Weeksy08 the ongoing racing trials and tribulations of a crazy teen

Some good times from the 15-16 boys as well I see.

these 50s races are such that one bad corner and you’re done. Was the track based on any of the established tracks at FOD?

Track was Cougar Roots, which they've used before, but is semi-established. It's sort of a nothing track that very few riders actually use. It's too short and not really suited to any bikes more or less than others. 

He spent Sat practicing like most riders and swapped between the DH and the Trail bikes, but wasn't getting the corners as nice on the Trail bike so settled on the DH. His mate who won was on his trail bike as he mostly is at FoD races. fastest time of the day was our mate Elliot who was also on a trail bike (Privateer 161Gen1). So you'd argue the trail bikes were faster overall (Deaks was on trail as was Reed who were 2/3 fastest of the day). But as i say, he preferred the DH so that's what he went with.

Elliot who was fastest races Enduro mostly but focusing on DH this year a bit more, he rides with all the fastest enduro lads in the country. Often beating them too, so we know he's a fast lad, but yeah yesterday was a bit special.

https://flic.kr/p/2qV2WG3

Only the one pic being bought for the weekend. But i know we all like a pic 🙂 

Oh the fun we have.

After the weekend we had a slightly loose shock lower bolt. Then I noticed the axle on the back UDH wasn't right enough, so they were sorted.

A new Kryptotal on the front for this weekend at innerleithen.

Then today we were out in the van dropping some bits off so my Orbea Rise can be sold on Friday and the boy was chatting about the bike stuff. "The bottom bracket was creaking at the weekend" oh, I'll sort that then.

So I whipped the chain guide off and the cranks off, both sides felt smooth on the Saint BB but the drive side was filthy, so I cleaned it all up and a bit of grease here and there.

I asked the boy just now to do a quick test as he was in the garage.

"Oh, not on the Session, it was the Fuel that was creaking."

Ummmm that wasn't what we discussed lol. 

Ah well, it's nice and clean now anyway 

View this post on Instagram

Pretty hyped that DMR think enough of him to do this. 

did they send a videographer to the event to film him?

NAh it was BPW/Pinkbike who arranged that. So all the riders at the event got the same treatment. 

Why don't you just have an R3 frame as well, not laughing, and then depending on the track swap bit over to the large or smaller frame?

The simple answer to that is £4300 mate really. There's no R3 frame only options, so we'd have to buy an R3 in the new black colour scheme which we can get for £4300. But obviously that's £4300 and if i had that spare, we'd be in Portugal this weekend instead of Innerleithen probably. 

Even if we could get a frame it's still £2500-3000 for one which is bonkers.

There's also the issue of getting used to different size bikes, which i don't actually know anyone who does that, it's either/or. Going to an R3 next year isn't impossible as far as plans go, but for this year we're sticking with the R2 as he loves the thing and rides it well. 

It's just too much of a risk/change when we're now into Nationals.

There's other options that are being lined up for 2026... but again, i don't really know what to do on some of these options. (But i can't really discuss them on here)

would you not consider a 2nd hand one, just for the frame only?

I tried to buy that one last week, which was a full bike at £2000 but he sold it to someone else before i got there. It was a decent option with very little risk. But there's not a lot about.

Bit of a weird day at times yesterday. Innerleithen SDA practice. Track is super tight in places so last night we agreed to trim the spare scuffed DMR bars and fit them to try. He wants a bit more clearance. They now come in at 760mm with grips.

We had a few Maven issues yesterday but haven't really worked it out yet. However the last 2 runs of practice it was all good so we didn't fit the Code RSC which at one stage was looking likely. I gave both front and rear a bleed this week, so maybe depending on practice this morning I'll need to check again.

He's loving his new goggles and slowly getting used to the track. Early start this morning as always, but I was up and about way before the alarm.

What's with the attempt at advertising photo? 

The stuff is on the table for bike prep, it's there every race, every time. That's where it lives on race weekends. To the right is my toolbox, with things like GT85, viking juice and bottles of water. 

