Weeksy08 the ongoing racing trials and tribulations of a crazy teen

Posted by: reeksy

↑

Posted by: weeksy

↑

I only managed 3 top to bottom but in my defence I did 35km locally yesterday and I'm 35+ years older lol. I suspect being 35kg heavier may be a bigger factor though. 

There's a coefficient somewhere in there that actually means that - pound for pound, year for year you coulda been a contender, i'm sure 😆 

LOL yeah .... errrrrrm no. Watching these youngsters show me that no matter what i did, can do, could have done, i was still a gazillion miles from them. It's just incredible watching them. 

But even yesterday i was put firmly in my place by @joebristol who was there with a mate and i joined in with them for some lapping. He gave me a good kicking. 

It and the last few weeks has shown me though that i do need to work on the weight side of things as i'm riding a lot, training a fair bit, but still not exactly setting the world on fire. 

But anyway, this thread isn't about me so forgive the thread drift. We've got a few days off and then this weekend he's back out on coaching duties for Katys girls academy. Amazingly enough, it's at Cwmcarn (can't imagine why lol). 

Plan is also to do some tow-up laps after the coaching on the DH so we can check the changes recently made as well as bedding in the new Galfter Green pads, still debating if we run them just on the back or both ends.

Well this is a fun way to spend time. (NOT)

Had a request from a sponsor to give them a hand with some product promotion so i've spent a little (lot) of time removing the current frame protection and getting the bike ready for some new stuff and a bit of a early season refresh.

I must admit the protection has done an amazing job at keeping it sweet, although when it's on the bike it does look a little scruffy but that's kind of the whole point as it's protecting the frame. But DAMN it takes some effort to remove it.. It's a very very slow process and barely wants to come off, but also leaves some glue residue that's pretty damn near impossible to get off to get ready for the new stuff lol.

Going to be a long few hours this evening getting it all done and prepped.

We've got a week to get the bike re-done before the next big event 🙂 

Hair-dryer and methylated spirits works for me.

Posted by: reeksy

↑

Hair-dryer and methylated spirits works for me.

YEah hair dryer seems in some ways to make things slightly worse as it then softens it all and makes the glue residue stick more to the frame.. I've had a bit of luck with both with and without up to now.  Getting there though, i've got the back end mostly stripped now and the top tube done as well.  Still needs a bit more work this evening though to get there. 

Happily once it's all stripped to where i want it, i then hand it over to Mrs Weeksy to complete the new stuff. I don't seem to have the skill or patience to do that part at all.

Gt85 is good for getting the residue off. And it’s cheaper than disc brake cleaner

wd40 also works well to dissolve the glue.

Posted by: zerocool

↑

Gt85 is good for getting the residue off. And it’s cheaper than disc brake cleaner

Yeah GT85 and WD40 SORT of get it off... but with a tonne of rubbing, i also used Autoglym tar remover which is pretty much the best out of all the options up to now, but still not exactly just a 1 wipe solution.

Most of the tape is off now anyway.

Nothing is a one wipe solution sadly as the ‘solutions’ rely on breaking down the residue which takes time.  When removing gorilla tape residue from a rim the best solution I found was to cover it in olive oil and leave it overnight before tackling the job. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08

Only went to get some tubeless tape, ended up getting a rear mech, a rotor, chain, picked up my old grips for my Fuel and the rear needed a new wheel bearing, which is weird as i'm sure we only used that wheel once from new.

Another £200 i'll never see again 😀 😀

Posted by: razorrazoo

↑

When removing gorilla tape residue from a rim the best solution I found was to cover it in olive oil and leave it overnight before tacklin

Using some fresh grip tape works well. The fresh sticky lifts the old sticky

Posted by: chrismac

↑

Posted by: razorrazoo

↑

When removing gorilla tape residue from a rim the best solution I found was to cover it in olive oil and leave it overnight before tacklin

Using some fresh grip tape works well. The fresh sticky lifts the old sticky

I tried everything before the olive oil, this was a right stubborn load of gunk believe me!

https://youtube.com/shorts/VOlAF1Oyh5g?si=wiImC7-1dNpbcgyv

An epic day all round at Cwmcarn. He was apprentice coach with Katy for the girls academy, towing them into features, showing them lines and things. Brilliant to see

I was playing on race track and a few of the off piste tracks. My brain is mush and my legs are jelly 

So we're onto the start of race season proper now. This Sunday being the first at FoD but then straight to Innerlethen the weekend after, then straight to Cwmcarn the weekend after that.  It then snowballs with several trips to Scotland in the few weeks after that (yeah i know Inners is Scotland too but i've blocked that out lol).

