seeing the boy bonding with his mates again and riding all weekend with them, they're all becoming a tight little group and having fun, it'll be a shame when that invariably ends as people drift off either into teams or other sports, but for now we're really enjoying the vibe in the pits they all have together. Sadly though one of the crew broke her collar bone in the morning on Sunday and ended up having to head early to A&E to get it seen to, but as we know, that's the nature of the beast and sport. She's OK though and everyone has been really helpful and positive to her.
We had a few interesting fixes as always over the weekend, Katies (team-mate) Session needed a pivot main bearing set swapping, happily for her she had both me and the Trek mechanic from Cotswold Cycles on hand and it was swapped quickly and easily.
On the morning of Sat after run 1, our mate Isaac had an issue that his rear axle was mullered, the threads were destroyed. We set about a plan and sent his mum to Nevis Cycles and we tried to think of weird and wonderful fixes we could go with. I then thought i'd go see Andy at Viris. They ran GT Furys the same as Isaac previously. In a very weird twist of fate, one of Andys riders had lost his bottom shock mount bolt/spacer and was running round the pits like a loony before having to end up going home early.
So, I had one of these bolts/spacers and a deal was struck with Andy, he gets our spacers and we get the axle 😀 happy day. Isaac was back out racing 😀
Over the rest of the weekend it was mostly wheels. Not for us, although we did have spokes loosening, but many many broken, battered and destroyed wheels throughout the paddock.
The boys race run was fairly solid and looking at the results his actual position in relation to various riders is about right in truth, that's where he is in the grand scheme of things roughly. So we're as always happy to get down in 1 piece with a bike that works and a rider that's not broken. He is again closer to the guys who are occupying the higher places and of course that's his job to work out how, why and what he can do to get closer and up to them. We will of course plan and work on that in the coming months (Starting with Antur Stiniog on Thurs) But the reality is, these riders are just bloody impressive as riders, any single one of them could 'make it' in terms of results in the coming years, it's no shame in being 22nd in a National DH in this Youth cat that's for sure.
So today it'll be into the garage later to sort, check, clean, etc both kit and bike, organise gazebos, chairs and everything else, it's half a days job at the end of each weekend and honestly really it drains you but, well, it's what we do 😀
We are considering a bit of a plan change later in the year now, the plan is/was to race all the Nationals with Glencoe being the 3/4 Aug. However we're also racing Champery for the European Championships on the 10/11 so we'd be getting back from Glencoe on the Tuesday and driving to Morzine on the Wed and i simply don't think that's going to work. Add into the fact the midges and desolation of Glencoe, the £300+ expense of racing there and of course the potential for a mechanical/accident that would wipe us out of the Euro Champs, it's just not the best idea i think. So we're pretty much decided on canning Glencoe. Riding or skipping 1 National isn't going to make or break his season and define where he ends up in the sport and there's only so much we can realistically do sometimes.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53752399710_77b61c0c3f_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53752399710_77b61c0c3f_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pTV6Jf ]_DSF9596[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
Cool pic by Hannah the Editor 🙂 (and now friend)
Great write up.
I think it might be the right decision regarding the events, Its not only hard on the driver if no one is sharing but still takes it out on the passengers. If it was me I would spend the extra time and go out to Champery a few days early.
We once did a back to back races with Abigale and the EWS events in Ainsa and Finale. 2700 mile round trip. Finale was the last round of the season and Abigale came back to the van at 6.00am Monday morning after the afterparty. She had to be in Uni next day. We got back in time but wouldn't want to do it again
Thanks lots, we don't have any intention of stopping this game yet. It's a heck of a ride. I don't think at times I can quite convey how much of a rollercoaster this is a lot of the time, from joy to frustration, to despair and back to joy.
Where he ends up with it all doesn't matter, he'll be who he'll be, but we're riding the train until the proverbial wheels fall off.
We've gone slightly rogue and booked a FoD race in a couple of weekends time. His race mate is struggling with belief at the moment and it'll give him a bit of a boost, so we said we'd enter too. I'm tempted to book myself, but not sure yet. I'll see if I can still ride a bike this week at Antur and then I've got my own coaching session on Sunday, maybe after that I'll book it.
I’m loving the more recent updates, such a huge change in confidence and comfort on the bike.
He always looked so awkward back a few years with his bars too wide (say what you want, but he was a young teen, he didn’t need it), elbows out because he’d been coached the fundamentals of weighting but was still learning his way into fitting that stance and I was never particularly impressed with his riding style - not something I’d have commented in the past because it’s just plain rude to someone trying so hard - but he’s through that now and on the other side so sod it, it’s great watching him ride in his vids now he’s got bigger, older, stronger. And he looks bloody brilliant in those photos. Trusting and following the process has clearly worked.
I’m so pleased you started this thread, what a journey for you to go on with him, it’s awesome to see the bonding!
