That Canyon Torque would of been ideal.
The Torque is a nice bike. Especially as it’s in your size. And your son probably isn’t going to want to switch back to a smaller bike now he’s used to his new one. And didn’t you hint that he might have a new bike next year anyway?
Remember, the slower you are the more value you get out of the race.
Remember, if you stay on the ground you get more value out of the suspension when you use it on every root, rock and compression rather than being a pussy and jumping over all the difficult bits like the kids do. 😉
Remember, the slower you are the more value you get out of the race.
Haha - love this theory
Well in that case, I gor true value out of it as I was last in Cat.
Am I disappointed, a little bit in honesty yes. But today gave me things I struggle to find in any other walk of life, in terms of emotions, excitement etc. I was horrifically nevervous in the lead up this morning, the crash in practice not helping either. I ripped off the end of my grip and I'm not quite sure if I've potentially broken my pinkie, or just bruised, but it's properly sore.
The drop was playing on my mind all day, despite the fact it's only 3' or so it kicks you up and along the trail, so a bit of air time. Then the tech areas lower down, I was a bit daunted.
I've raced motorbikes in the past and done 150 trackdays, people who do trackdays tell me they're crapping themselves before going out, however I'm an empty shell of emotionless darkness. Today though, yeah I was on edge.
Getting down without being caught up from behind and without stacking it, was a massive relief. The result, I'm not too fussed.
I now feel I can say "I've raced DH" which I think is a big big step at 50+ years old.
I hate to sound like an arsehole but it's so so different. Doing it when taped, with people shouting and cheering, it's so so different. It's a trail I've ridden before but bears no resemblance to racing it
Which drop are you struggling with Weeksy, the slab after the step-up in the first section or the drop onto the fire road at the end?
I now feel I can say “I’ve raced DH” which I think is a big big step at 50+ years old.
Good for you 👍🏻
Which drop are you struggling with Weeksy, the slab after the step-up in the first section
That one. I hit it 7 times over the weekend but still freaks me a bit.
Both the ones after the fire road I was hitting fairly well
As a slow 50+ wannabe I can say that the faster you hit that, the better. Took me a while and I had to follow a mate in but I can now happily clear it. Just pedal like buggery and keep your fingers off the brakes.
Oh I hear you and that's pretty much what I was doing, but Jeepers I wasn't keen lol.
This arguably wasn't my best photo up to now of the day, but i had very few with me in goggles and in full on DH mode.... I only wore the goggles for practice 1 in the morning, i not only find them very uncomfortable and claustraphobic, but i also can't see properly without glasses, so the goggles were binned after run 1.
Oh and i'm pretty sure, on that run of morning practice.... my finger is broken. HAHAHAHAAHA muppet.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52434182335_212a29dd6d_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52434182335_212a29dd6d_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2nTqTCt ]randr-photo-9251163-4000px-by-gareth-dalley[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr
Another interesting point, i was chatting to our suspension tech at RSR Bikeworks who was also racing (and won), he was saying that due to changing the spring rate massively on the bike i should have slowed the rebound both ends by 2-3 clicks as a start point... Sadly we never had this discussion until AFTER the race, so i was probably running way too fast rebound, but hey, that's OK 🙂
I think after this weekends racing i'll have to put the blue GT back to the boys weight for racing... We saw a few instances over the weekend of crashes that would mean 'game over' without a decent amount of spares and or a new bike to replace, things like a wheel here, a mech there, a set of bars etc.. But i wouldn't like to see the lad miss a decent result potentially just because of not having something.
We were lucky that when i stacked the GT i ended up ripping and destroying the grip on the left side, but i had 2 spare sets in the box, so was a doddle to swap. But if it'd broken the brake, that would have been a bit more complex and we may indeed have not got it fixed before race (we arguably would have, but not always)
So it'll get sprung back to his weight.
I'm currently debating whether i keep the Trek Fuel ex9.8 and buy myself a DH bike in a couple of months, or swap the Fuel for a 170/180mm bike. Having both would be nice.... but is a little excessive.
It's a decision running round my head currently that's for sure.
We stopped & did a bit of mid ride heckling yesterday. Was probably the driest part of the forest looking at the conditions.
I’m currently debating whether i keep the Trek Fuel ex9.8 and buy myself a DH bike in a couple of months, or swap the Fuel for a 170/180mm bike
Of all of the locals & other friends who were racing, either winning or podiums in categories, I think they were all on ~160mm bikes.
Unless I was planning on pushing for podiums at big regional races, I’d rather race a decent 160mm bike with a couple of sets of wheels than a DH bike or a big 180mm truck that would be purgatory on anything remotely flat, as my only option.
There's no such thing as an 'only option' there's always space for more bikes.
But you're arguably right, i do wonder if i'd be slower on the Trek, or maybe even quicker.... it's 150front 130 rear which is a bit less, but 29er wheels.... It's always an interesting question.
The simple answer is, i wouldn't race anything harder than yesterday, or certainly not much harder... That's about as tricky as my world gets and with all the best will in the world, anything much over that and i'm not likely to get down it 😀