Before we head there we're off to BPW on Weds for 'Not-a-race'. This is an invitational pre-season not-race for Pros etc. Last year i think Greenland won it. I know a chunk of fast racers are playing from Charlie H to Ethan, Laurie, Reece, Hattie and of course Katy, potentially a few others, the boy has riders like Felix Griffiths to try and measure himself against who's the current junior racer for the Syndicate. It's going to be an epic day up on the hill catching up with a few people and seeing what the boy can learn from the superstars of the sport. But will also be about networking and making contacts which is honestly as important as anything else we do in terms of racing/riding. It usually gets decent coverage on Pinkbike so hopefully he'll get a few more followers and a bit of a high from it 🙂

His bike has been fully re-wrapped now but that is so to speak under wraps until the sponsor gets the content online and a collaboration on media will follow etc. It looks awesome and i was massively impressed with the new protection kit.

I think in truth this winter we've done as much as is viable for us to get him up to speed and where he is now, sure i'd have LOVED him to spend a few weeks in Portugal or ride southern spain etc playing there but there's budget and work to consider and sometimes what we want differs to what's actually viable. But his speed is good, his confidence is top level and he's really enjoying the riding. 

One thing i did bring up was us having a few days out just messing about at somewhere, i don't think he gets enough days where just hitting 'whatever' really happens and every time on the hill is dedicated and focused, so i just wanted to make sure he doesn't feel everything is 100% serious and just messing around is perfectly OK sometimes.

New rubber thrown on the bike today for the race tomorrow and the weekend. I ended up going with a Krypto front and rear after initially installing a Xynotal this morning, but then thought he'd prefer both Kryptos.

Interestingly he was running the Galfer green on his Mavens this weekend but didn't feel any real difference between those and the black compound.. I'm not going to argue too much as the black are 50% of the price of the green lol.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow, both from seeing a few mates and also from seeing if he can learn from the pros. I guess it depends how long he can keep them in sight for. 

https://flic.kr/p/2qU8XoN

https://flic.kr/p/2qU81Qg

https://flic.kr/p/2qU3xDg

https://flic.kr/p/2qU3xBn

https://www.sportident.co.uk/results/BikeParkWales/2025/ProDay/

Live timing from today. The boy just did a 2.36 but hasn't uploaded it 

https://flic.kr/p/2qUa2Qb

That's some big names to be out on the hill with!

There's more here now, Reece Wilson has rocked up with Hattie 😁

That’s a screen grab he’ll want to frame. That’s very impressive, a what a chance to shine! 

Are Joe Breeden and Charlie Hatton running their Pinion gearbox bikes?

He's sitting in 14th currently and 4s quicker in the afternoon than this morning.

Every rider ahead of him apart from 1 is a current world cup racer.

Massively impressed with his riding and the number of random strangers telling me how fast and smooth he looks is insane. 

Posted by: Kermit

↑

Are Joe Breeden and Charlie Hatton running their Pinion gearbox bikes?

Yup, so is George on the other Atherton 

6 gearbox bikes/riders in the top 10!

He's not far of some of the new Juniors with those times - bloody impressive!

I wish I was only a few seconds slower than Danny Hart lol

Which is the track they're riding? Charlie Hatton was at BPW at the weekend doing laps of Boomslang!

Same track, Boomslang 

End of day and back home, he crashed on both his last 2 runs and was up on split 2, but pushed a bit too much and stacked it. Pretty hard crashes but just few bruises and aches, nothing major.

Overall it was an amazing day and a fantastic opportunity for him. We all had a cracker.

Beer now 

Looks like he acquitted himself very well looking at the times - bloody impressive.

What an amazing opportunity, bet he picked up a fair bit from those guys.

Also gets his name out there with a couple of the teams.

All of that in spades yes. I was surprised how many people knew him even not in his jersey. Lots of chats with people about him and his riding.

Things are honestly quite ridiculous at the moment in terms of where he is and how he's going. He's flying along and happy.

There's things we could do better, things he needs to work on and learn but obviously things take time. But his progress is more than welcome could have ever hoped.

The last week or two has changed some life plans for him and things are changing a fair bit, but all in a good way.

