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I sold my kawasaki the other day. We only live once and his racing is more important than my motorbiking.
I'm sure most parents would do the same. But the thread ain't about me anyway, it's about him and his racing. I'm just a small part of a big set of cogs, many of whom give so so much to him/us. He's an exceptionally lucky boy for what people are doing for him... But hopefully we go some small way to repaying them. (But deep down i know for sure we don't give as much back as they give us... but we do try to).
I was nerding about yesterday chatting with the suspension techs about his new Vivid air.
We fitted it because of a few reasons really but partly because it comes on the 24 models and is arguably 'better' ... I'm all for 'better' so one got picked up from a mate.
The discussion started with sag/pressures... What Rockshox Trailhead recommend and what the boy 'felt' last weekend were quite different. He was sitting at 67kg fully kitted and that according to Trailhead should give him approx 165psi in the shock. But on testing he was sitting at closer to 190psi. He felt the lower pressures were too soft.
So we started with some sag tests
162psi - 30.3%
176psi - 27.2%
163psi - 21.6%
So looking at it, really we are about the 176 more than the other 2 as a goal for him..
So a little bit more searching and it got a little complicated. Trek run what's now known as a C37 tune, C37 seems to equate to their M compression tune. The Vivid we have is running a C34 which is what's arguably closer to ML (Medium Light).
https://flic.kr/p/2qEeGQW
But as the boy is quite light in a riding context it's certainly possible that he'll end up preferring the C34 over the C37. But it'll need some testing and playing to find out the answer. It's entirely possible that he's more like most people and wouldn't even notice the difference between the 2. 😀
His rebound testing last weekend ended having him at -13 clicks, with Trailhead and Trek recommending -14, so he was very much in the same ballpark as they were. But they don't give any figures for compression either HSC or LSC, so we're winging it there a bit.
But i enjoyed being a bit of a nerd for the day and had some brilliant chats about it and learned quite a bit... Whether that'll help either of us i don't know, but i feel at the minimum better informed now.
We do have the option to get the shock reshimmed to the C37 tune of course which is perfectly viable, but there's a chunk of testing to do before that.
Is your shock pump accurate? I know mine overreads by about 15psi,so it appears as if the factory recommended air pressures are not appropriate if you use the shock to set them. When set using a shockwiz(accurate pressure measuring), the factory recommendations are pretty close
We have 2 digital shock pumps and they read the same. They've also been compared using a Shockwiz and are within 1psi at 200 compared to that... So i'm pretty happy they're at least in the ball-park.
It is an excellent point though as both are 5psi different to my manual cheap shock pump (that never gets used any more)
I bloody hate it today lol (but thank you). But in fairness it's all stuff that i've fitted to the Canyon so nice to be able to pick and choose componentry and it's all new for spares now.
I'm going to head out in a while and collect it all then plan on fitting the Mavens tonight if i don't die of hypothermia in the garage, I may even bring it inside. Sadly due to hose lengths i'll have to trim and re-bleed but i've already got the bleed kits here.
Am I reading right you have just one Mavern? I've ridden different brakes front and back before (from different brands) but it's fair to say I'm not as fussy as your boy.
No sir, front and rear picked up and installed today.
Weirdly as the moment I do have a Code and an RSC fitted on my own as the RSC is awaiting a rebuild kit lol
Ah ok. Makes sense.
Mavern look like old school grimeca brakes without the red
He was out at FoD yesterday as a mate took him. Seems to be loving the Fuel at the moment, hitting the Rubber Duck road gap along with a new road gap which has an on-off feature pioneered by Bernard Kerr.
Of course that made it my job to get it clean and lubed etc again
I know TFTuned sponsor Katy and of course by definition of that, the team riders and my boy, but hopefully that won't detract from this post and don't think i'm only writing it because they're his sponsors
We've used them a LOT in the past 2 years, but today they really showed how awesome they are. I recently found out that the Rockshox Vivid shock was the incorrect compression tune as you'll have seen above, but also the incorrect stroke. So i was chatting to my mate at RSR Bikeworks about some settings for the weekend at Dyfi and he said he wouldn't run it with the incorrect tune and the incorrect stroke. I've been busy lately due to family stuff and not had a chance to sort it last week etc. So I spoke to TFTuned and Ruth said "get it in the post today and you'll have it back for the weekend". Just brilliant service and really highlights how much they'll go out of their way for people. Awesome stuff.
As i say, please don't take this as a sponsor plug, it's just a genuine post for a superb bunch.
He's going a bit nuts with the training lately after some discussions with Katy and a plan for pre season.