Thank you fella.
Just because I don't necessarily agree with someones feedback or comments, don't think for a second I don't appreciate the thought. I'll be the first to admit that I may not always come over that way.
We drove up to meet mates at Antur last night, to be honest I could still do with resting instead of driving up here. It wasn't helped when we rocked up at our campsite, we'll, in a very loose term. I'm not sure if the midges or the sheep were worse, possibly the sheep standing outside the tent screaming all night.
But we then had an excellent day here at Antur and met a few other racers who are all now going nuts on the hill pushing eachother.
Last night's pizza for lunch and of course some cake.
It'll then be a long drive back and work tomorrow
I got about 8-9 laps in myself today which was ace, if a little lonely lol.
Race run POV from today
@weeksy is that Tan Aeldroch farm/Camp Snowdonia? Incredible midges in the wrong weather! And very rustic, but I love it. Some great swimming spots in the river and a terrifying ladder walk.
There's another campsite up on the A5, Dolgam, that's a bit less rustic but similarly priced.
Yeah i think so.... The midges just kinda spoiled the evening as we couldn't really sit out and enjoy the evening, we ended up just sitting in the van.
By the time i got up at 6am we'd noticed several couples/families had gone already. It's not the campsites fault of course, but had we known in advance we'd have arguably come up with a different plan for the night as it just spoiled some of the dynamics for us. But wasn't the end of the world of course.
National isn’t going to make or break his season and define where he ends up in the sport and there’s only so much we can realistically do sometimes.
I know very little about mtb racing, but from reading alot of your existing posts, currently most of the racing is mixing with the same lads at every race.
From my experience as a ski racer, and my son playing football, if you have ambition to make it top level, you need to see how you compare on a more global level, and at some point that means you can actually go backwards for a little bit. By the time you are 17 you kind of know if you are going to get there or not (yes there are always exceptions)
However it can help define where you on in the sport. For myself and I think my son, it affirmed that the end go isnt out of reach as actually the competitors in the rest of the world are not actually any better (ie not attainable as a stepping stone) It can act as a massive motivator.
If your lad is consistently top 20 and now entering European level races psychology will start to play as much in to it as talent.
Yeah 100% he's racing the same lads race in race out. Pyschology is something we/he have been working on and he's got a sports psychologist (yeah really) he's been working with and trying to unlock certain aspects of the game.
I agree that we're getting to the stage where we 'know' how far (or not) he's likely to go in this game and that's why plan B's are in place (if you've listened to Hanahas podcast you'll hear a bit more about those).
I have no massive misconceptions that he's the next Jackson or Bruni, that's not our realistic goal within racing. He's not even the next George Madley, so we're planning things with him one day getting something out of MTBing that'll give him an income, but with the potential for all the little things to add up to being and staying a racer should the cards fall right for him.
There's still a lot we can do both in terms of riding and behind the scenes that will give him the chance to push to the next level within himself, but it's not quite a simple case of BOOM quicker.... it's a long slow drawn out process at times.
For example, his video above is riding the same track as 2023 race where he finished 48/63. Last year his time was a 3.17 with yesterdays time being a 2.58 so he's getting quicker and quicker. (But as we know, so is the competition).
For now we just keep on plugging away, trying to get with the faster lads and trying to push things a bit more each time he rides and races.
Thanks man. He does know the track pretty well in truth and some of the faster lines, although I know the lines, I just can't implement them 😕
I'm not sure where he started and finished the timing beacons but he got 3s quicker from a 48s to 45s on the timed segment, working on suspension tweaks/settings. But yeah at times he's bloody fast. (But amazingly some of the Youths blow him away)
Will be interesting to see how this weekend goes at MIJ race in FoD on elephant man.
We've entered to help a mate out who we race and pit with quite often who's struggling a bit in results and mindset, so we're trying to keep everything as fun and chilled as possible, but with a race thrown in too.
He's out for coaching before that though on Wed to drag a bit more speed out of him. But again that's more about time away from exams and enjoying a bit of fun really.
FoD race today with MIJ and familiar territory for the boy. We wouldn't arguably race these at the moment, but it was a free weekend and we had no other plans, but also our mate wanted us there for moral support. So we jumped on and entered him.
We didn't go for practice yesterday as most did, but arguably he knows the track and the forest as well as the next person.
Setup and practice went smoothly and he was feeling fine.
Run 1 he ended up in 1st place with a 1.07.60 and about 1.8s clear of the next placing. Onto run 2 after a lunchtime game of battering eachother with a mini-basketball with his mates and he set off. Watching the rest of the class/Cat come down some looked RAPID... As he passed me about 3/4 of the way down he'd forgotten to put his goggles on (muppet) but he looked OK.