Feel free to report and have it removed. 

Having met Weeksy this weekend I can assure you that he's a top bloke and not the sort who would engage in stealth advertising if that's what's implied..

Gloriously sunny but chilly day today, just got home and both the neighbour and my wife are laughing at how sunburnt I am. 

Posted by: Rob@bikerevive

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What's with the attempt at advertising photo?

bit rich, unless you were actually christened "bikerevivesheffield" 🤣 

Are the timings for tomorrow available anywhere? I'm keen to take the lad to watch but he's asked if we can ride GT first.

Racing starts at 11am. 

First runs till about 1.10.

Second race runs about 1.45

@speedy, as well as the race times Weeksy posted I'd bet 20p it runs later in the day than planned, I reckon there'll be a fair number of short reds and that always disrupts things a bit. You never know, it might all go off like clockwork so I wouldn't want to absolutely count on it, but, if you're thinking "ah damn we missed it, it's just a little bit too late to be worth turning up", well maybe it's not.

It'll be a good one to spectate if you don't have much time, lots of excellent, varied and easily accessed stuff down low. Above the first fireroad there's a chunk of past blast so that's super fast but kind of low drama, awesome to see some fast riders absolutely tearing down it though as it's quite tight and undulatey, you get that whole "never touches the ground" thing. Personally I'd keep it below the first road, unless you have time to get up high and watch the bits around the top road, if that makes sense- there's some fairly mad stuff up there.

Thought the standard of riding was really high today, despite quite a lot of spills with the crumbly bits... The number of riders that come through the flat out bit within just a few percent of the top riders is ridiculous frankly. Will probably open up a bit more on race runs, some people were pushing hard today and others not so much but still, I don't think I've ever seen the sheer breadth of the field so good and the commitment levels are bananas.

(I was never very fast, I sometimes scraped into the top 25%, was usually somewhere in the out-of-touch middle but if I were to have my best race day ever riding in a field like this I'd be down in the bottom 10th somewhere I reckon, it'd be proper "might as well go home" territory 🙂 Just awesome to see.)

Today went well enough, he did 5 runs of practice, but did stack it on the drop as the landing was blown out later on. But run 5 went well and he called it early so he could watch some riders on a few sections as he was walking the track. He picked up a few lines he'll try in morning.

We had debates on swapping to an Argotal front but he didn't decide on it so I left it. 

It was a simple enough day for me, only doing 1 flat on a random bike and 1 rotor true job on another. So much so that me and a mate cycled over for a beer in town while the boys were walking track.

Tomorrow, well I have no clue. But as often is the case, I don't care much. Racing is not all about the results. We've had an ace weekend, beers, lots of pizza and an excellent time. He'll go as fast as he can, the rest is guesswork 

Posted by: Rob@bikerevive

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What's with the attempt at advertising photo? 

Decent enough run for run 1. Sitting in P7 with a few reruns to come due to red flags.

He's happy 😊 

P10 finished 

Run 2 wasn't quite as good as run 1, the boy smacked a tree stump which took him out. His time was about 15s off his first run.

Sadly the 2 people we expected to sort their runs out after issues on run 1 did just that. So overall he came in 12th.

We're all pretty happy with that. New track, new place, new experiences.

Weather was fab all weekend, if a bit chilly at times.

We did a nice clean job and what we set out with as goals.

Couple of days off and Cwmcarn for National this weekend 😊😊

Great time 

Well I say that, we're currently north of Blackpool on the M6, heading home. We'll be home somewhere around 11.30pm.

Morning is then taken up with a full strip down of the Session, full bearing check and replace if needed. Then I want to fit a new gear outer and inner, which is a bit of a pain due to chainstay routing. 

Hopefully by 11 I'll have it all done and then it'll be the afternoon out on the Fuel for me.

https://flic.kr/p/2qWoq4W

Fantastic photo above! Reminds me how hinged at the hips and over the bars you need to be on the bike to generate front end grip and truly fly on a bike!