So after the gym he decides on a trail ride. I put him off a road ride but he still wanted to go riding.
He won't make the mistake of hitting the Ridgeway in winter again.
He had to walk 3 miles home as the bike wouldn't move
Back to the shock, was the bike new? If so, why did it have the wrong shock on? Stroke and tune??
Back to the shock, was the bike new? If so, why did it have the wrong shock on? Stroke and tune??
Was a new shock bought from a mate after he sold his frame, it had 2 rides on it from new. So we knew it was wrong stroke in advance but I'd spoken to Ruth who assured me it wasn't a biggy to change. The tune we didn't know until I put the serial in Trailhead to get an idea on spec, then realised it was what's in old school ML instead of M.
He's been running a super deluxe ultimate DH which was standard on the 23 Session. In 24 they changed it to the Vivid Ultimate with hydraulic bottom out, so thought we'd try one.
So it'll get tuned tomorrow, setup, shortened and back to us.
Kind of makes sense now
I thought you'd bought the new trek as a complete bike.
Are you going with a megneg aircan?
Are you going with a megneg aircan?
I don't believe we'll be running the Vivid in anything other than standard form, unless TFTuned tell me otherwise later. The Vivid already has a massive can as it is? I wasn't aware it would even work on a Vivid. He didn't have any issues with the Super Deluxe as such, it was just 'something to try' really as we needed a spare shock for emergencies and this came up at the right price. If we couldn't have got it tuned though it wouldn't have been such a great plan of course.
I think something may have got lost in the above though, this shock is going on the Session, not the Fuel Gen6. The Fuel he'll run as completely stock as that's not the race bike 🙂
The SD Ultimate he's run since we bought the Session in July23 and we've honestly not had a single issue with it. We/I just wondered if as technology moves on and things change whether the Vivid would be a smidgen better. We've seen a couple of bikes over the last few years have a blown shock issue or a sucked down shock, so we've always carried a spare. Our mate just swapped his GT Fury for a Session frame for 25 and also wanted a shock, so we sold him our spare, which gave us scope to have the Vivid. Whether or not he can even notice a difference, well that's open to debate of course. Along with whether it'd ever make a slight difference too 🙂
National entries open today, which used to be a bun-fight as there's only a certain number of spaces available and some fill very quickly. However we're lucky that this year he has enough points to be on the Priority Entry list so we get to enter a couple of weeks before others who don't. So less of a rush to get them booked.... That doesn't mean they won't get booked today, because of course they will 🙂
I do love getting nerdy with suspension tech stuff. Sadly i know very little in reality, but it's massively interesting to me discussing it. Had a long chat with Adam at TFTuned about what the boy wants, his riding style and we settled on a few changes to the tunes, both rebound and compression, as well as a bit of a change on volume spacers and obviously stroke length.
It's something i've often thought would be fantastic to get into when i get to retirement using something like the BYB kit or Motion Instruments. Obviously we've got a mate who does that and i wouldn't want to step on his toes, so would be more for me and the boy rather than as a business, i just find it quite fascinating.
The good news is, the shock is getting done now and will be back with us tomorrow for the weekend rides.
I have to say the level of commitment to your boy and the battering your wallet must take to do is very impressive.
Thank you. It's just what we do mate, i don't really think about any of the costs, be that in time, effort or money. I don't mean to sound glib with that, it's just the reality that this is what we do and what we enjoy. He's an incredible lad (if i bit sodding lazy at housework lol) and has never given us a moments trouble. It's also his proimary focus in terms of education/job/career (not racing, but MTB stuff which i've not really gone into in depth) and i'm more than happy to support him with it. People fund their kids through University, this is the same as that for us, but without the Uni. (He will be going 'away' though once done with A Levels)
The best part is that i enjoy it too, both in terms of this weekend, where i'll either book Dyfi for myself or ride Climachx trail and overall where i get to spend a lot of time with him and with other like minded paddock mates at various woods, forests, trails. Plenty of the other parents are always up for some riding, so it just works.
Well that's been an interesting if slightly irritating day at times.
Shock arrived, with all the settings etc from TFTuned so that's perfect and ready to go.
I decided i'll run his Gen6 for myself tomorrow at Dyfi, because, well, it's better for that than my Gen5 lol. Plus it'll be interesting to ride it as when we head to Morzine in summer that'll likely be my play bike for the week.
We picked up the spare RSC from Rotec after a service kit install, that's all good.