Got to the bottom and he'd improved to a 1.06.30 and won by 2+ seconds. So an excellent result and the 4th fastest time of the day for him so again, pretty happy.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53779939666_cabbaee582_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53779939666_cabbaee582_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pWmfp5 ]IMG-20240609-WA0011[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
Onto Antur Stiniog for National DH in 2 weekends time (Foo Fighters gig next weekend)
Great to meet @dirkpitt from the forum and his daughter 🙂 (Top job young lady) sorry we couldn't chat more but i missed you first time, apologies.
Great to catch up with you @weeksy and thanks for the chat.
She was chuffed with her day - she was apprehensive after first practice as it's a big step up from the 417 races.
Aim of the day was not to crash and just improve.
Her second race run was a lot quicker but a mistake before the first road crossing meant having to push back as she out braked herself.
So overall time didn't reflect the improvement.
Also a really great atmosphere and everyone we spoke to were friendly and helpful.
Your lad looked rapid all day, congrats on the win.
She was chuffed with her day – she was apprehensive after first practice as it’s a big step up from the 417 races.
Oh yeah it's night and day compared to a 417 mate, so she did brilliantly and you should both be properly proud of that performance. Cracking job.
My son was there racing at the weekend as well (unfortunately i was off on a stag weekend so didn't make it) , he saw James and said he was looking fast.
It sounds like it was a tight race from 2nd to 10th place but James was the clear winner so congratulations, my lad finished a couple of seconds down on him - he said he couldn't get enough speed on the flattish top section so lost the time there.
Congrats to him squealer, i was watching at the bottom section for both runs and plenty of the last 10 riders seemed really quick, a couple getting caught out with a slight slide, a slightly wrong line here and there, but in reality, they all look bloody great to me. This sort of track and race are always exceptionally tight and 1s can move a rider up or down 5-10 places with ease... it's bonkers just how close it all is.
Nice win 🙂 Good luck drinking champagne out of those podium shoes 😂
Hahahahaha it was commented on by Mrs Weeksy at the time of going up to the podium.. I don't even question why he does some of the things he does, it's just all part of him being him. He seemed happy with his choice of footwear for the podium so we just let him go with it.
race clips for the non-Insta people.
https://youtube.com/shorts/SB4kahkGlZI?si=yMsY6O-3tUc7pBOL
See you with updates in a few weeks 🙂
As you're sweating the details, have you considered a silent hub? Everything feels slower, but is actually faster in my non scientific experience. You can hear the grip. Some marginal amount less drag too. Plus it might psyche the competition!
We're not sweating the details fella, we're just organised and prepared really. Sure we are more organised than most at times, but as you'll see in his clips, not always as he came down with high goggles swinging round his neck (and went faster still)
Can't say I've given silent hubs a second thought though in truth. We e got the bikes dialled now, with the new Galfer pads in, some dot 5.1 in there and a Kryptotal tyre on the front, we're as good as can be.
There's things I've thought about like O-chain devices but dismissed as not required. He can still find plenty of time in himself before we get into any more details that'll empty my wallet.
The forks and shock are off for service this week, then it's 3 days at Antur for nationals.
Just realised I used that phrase again, unintentionally! I don't mean to suggest you're obsessive, only that you're good with maintenance and are experimenting with things like tyres and brake pads where you see it matters. And evidently considering other ideas and making informed decisions to put them aside or deprioritise them.
Yeah, no worries. I wasn't offended or anything, just a bit confused.
We/(more me I guess) do like trying to get things better for him. If we can get more speed for little consequence of cost, then yeah we're all in for it.
That said, I am a little/lot obsessive yes, but hopefully not to either mine or his detriment. But there's so many things to juggle in terms of bikes, kit, sponsors, riding, coaching, parts etc. it's not just a case of "have bike, will ride" there's lots of other things going on in both the foreground and background.
I've sold 4 sets of Uberbike pads this week, but I think I've got 5-6 left. Which I'm using to fund some Galfers which he's now decided are superb.
The main focus though is as always coaching with Katy which I still believe is a massive reason he's getting better as the months pass. So much so that we're trying to persuade her to come to Champery for the Euro Champs. Her knowledge of things and the way she sees tracks, lines, markers, it's bloody impressive I can tell you.
****ing STUPID companies.
I wanted/needed to replace the lads SRAM DUB preload spacer on his cranks, the SRAM one is made of soft plastic and splits/breaks really easily. This is alu and a bit stronger. So i'm trying to fit it, looking at the pic on the back of the box
Preload Ring > Dub Spacer > 30mm spacer
That's how their pic goes, with pretty little boxes and arrows to point to each.
But it doesn't fit right... I'm then thinking are you SURE... So i google it and there's a video with a guy who picks up the 30mm spacer (as per box) and says, fit the DUB spacer... Errrrrrrrm.
So i ring Muc-Off.
