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Always a hard one to call but if any doubt at all its probably the right one.
Lol at least he had a bit of fun, he's the 3rd rider, 😃
https://www.rootsandrain.com/videos/74364?ref=3vzd5U
Top couple of days and nights over at fod. I spent some time looking at houses and areas as well as 4 hour riding on Mon and 3 hours riding today. Got a lot of yes and no thoughts/locations for upcoming house move.
As part of the plan the boy is now a British Cycling certified coach. Its only the first step on the coaching ladder, but some of the other bits he can't do till he turns 18. But he can now do coaching sessions, it also cemented some of his plans for his future.
still lots and lots of little background plans and things going on as usual.
are they the db8's from banana industries?
Crazy value at £30 an end
are they the db8's from banana industries?
That's correct, i've been running them on my Fuel for a few months and IMO they're basically Codes, but mineral oil. No issues, no performance problems, just work like they should. The boy tried my bike and was impressed with them, so in the interest of compatibility of bleed kits and fluids, i've decided to swap everything to the mineral oil setups, so both our Fuels will be DB8 and the Session is Mavens. I've been running the stock pads on mine in Morzine and Andorra but i did swap to an EBC set on the last day in Morzine, which again, have been perfectly fine... I like em myself.
interesting - may give them a go as an alternative to my slx
interesting - may give them a go as an alternative to my slx
The only thing they're lacking is the bleeding edge port which it the tidiest bleed system known to man, i love that, but sadly it's not on these, but doign a bleed still isn't that messy. I am a fanboi of SRAM brakes though for quite a long time i admit. I'm even debating pairing the Maven lever end with the DB8 top end (i paid £75 for a full Maven Silver lever end) which gives me/him the full RSC/Swinglink but for £100 instead of £200+ for full Mavens.
Oh and brackets, they don't come with brackets.. Not an issue for me as i re-used the Code RSC brackets... but something to be aware of.
They also come ready for internal routing with a barb and little cover pre-fitted as well as a bung in the lever so you can just lob it all together, although you may need a 2nd barb if you want to shorten the cable, i managed to cut the hose off and use the one that came, but it's a bit of a faff and if i had more barbs i'd have just used that
My wife used DB8s for a full week in Morzine (220/200 Galfer Rotors) on her e-bike and they didn’t fade once. For a budget brake that everyone removes from their bikes before even trying them they have been utterly faultless. There are far too many snobs in our sport
I’ll probably pick up a few more cheap pairs for my hardtails and maybe even my Ebike as it has Codes and (As Weeksy says) it would be nice to only need one bleed kit.
Did James get any options to ride for the World Championship this weekend? Presume that’s based on BC ranking for selection, albeit happy to be corrected!
Did James get any options to ride for the World Championship this weekend? Presume that’s based on BC ranking for selection, albeit happy to be corrected!
We applied and were (rightly) rejected for it. It was a very very small chance of him getting it this year and there's several others even if 3-4 dropped out who'd likely be in before him. So sadly we're not heading to World Champs this year no.
The team will be known to some who watch Juniors, but watch out for Rowan Cross who'll come as a bit of a surprise to some, but he lives just down the road from Champery and is insanely quick over there.
P3 there last year in the European Champs.
Well it's new frame day today... Strictly speaking it's not new frame day for AGES as it's got to be made then built etc, there's a huge lead time on it but it'll be with us for race season next year.
His Session is coming up to 3 years old by then and we thought we'd try something 'different' in terms of a standard pivot and probably a Rimpact Chain Damper along with the TMD. He's done a day at Dyfi on it as a test day and was flying on it, enough that i think he'd be pretty much straight up to his pace within a few days and a bit of setup work.
Slightly different to this as it'll be running a Vivid Ultimate air rather than the coil.
Lovely. Given the back and forth on the Session sizing how have you approached that?
Well as he spent the day on the size 7 we've gone with that as he loved it in a 7, we've been chatting with suspension/geometry guys and also gone for a possible option of a 50mm stem instead of the 45 we're usually running, which will settle the bike slight and techincally make the 'reach' slightly longer. The size 7 is a 470 standard reach, with his Session being a 465, so it's fractionally longer, if we then run the extra 5mm stem it should get him a bit bigger but without being too much bigger like the R3 Session has ended up being.
@weeksy FoD World Cup on Friday? If so, I will keep an eye out for you as I am donning a number plate for the 2nd time in 2 years in an attempt not to come last.