We did however have some bad/interesting discussions yesterday. A couple of comments of "that bike's too small for him"

It's an R2 (they make R1/2/3) which is regarded as the Large. But i'll admit it's not the longest bike in the world. It's been commented before that he looks a bit big on it, but i've mostly ignored it 😀

Yesterday he did some car park laps on Rowan Sorrels bike which is an R3, however the boy being the boy gets off it and says "feels exactly the same" lol.   Chatting with Rowan he said he loves an R2 for it's flickability etc but prefers the stability of the R3 on faster stuff. He's about 6'2 so a bit taller than the boy.

BPW do do hire bikes including Sessions, i asked if we could ride one and hire for the afternoon. Their reply did make me laugh a bit "we can't as we don't have a mechanic to check it over" ... Ummmm we're in a paddock with half a dozen WC Pro mechanics lol... But i did understand their point, so didn't press the matter. 

So option 1 is to hire an R3 at BPW in the coming weeks/months and see how he likes/doesn't. 

Option 2 is to ignore it

Option 3 is a cheap R3 and swap all his nice bits onto it.

https://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/4000251/

With the way he's riding at the moment and in his happy place, i'm inclined for Option 2. But as always i do want to give him the best chance possible to do well.... so i'm slightly torn.

One of the lads making the comments/thoughts sent me this to affirm his position on it being too small

https://flic.kr/p/2qUiK32

That looks at full compression at the rear, so will maximise the size differential. If he likes it and he is riding as fast as he is, wouldn't overthink it and just carry on

What does his coach think?  It would seem to me that option 1 is the obvious, do back to back testing on the two sizes and if he prefers/is faster on the larger then go to option 3.

You have to factor in Reach/Front Centre/Rear Centre. So Rowans bike could well be an R3, but with a shorter stem can have the same effective reach as an R2, but with the distance from the bar to the front axle being different. Would need a bit of a test plan to rattle it out.

Note that there is quite the range of reach/stems in the wc circle. E.g. Reece on something like a 30mm? and then Bruni at a conventional setup.

Posted by: badluckblueeyesgoodbye

↑

What does his coach think?  It would seem to me that option 1 is the obvious, do back to back testing on the two sizes and if he prefers/is faster on the larger then go to option 3.

Waiting for a reply back as we all had to scoot home after riding, but seeing her at the weekend so will discuss more then.

duplicate

https://flic.kr/p/2qUnTTH

https://flic.kr/p/2qUmCQw

https://flic.kr/p/2qUmCQB

What is it with kids and no gloves? Gives me the willies it does. 

I'd love to know the answer as well mate. Trust me on this, every run i send him up, he has the gloves on the way up... But recently he's going against wearing them it seems from the pics. Although on his runs he crashed on it seems he mostly was wearing them as they were covered in dirt. We'll keep poking him to wear the things, but either he's forgetting or prefers without (i suspect the latter).

This weekend is racing at FoD and a good little test as there's a few fast lads out, James his riding mate and Ollie Sinden who raced WCs last year and is 2nd year Junior being the 2 main lads we know well. It's not often at all that he's beating Ollie, so will be good to see how he goes against him. 

Just been sorting out some new bits for the bike from DMR, it seems he's scuffed the heck out of his bars and our spare bars are 20mm rise instead of 35mm rise... i know he likes the 35 rise so i'll get the DMR boys to throw some new ones out in the post ASAP, but obviously won't be this weekend. I had to spend a bit of time re-setting the bars/claps as he'd twisted them in his 2nd last run trying to catch the fast boys. 

The rear mech hanger was slightly out, so that's realigned and checked.. 

Going to be a dry sunny weekend so he's riding Kryptotals front and rear. 

Isn’t the no gloves thing mainly a fashion trend that comes around every few years?  Lots of the Kiwis (Blinki) didn’t wear them and suddenly loads of people started not wearing. 

I can happily not wear them (unless cold or very hot and sweaty), but I have skinned the palms of my hands a few times so tend to put them on nowadays. 

tell him his sponsors would probably prefer he wear them. 

Posted by: zerocool

↑

tell him his sponsors would probably prefer he wear them

Funny you mention that, he got an email this morning as the sponsor is sending new gloves today "would be great for tagging on media" LOL. So he's been told... although i don't think it was directly connected to him having pics without gloves.

Posted by: weeksy

↑

Although on his runs he crashed on it seems he mostly was wearing them as they were covered in dirt.