"yeah, you need to ignore the box, it's completely wrong"
I laughed, he laughed, oh how we all laughed.
Jeeez.... really lol.
is that one of the cheap £10 ones? I thought they were Raceface Cinch fitment but the video on the website does show them fitting it quite successfully to a DUB crank. Very odd.
Yeah reduced to £10.
Fits perfectly when you know you're fitting the correct parts 😀
I was tempted by one as the plastic thing on my Cinches has a crack in CSK tab and this is so cheap it seemed daft not to, limited colours though at that price. What colour did you go for?
Orange to match his Hope
Went racing with the boy at FoD last night. It's only the Fod Thursdays mates race thing, but a decent bit of fun with a friendly bunch and a bit of a laugh. The track was partly on what's known at Seths Corners, but veering off half way down. It was sketchy and the rain then increased which meant it wasn't really worth putting in more laps for me.
His was far more glorious than me, i'm not exactly sure where his skills come from, but it's clear to see where they don't !!!
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53789621590_aa513bca88_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53789621590_aa513bca88_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pXcSuN ]IMG_20240613_192351[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53788504727_0dce77a947_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53788504727_0dce77a947_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pX79ux ]IMG-20240613-WA0004[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
He's still deep in exams with Physics today, so i've been up early and stripping the forks out of the Session along with the shock and i'm heading off to TFTuned to get them to wave a magic wand over the bouncy bits this morning. So it's a full stripdown and service for them and a coffee and WFC (work from cafe) while they do that...
We looked at those after you mentioned it last weekend.
Would be great but it's a bit too far for us to do as Daughter doesn't finish school until 4, and then it'd be a battle down theM6/M5.
He's putting down some pretty rapid times!
yeah we were lucky yesterday as it was an exam free day, so he was cool to get over there. Next Thurs we're at Antur, but we'll be at the next next one as he's finished for summer holidays then. So all good.
Thanks mate, obviously last night was just playing and he rode the Privateer for the evening so he could pedal back up, but was a decent couple of runs for him but was more just a mess about that fully serious.
As per earlier, I took the forks and shock to TFTUNED for service today.
His shock has been fine and was a straight forward job, however the forks were a bit trickier.
They had developed a top out clunky, at max extension every time they clunked. It was irritating the boy on his rides.
After Jake had taken them apart he found a tiny hole in the damper bladder, which isn't uncommon but is pretty drastic as you can't buy it as a spare part. Usually it's a new damper at lots of money. But luckily he had a spare used one that's perfect and was relatively buttons from them, phew.
Other than that it was all sweet and back in the bike now.
I was testing the DUB as he said "it feels really slow" when riding yesterday. I checked the preload tool and the threaded piece hadn't bonded to the shaft. So I've taken it apart after a massive battle with the 8mm crank bolt. Then some stronger glue and we'll see.
I've also bought a standard one as that's a resistance fit, so if needed that'll go on next week
@speeder if you want the orange one it's £0
I couldn't get it to bond well on the shaft so I've bought a couple of standard ones. Let me know and I'll post it.
Well that progressed. I tried the stronger Loktite and it was still shit and didn't bond/hold. So went back to the standard plastic setup from SRAM. But as i'm doing it i think "i'm sure that's still got play"
So for some reason i checked the BB bearings and the NDS was completley solid..... I then checked the drive-side and guess what, again the same !!! WTF... I'm honestly not sure what's happened here as i'm sure they were OK 2 weeks ago.
So i fitted a new BB and not only do the cranks spin nicely now but they also have no play. I still ideally need to fit a non-broken preload ring when that arrives this week, but it'll be fine anyway now.
The disappointing part is that we only fitted the BB in April. That's really not very long at all for a BB.
I'm now looking into a couple of possible options for a DUB that'll last a bit longer, maybe a Praxxis.
I've also lobbed DMR a message i noticed they make the Axe LE crankset which is a Raceface type wavey washer fittment and non-DUB.
https://www.dmrbikes.com/Catalogue/Components/Cranks/Axe-Crank-LE
I didn't know they made an 83mm version but it seems they do and assuming i can get a BB that's compatible for it then we may go with these for a solution instead. I'm sure the boy would be upset at not having carbon X01's any more, but it'd be nice to get another component on for DMR.
Chatting with a mate who was up at Llangollen this weekend made me REALLY pleased that once again we skipped a Gravity Events round. For the 3rd event on the bounce they had 'timing issues' exactly the same as at Rheola earlier in the season and many riders didn't get any timings at all. Weirdly the Youth cat DID... but as to how reliable that was, is very much open to debate again. I just can't fathom how time and time again they're not getting it right... but also once again, a massive lack of communication to riders/anyone was there in force.
Their numbers were WAY down in terms of riders and i think people are voting with their feet.
I was testing some video editing software, but all it really highlighted was how poor my phone camera is