@weeksy FoD World Cup on Friday? If so, I will keep an eye out for you as I am donning a number plate for the 2nd time in 2 years in an attempt not to come last.
Sadly he doesn't finish school until 3.15 so we wouldn't get there until 5.15 so a bit late really by the time he gets kitted up and up the hill he'd only get 2 runs.
Good luck though to you 😀 you'll deffo not be last !
you'll deffo not be last !Yeah he's quite excited, i mean i don't think it'll change a huge amount in terms of results, from what i've seen with their level of racing, the bike doesn't massively affect things unless it's a real marmite thing, but it'll be cool to jump on something different as well as it being from a company UK based/built as well as a place we love playing... so it's deffo got a lot of appeal.
From my perspective it's a frame i love the design aspects and simplicity of to mechanic. It helps that it's a 157 rear and a mullet as we've got 3 of those rears, so we'll debate whether we change another wheel into a 4th 27.5 or whether we just sell both the 29ers off.
We've potentially got a few 29er tyres we don't need at the moment now. although we have also got some testing on the Schwalbe radials to get done at some stage as well.
Well it's new frame day today... Strictly speaking it's not new frame day for AGES as it's got to be made then built etc, there's a huge lead time on it but it'll be with us for race season next year.
His Session is coming up to 3 years old by then and we thought we'd try something 'different' in terms of a standard pivot and probably a Rimpact Chain Damper along with the TMD. He's done a day at Dyfi on it as a test day and was flying on it, enough that i think he'd be pretty much straight up to his pace within a few days and a bit of setup work.
Slightly different to this as it'll be running a Vivid Ultimate air rather than the coil.
Nice!
Daughter keeps asking about the S200 lol
Didn't realise they were super-boost rear on the 200's.
Tell her she can have a nice Session frame in Feb 🤣🤣
That's going to be lovely. Can't wait to see the full build.
That's going to be lovely. Can't wait to see the full build.
It'll be a lot more basic than your average Atherton. As it'll be from used parts from his current bike.
Cranks are a minor issue as we were potentially planning a Rimpact chain damper which isn't compatible with our Saint cranks, so that's a shame. The forks are either older Boxxer 35 of Fox 40 as the 38mm Boxxers are incompatible with this frame, so it'll be our used Boxxers on there. Mavens and DMR parts for the cockpit and a TMD will be on there. Reserve rims and Conti tyres.
Why is the new Boxxer not compatible, seems very bizarre?
Why is the new Boxxer not compatible, seems very bizarre?
I assume it's the offset of the clamps being less and therefore contacting the frame in some way.
Our Boxxer 35 are 56mm offset the 38 start at 44mm and are also 3mm wider diameter, maybe?
Can you just change the clamps?
Can you just change the clamps?
No clue mate, but it's not even a discussion as ours are 35s anyway and I don't think the 38s would make much difference in truth. If he did have massive issues I guess we'd go Fox 40s. But I think we'll be ok.
So is it mullet only or can it accept 29 rear?
People do seem to rave about them so be interesting to see it built. So long as he’s happy with it that’s the main thing. Is he going to keep the bigger session he has or are you getting rid of both?
Mullet only.
The bigger Session will go. I expect the white one will stay as an emergency spare. Maybe I'll build it for me to use. I've got everything apart from forks.
Just was looking on an Atherton thread on mtbr and found this video of his from his Demo day..
It's utterly bonkers seeing how fast !
Weird... can't seem to get it to post as a direct video.
That's some top notch AI content. The big giveaway is the lack of any moisture 😉
Dead jealous, I'd love to go there on a dry day.
Went over to see RSR Bikeworks the other day as i wanted him to check we'd set the suspension correctly, it appears i'd mis-interpreted his settings so for the last race the rear compression was slightly out, but don't think it made that much difference to him or his riding. However i do now know how to set it correctly which is ace.
Bike checked, lubed, prepped, pressures all done and ready for tomorrow.
Must admit, i prefer this one over the purple/blue one..
Race tomorrow?
Race tomorrow?
Nah mate, just a play day along with some back to back tests with an A200. Its Welsh Champs next weekend which we'll be debating in the van on way home tomorrow and the weekend after us National at Revs.
Well in truth we didn't learn much sadly. He got to ride laps on the Atherton demo bike and laps on his Session but mostly in the rain and a river or two running down the track.