One interpretation of that is they make him more likely to fall off! Safer without 😉 

You've done a lot of off season riding at different venues, CwmCarn and FoD. He must know those courses as well (or better) than most by now. Hoping he gets a result to reflect that this weekend.

Thank you. We try and focus on each upcoming track within reason. We've got a race in Innterleithen in the middle of them 2 events, but obviously never been there so he's got a practice day on the Fri at Inners. 

I think Cwmcarn he knows as well as anyone at the moment, he's done a LOT of laps there and obviously FoD is the 'local' despite being an hour and 45 away.

We're trying not to pressure him too much or allow him to pressure himself either really. He's going fast as heck and having fun, that's the goal at the moment. Obviously he's still got a long term goal or two in racing, but when i talk to a few people (parents of semi-WC kids) those dreams and goals may have been taken out of our hands by WBD/UCI and there's not a heck of a lot i/we can do about it. So the results are not the only thing that matters, but you can't help racers being racers and wanting to do well. 

When we get past these tracks we've got a few places we need to get back to but apart from Revs, we pretty much know the rest in the UK. So we'll hit Revs 3-4 times before the race there but i don't think anyone knows the actual track at the moment.

Nobody can say you aren't giving your son a massive opportunity to achieve his potential!

I am glad you have not forgotten about fun. He seems to be stepping up to the mark and proving himself.

Well done to both of you for giving it a go.

Well this weekend as you've gathered was FoD race. The competition was as always tough. I was disappointed on Sat as one of his main fast guys to beat was taken out in a crash from some rogue roots and is now out of action.

The chats went like this in the van
"How you liking the track then?"
"hate it, it's a horrible track"

That didn't quite set the tone for the weekend, but it was clear the boy wasn't feeling it, however he'd still be fast as we've worked out by now.

Sunday brought sun, warm, lovely and dry. I got him to the top and sent him first man down to get a clear run, it's funny as there was 10-15 riders at the top when i got there but none wanted to go first down. I love it for him as it's clear track and no issues. He got down sweetly and ended up with 3 practice runs and was happy enough.

Race run 1 wasn't the cleanest i get the impression but it was fast and he ended up in P1. Lunch was had and lots of chats with friends and laughs, i didn't have any water for myself (fruity fizzy) so i had a beer.
Race run 2 as always got exciting with the fast boys.
Rider in P4 went to P1
Rider in P3 went to P1
Rider in P2 went from then P3 to P3.
The boy went from P1 to P3 lol.

Was was 0.4 off the winner (a good mate) and 0.05 off P2.
I must admit we all felt a tiny bit flat with it, of course it's Podium but i think we expected and hoped for more. But there's no such thing these days as an easy win in DH, there's always always fast guys out racing.
He did make me laugh as he came over the final drop and was telling me he was always in the wrong gear as just before the drop there's a tight bit so needs gear 3, but then he wanted gear 5 for the line sprint. But not enough time to change gears.
"what we need is a gearbox bike so i can change on the fly" lol.
Funnily we've been in discussion with a gearbox bike company who are offering us a massive discount on a frame/bike, but now isn't the time for a change as you really want to do it over winter. But if other things don't work out over the year it's certainly something that's going to get consideration over winter this year.

However, that's a very long way away

Long feeling drive home and had to unload SOOOOO much stuff as we picked up a squat rack this weekend and a pully thing for pull-downs. We've already got all the weights, but that needs painting/building.

https://www.rootsandrain.com/event13643/2025-mar-30-100-mini-dh-3-forest-of-dean/results/

Get him to learn the Blenki mid air pedal, it’ll be cheaper than a new bike

Such a small margin, gearbox may have helped but also may have helped the P1 and P2 riders. Focus on other areas IMO. Gym work and non DH miles can make a massive difference especially on the tracks where a bit more power and a few extra turns of the cranks can make up speed. 

P3 is still a nice start! 

As i say, there's no new bike coming in this year, winter was the time if we were swapping and that opportunity passed us by.

He works fairly hard on gym stuff, but could be better, hence a new gym setup which we'll get built and installed. But even with that, i just think it wasn't quite his day, no reasons, no excuses, riders just went faster. It's the nature of the sport of DH, some days you get it, some days you're a bit away... It's no biggy.

The boy seems happy enough this morning 🙂

This week we're off to Innerleithen on Thurs for a long weekend of racing Scottish National (SDA), so q bit of a quick turnaround on this week to get the bike checked/sorted and off we go.