I certainly felt like this at Poacher Enduro over the weekend but can guarantee I wasn't

I never got a chance to actually look at timings over the weekend but his class is always so competitive. Stan Nisbet would have been on the podium in Elites, he's an absolute terror tbh but even setting him aside it's really hard fought. It's so cool to see, must be frustrating sometimes too though.

Posted by: Northwind

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must be frustrating sometimes too though.

Yeah it is for sure a bit, but we're lucky that he can win at certain levels which is more than can be said for a fair few, so it does keep the 'woop' high for him, even at a lower than National level. But also he's been improving year after year after year so we can see some sort of end-goal there for him. But the closer you get to the top, the better the others are and the chasms that appear in the times do at times seem impossible to get around. But this weekend he came down pretty happy on run 1, which makes a massive difference to the weekend.

Run 2 he stacked it, but the margins at their speed are sooooooo tiny that 1 wheel just a few inches out of place, that's it, you've caught an edge and gone sideways into a stump 😀 then you're on the floor.

Racing is just part of the plan, but it's certainly not where i expect him to be earning a living, so as long as we're both enjoying it, we keep plodding away at the times, the targets and the goals. 

People like Stan, well he doesn't factor into our thoughts generally, he's one of 'them' the untouchables. He had a mare of a 2024 but in 2023 i think he raced 5 Nationls and won 5... He's like an Asa, or a Jackson, he's a generational talent and that boy will go well in juniors this year at World level.

The terrain at Inners, well that was just so so different to anywhere and anything else we've ridden..

This weekend we head to Cwmcarn for British National #1. But don't be fooled into thinking we'll go there and do better because we know the course, feel the terrain, etc... The field will be even more stacked than Inners was with fast people and it'll be a tough tough weekend out on the hill. 

Yesterday was spent with a nice morning of fitting his bars, sorting all the suspension/pivots, moving the chainguard slightly, some tyre swapping, new gear inner/outer, pad check etc. So the bike is all golden.  I then had a 45km local ride in various woods which at times was pretty hard lol. But it was ace to be riding nicer user-friendly terrain. 

I'd like to think one day i'll come try Inners again, but in truth i have no clue when that could be.

Inners in the bone dry is a special kind of hard if you’re not used to almost zero grip with trees at best shoulder width apart. Looking at the results he wasn’t far off a fair few others who are there most weekends so a strong result I’d say

Results at Roots and Rain

Impressive at how consistent many of the riders are between runs!

We have had a few 'quirks' / issues... well 1 mainly which is that the chainset on the bike (EThirteen) is somewhat crap. It uses a Shimano HT2 type BB, but has a DUB type adjuster on the NDS which meant i never actually got the cranks 100% perfect without a teeny tiny bit of play.

So i bought myself a Shimano SLX chainset and BB from Merlin at stupid discount... Which i was planning on fitting this week.

However, the boy was complaining if you recall about his cranks/BB being creaky so i started off with new pedals, same noise, then fitted the BB and new SLX cranks, silence.... Then went back to new BB and the EThirteen cranks, same creaky noise.... So the Cranks are the culprit. I made sure it was all cleaned up, but i'm guessing where the DUB type adjuster is is making the noise...

So with that in mind, i've left him the Shimano chainset and BB and i've ordered a second one for myself.

The only slight downside is Trek using a 55mm Chainline and this being a 52mm chainline, but it doesn't affect shifting and there's still a few mm of clearance, even with the shock removed to check full compression etc.

https://flic.kr/p/2qWA9Da

So i'll get the SLX fitted onto mine when they arrive and we're both good 🙂

So with that in mind, i've left him the Shimano chainset and BB and i've ordered a second one for myself.

Were the E13 cranks 165s, and did you get equally short SLXs (which are available from a couple of places)? 

The Ethirteen were on the Fuels, so were 170mm, we bought the SLX in 170mm too.

The Session has 165mm Saints (and a spare set in the van)

So we're back to the start of the season and back to 'what now' for the toolbox stuff.