So apart from the fact that the bikes fit him, that was about all that was worked out.
I got to have chats with Atherton guys about a few tech points which was good for me.
Well it seems we're back to the crazy.
An exchange of messages on WhatsApp this evening and he's entered in Llangollen this weekend for the Welsh Champs. Sadly he's not Welsh, well I'd argue he is, but based upon their criteria he's not. His grandparents are Welsh but it needs to be parents in this instance.
But we'll head up for the weekend and put some runs down and see where it puts him.
I was expecting to potentially not be out at all this weekend so it's kinda great, kinda bad lol. We've got an evening with the coach tomorrow to dial him and the bike in again, then early doors to Gollen on Sat.
Bring on the fun.
What’s the quality like on the Welsh Open? More ranking points?
any race is good though
What’s the quality like on the Welsh Open? More ranking points?
any race is good though
Absolutely no clue... It's a Regional A which is mid/high, but you can't see the entrants in the list for this one sadly, so we'll just be rocking up and riding. We've been having a few issues lately so this is more a 'lets get dialled in for National next weekend' rather than anything else. We're just trying to get him back to his happy place on the bike at the moment as he's often coming down unhappy, not necessarily with 'riding' but with HIS riding and speed, he's enjoying riding the bike, but not finding that bit of GO that he knows he's got.
We'll find out by the end of this weekend hopefully if it's him or the bigger frame that's been causing it.
Well last night wasn't 100% definitive but honestly it was a huge step in what's hopefully the right direction for him. He was out with Katy and within the first 2 runs both he and her could see a massive difference in his riding. Whether that correlates to a difference in speed remains to be seen. But he was cornering with aggression, popping into and out of features and working his body and the bike way way more...
But that was only half of it, the major thing was seeing him coming down to the van in a manual for 100m into a 20m rolling stoppie with a massive smile and laughing in his helmet. That's something i've not seen for a while in truth and something that's really been troubling me.
He rode some tracks they'd used recently for FOD Thursday racing and could feel a big big difference in how he was hitting it and a few things he wouldn't pull for but did on this ride last night.
Sorting the bike and kit now for the weekend up at Llangollen, it's not a track he liked a few weeks ago, but i'm really hoping a large part of that is because of the bike issue. So we'll see tomorrow morning how he goes.
But that was only half of it, the major thing was seeing him coming down to the van in a manual for 100m into a 20m rolling stoppie with a massive smile and laughing in his helmet. That's something i've not seen for a while in truth and something that's really been troubling me.
The mental aspect of sport is much more important than the equipment used, or to some degree physical training.
All 'elite' level sport is a very difficult headspace to stay in because its not always going to go your way, and I think all high level sports people (especially kids on the way up) have dips. Resilience and sticking with it through the low points is key to being successful in the longer term. Easier for adults to appreciate but very hard for kids that just want to succeed.
You already know all this, but Ive seen it too with my sons sport to.
But that was only half of it, the major thing was seeing him coming down to the van in a manual for 100m into a 20m rolling stoppie with a massive smile and laughing in his helmet. That's something i've not seen for a while in truth and something that's really been troubling me.
The mental aspect of sport is much more important than the equipment used, or to some degree physical training.
All 'elite' level sport is a very difficult headspace to stay in because its not always going to go your way, and I think all high level sports people (especially kids on the way up) have dips. Resilience and sticking with it through the low points is key to being successful in the longer term. Easier for adults to appreciate but very hard for kids that just want to succeed.
You already know all this, but Ive seen it too with my sons sport to.
I was quite surprised to find ourselves at Gollen this weekend as i booked it when he was in what was the slump in form. So we'd planned on not going at all, but he shocked me by wanting to book it the day entries closed. It's not a track he's favoured and the weather isn't exactly looking friendly, so i was really pleased.
Going there now with him in a much better headspace, well, i'm looking forward to it a lot more than i was.
I've seen it over the years like you imply, where some days are down, up, down, up, down, down... I'd love to know how to unlock the 100% positive one all the time every time... but that's a tricky one to master.
I'm pretty sure it wasn't a coincidence though last night and he just happened to find form/fun..
I've seen it over the years like you imply, where some days are down, up, down, up, down, down... I'd love to know how to unlock the 100% positive one all the time every time... but that's a tricky one to master.
Not humanly possible dude, you cannot be 100% all the time and can't expect anyone to be. So many external factors and inner critic going on - especially for a kid