He did some testing in the close of the Mavens, the front is devastatingly powerful, the rear though is awful. However once we took the wheel out it became apparent that's potentially my fault as there was a load of mineral all there after bleeding, was all over the pads.. We've cleaned up the rotor, sanded down the pads and given it some long runs down the hill and back up, i rekon it's 70% at the moment, probably about as strong as the RSC actually lol. We'll see if run 1 can get it back to 100% because sadly i can't do anything with the pads today as our spare pads are not here yet and they're different to the Codes/anything. I've ordered some, but not arrived.
I'm sure they'll be ace.. 🙂
Take the contaminated pads out and put them over a naked flame (a gas hob flame is ideal, use bbq tongs, make sure the Mrs is not near) for a couple of minutes, they smoke for a bit then stop. Clean the discs thoroughly with fairy liquid and rinse properly with water and then put it all back together. The flame will burn the brake fluid/mineral oil out of the pads.
Also make sure the caliper itself is free from fluid otherwise you'll just contaminate them again.
Today was Dyfi and i decided to take the boys Gen6 Fuel, why you may ask.... well, it's more suited to Dyfi than my Gen5 arguably. I couldn't be bothered fitting the spare wheels with Kryptotals on so i went with the Bontrager XR5s. They were happy and fine, but i do really find Dyfi a bit 'skittish' and loose at times, i never know if that's the tyres, my riding or just how it is... but it takes me an age to get used to being there again.
They've made a LOT of changes at the park and for me they're all for the better. What used to be the Luvi Dyfi everyone ignored just after the big table, that's now Cedar Rapids and an XC/Red, which is pretty much fine for all of it 🙂 but does lead into the bottom of the big boys on 50 hits i'll admit.
There's Original DH which leads into Muddys Berms which again has now morphed into a red and is perfectly happy for anyone who's a 'red' kind of guy. Super Swopper is as it ever was, but they've smoothed a couple of bits to help.
All in all, i think it makes it a bit more friendly for the newbies and the older dad crew 🙂
The bike though worked great all day, no issues with it at all, it went, stopped, turned as it should. It's quite poppy/flighty at times there but that's a weight thing i assume.
The boy was trying out both the Vivid and the Mavens and he's happy with both, a minor adjustment needed on the bleed/bite point is required as he's running these closer to the bars than the RSCs and i'd set them up as close to the feel of the RSC, but he showed me where the front is now and my job tomorrow is to mimic that on the rear..
The Vivid he changed the LSC 1 click and reported happiness with that... we stuck with the rest of the settings from TFTuned.
As always the day wasn't without incident. He pranged a rim, it's a TINY dink, but it won't hold air now, so we swapped the wheel out which then gave brake rub. The rotors are HS2 SRAM rotors and 2mm thick, the one we fitted was 2mm as it was new, it seems the older one is less as we had some pad drag. So i swapped rotors over and he was again happy. I need to work out if the rim can be saved (i think it can) or if it needs replacing..
Me and his mates dad were 'working' on the bikes and somehow became the pit mechanics, we fixed 5 punctures including setting a kids bike up tubeless after removing the Bontrager 'strip' as he couldn't fit a tyre with it on there.
Another lad ripped his brake hose out of his Dominions and lost all his fluid, he was met with "yeah mate, bring it here" to "do you have any fluid and a barb/olive" which he never thought we'd have, but we sorted the hose and bled his brake and saved his day 🙂
The rest of the day went smoothly as i rode the new track revisions and didn't die 🙂
The paddock is an amazing place there, i could blow the Pinbike comments section apart today with some of the things i saw and chatting to Hatton and a few others, some of the bikes out there today would answer a LOT of comments for 2025 DH racing lol.
What i do love though is that the people are 'right' there, what i mean is, we were waiting in the queue with Dan Atherton, Hatton, Gee, and 4 other Pros, but none of them ever considered jumping the queues, even though they own the place, they still stood there and mingled with other riders, i REALLY hope the sport doesn't go the way of losing this sort of thing as it gets more professional now.
Take the contaminated pads out and put them over a naked flame (a gas hob flame is ideal, use bbq tongs, make sure the Mrs is not near) for a couple of minutes, they smoke for a bit then stop. Clean the discs thoroughly with fairy liquid and rinse properly with water and then put it all back together. The flame will burn the brake fluid/mineral oil out of the pads.
We didn't have flame (no gas in our village) so we ran them down the road 3-4 times and 'dragged' them a lot to heat them. He was happy after that and they seemed to improve during the day. He's happy with their performance, but the new Galfers have arrived in the post now, so these will come out anyway and left as 'emergency' spares and he'll run the Galfer for racing next weekend.