Since fitting the corner brackets it's been pretty solid i have to admit, although counter to that, i don't exactly love it lol. But it's good enough for sure.
The layout though taught me there's loads of things i have in there i want and loads i don't... along with that, some of them are in the wrong places and layers... so i've got a few things to move, change, swap.

This is something I can get onboard with!!! That looks great! So nice to have tools exactly where you want them / too hand. Are they going in drawers or pelicase?

It's in a pretend metal type case, I guess a silver brief case is basically it.

I'd like a plastic/peli case, but finding the right size and dimensions isn't exactly easy. 

https://flic.kr/p/2q6K34A

What about the Stanley style cases?

https://www.screwfix.com/p/dewalt-tstak-organiser-dwst83497-1-4-6-x-13-/472KJ?tc=EB1&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwtdi_BhACEiwA97y8BLr819ITYmtnOkp6o-k8TLGhrBEBfx3FdoivZpu4V-tBcMXJYlp4rxoCMX0QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

https://amzn.eu/d/5ApMf9t

Large is too small in that. But eBay have bigger ones for sure 

What's the scissor type tool to left next to the green ratchet 

Looks like a hole punch  We have one like it for punching holes in the race number board so they can be positioned better

Aagh yes - thought it was for press studs! 

Anyway, the weekend is upon us. Cwmcarn, National DH series. This is the first biggy of the season really and without doubt the toughest race (in terms of result) that he'll have faced since starting out. We've got all the big boys playing, the Junior WC racers and the potential WC racers. 

The plus side is, he knows and likes the track. So that's a positive in there, although we've not ridden the bottom jumps, but no-one has as they've been closed for many months.

The logistics for this one are somewhat complex as it's an open visitors center, so we're parked half way round the road route, about 2/3 of the way up the hill. Which obviously makes things a little weird for heading up/down and any issues that need sorting. So as a pit-crew i'm going to need to be on my A game for the weekend, as well as him needing to be on his. 

Luckily we've got both our mechanic present for some of it and the coach there for the majority of the weekend. So i'll have support from there and he'll get advice on track-walk, warm-up, nutrition etc etc. 

The weather seems to change and we've gone from glorious to monsoon and back again this week looking at the forecast, but it won't affect the racing much, however could potentially affect the smiles and happiness depending on when it's raining lol.  It could be a long weekend of tents and cold that's for sure... extra coats and sleeping bags will be loaded up.

Due to the parking location we've stolen an Ebike for the weekend to assist with uplifts, although apparently the uplift will drop-off riders back at car-parks if needed. But for example on Sat morning we'll just head straight to the top in the morning for uplift 1, meaning we miss the queue at the bottom. We'll do the same for seeding and race run as well on Sunday. But it'll be weird as we won't get to hear any calls on tannoys for racing delays and timing changes etc... But not sure how we can do anything about that. 

We did have an offer of using pro-pits for the weekend from one of the teams, but that idea didn't quite work out for us as we've got a fair few people rocking up to help etc.

Good luck for the weekend!

How are you finding getting time off from his studies for these events?  Honestly, not being flippant, as I can’t keep track of where Weeksy Jnr is in schooling. Is he in A Levels? 

Fingers crossed for the weekend. Wish him good luck

Good question. Yes he's in A levels year 1. We sat down earlier in the year with the school and told them all the dates and when he'd be in/out of school and what that means in terms of missing lessons. Tomorrow for example he doesn't miss any as it's Easter. But usually his Fridays are pretty open after 11.30am so we can finish then and in theory make up any study time. His grades are pretty good at school and the teachers happy with how he's doing. 

The school does focus on students who are competing in sports/activities at higher levels and do everything they can to make it happen. 

There's only a few complexities this year, with an IXS in Italy potentially conflicting with his Mock A-levels, which would of course mean he doesn't get to play that weekend at IXS and misses it. But we do try and make things happen as much as we can.

It means at times some hardships for me as a driver, with for example 2 weekends time meaning i'm driving to Fort William for IXS and we're getting there about 2am, i'll be the only driver. Then coming back we're leaving FW at the end of the race and driving most of the way down on the Sunday, then getting up at 5am on the Monday so he can make his first lesson at 10.30am.  It's a sacrifice all round and can get a bit tough at times on both/all of us as a family. But somehow we mostly make it work, i think.

So the Cwmcarn weekend is done and dusted. It was as always interesting, challenging, character building, fun and entertaining.

We arrived early on Fri and set up camp, it was glorious weather, location,

The elephant in the room was the uplift as we were 3/4 of the way up the hill.. However over the course of the weekend that proved to be absolutely perfect all weekend and the uplift was silky smooth, picking up and dropping off at the various carparks went way better than i ever thought. With the only downside being the push/tow section from the finish back to the security gate for uplift.
Track walks done, food cooked and plenty of beers and banter all round, everyone was in good spirits.
https://flic.kr/p/2qXymWn

Saturday came with practice and seeding, the boy was happy enough and it'd been an interesting 16 hours on site with some very interesting chats with some people and some discussion that went well. The boy wasn't quite 'there' in his riding (yeah i know, it's a pattern at the moment) and he finished the seeding run in P14. I was absolutely pleased with it, he though was slightly disappointed. I'm still not sure how he was disappointed to be honest, but he was. The nature of the beast of being a competitive racer i guess. But there's so many full pro and World Cup racers in juniors now, it's hard to see a way to the pointy end, Billy Pugh, Felix Griffiths, Nathan Diwell Wilson and Stan Nisbet being just the first few who were racing and all will be racing WCs this season.

Up for Sunday and the day continued this was where the downside came into play with there being no real option for Mrs Weeksy to get to the bottom/top/bottom/top. It's about an hour and 10 walk, but her wonky hip can't really manage that up and down in that way. So for the morning she was basically alone as i Ebiked down on Crusts bike to the bottom to take him drinks and food etc. We had Katy the coach and Stef the mechanic over as well, but i didn't see them much due to the size of the site.
I had very little in the way of spanner work to do apart from 1 lad who rocked up and said "can you help with a puncture", he'd slashed his tyre and it was dead. The downside being he was running a 27.5 rear, but i had a spare DHF on our wheel. However his wheel was buggered so he was screwed. Well, apart from the fact he was on a Session, so he borrowed a rear wheel for the afternoon. Mrs Weeksy was looking at me like "will you ever see that wheel again"... However yeah, he found me later and returned the wheel after his race run.

Racing was delayed with crashes, then delayed again, again. So his race went off about 5.15pm. He came down with a head shake and again a look of disappointment and anger... He'd gone 2.5s quicker than seeding but it put him in P16, which again i thought was a bloody fine result, but he wasn't happy. If you'd have offered him P16 before the season he'd have taken it though. After some chats in the van, some reality checks, i think he's OK, mostly... but knows he has things he needs to work on to close the gaps. Whilst some of the gaps to Billy for example are too much to worry about at the moment, the lads up to P8 are not a million miles away and we can work on that.. i think 🙂

All in all, an excellent, long, tiring weekend. Bit cold overnight and a massive lack of sleep of course... but i've got a week and a bit of recover now until we head to Fort William .... Yup, it's not long and we're straight back to Scotland.

duplicate weirdness

Was doing some spannering on the boys bike yesterday and had to head onto the road outside to test his Mavens. WOW, i mean really just damn WOW, they are honestly by FAR the most incredible things i've ever grabbed for a brake, it's just WHAM of power... Jeepers. I always felt the Code RSC were superb, but the Mavens... well they're just next level of amazing !

Weekend is Caersws for Saturday for him, but i think the tracks there are going to be no fun at all at my level, so i'm going to just spanner that one. We may do Sun or Mon as well somewhere, but that's completely unknown at the moment, i need to look into that i think.

Quote came in pretty respectable for the foam cutting, so i've ordered up a slightly bigger case and a (hopefully) more sturdy version which should arrive today and i can then see about getting the tools organised and shipped to Red Box Tools and turned into a fitted set.