But that's a job for tomorrow.
Pictures can tell 1000 words so they say.
This one though only shows it's all bent, but when you're looking at it it's clear the hanger is wayyyyy out.
Considering I'd guess he's crashed 50+ times and it's still the original hanger, I'd say it's earned a graceful retirement. I've got 3 new ones in spares box anyway.
I think the skittish feeling at Dyfi is just the surface and speed, the slate is quite slippy and it's steeper there than most other bike parks so the combination makes it sketchier than BPW for example IMO. None of that is a negative opinion, just that I feel it's not as beginner friendly as some places but I still loved it (it just took a bit longer to get my eye in).
The best track for me was insta 360, the berms before the wooden drop are awesome.
I did see one pro jumping the queue when they were coaching someone, I don't know if that's part of it but all the other pros were queuing with everyone else.
Yeah I get the pro doing it for coaching and that's perfectly fine for me, they've paid £250+ to maximise their day and be coached, so no issue there.
I've never ventured onto insta360 yet. It'll likely be a fair while till I ride Dyfi again as I'm mostly there for the lad, it's just this week I fancied a jaunt out instead of hitting Enduro, but it's quite expensive for what I actually get out of it.
I went for two days a month or so back and stupidly didn't hit insta360 on the first day, turns out it's great and probably my favourite run though does need some work to link it better with the bottom half of the hill, there's quite a big bit of fire road and then it links to a jump line (Trainline maybe) which isn't my cup of tea.
Original DH is now my favourite, it's just the right mix of fun and hard. But that does lead into motorway which really seems a waste of elevation at times, it's just hang on and brake as little as your bravery allows. I'd much prefer if they carried it on down with some tech/something instead of just a flat out bomb on loose stone/slate.
Agreed, it feels fun to bomb down a couple of times but then as you say, a bit of a waste of elevation
Original DH is now my favourite, it’s just the right mix of fun and hard. But that does lead into motorway which really seems a waste of elevation at times, it’s just hang on and brake as little as your bravery allows. I’d much prefer if they carried it on down with some tech/something instead of just a flat out bomb on loose stone/slate.
You can cut back in to do the last section of Race Track rather than the fire road (albeit the end of RT is horrible in places).
You can cut back in to do the last section of Race Track rather than the fire road
I think that's potentially outside of my skillset matey.
Anyway,
The Session now has new pads in the rear, so it's golden and ready for weekend. The spare wheel 'dink' I'm struggling with though, i've got it so it LOOKS pretty damn good and straight, the dink wasn't massive in truth, but it won't hold air that's for sure. So i'm going to drop it to Rotec with the words, fix it or throw a new rim on there. He should have it done for the weekend easily enough either way. Mech hanger is all good, so gears are nice and smooth.
Not as big a field for the season opener this year with only 31 in Juniors, which is a bit of a shame, but it's all about just getting his eye back in between the tapes and getting out there enjoying the racing again. We'll be there both days, so i'll get to have a decent ride/play on Sat as well as then being pit crew for Sun. Looking chilly, but it'll be OK.
I agree on the bottom part of racetrack, I'd give it a go in completely dry conditions but the slate is like a bar of soap with any water on it. I tried it once but walked the rock drops!
I agree on the bottom part of racetrack, I’d give it a go in completely dry conditions but the slate is like a bar of soap with any water on it. I tried it once but walked the rock drops!
I find the tech section in El Hippo pretty hard and still haven't completed it fully without getting a foot out/down where you go into the little chute between roots.. it gets me every time. Even the left hander then down the rocks/river (usually) catches me out and i crashed there every run in 3 tries on the Status 160 last time there.
Racetrack i couldn't do the big steep rock bit near the start, but managed most of the rest until the pipe-drop. Luckily my riding buddy broke her wrist which meant i didn't tackle the pipe drop 😀
Well that was somewhat disappointing. Spoke to my LBS who was looking at the rim, the Bontrager DH Line 30, the first one lasted 15 months before dying, but this one hasn't lasted nearly as long. He said basicallt the same as me "it looks pretty good, very little damage on there" but it still won't quite hold air. He thinks with a bit more time it MAY be OK.... but as we've established by now, maybe isn't good enough for a race wheel for us. I'm not having it where the boy comes down with a flat on that spot and thnking "i should have sorted that over winter", so against my budgetary preferences, it's being replaced with a new rim.
My lad is bending FR541 so they're not bulletproof although they do seem to be easy to reshape and still hold air IME.