Weeksy08 the ongoing racing trials and tribulations of a crazy teen

Well it was a bit of a short-notice thing this event and in some ways a bit of a slog. Friday afternoon brought a fair bit of traffic which made the trip down slow going… but eventually we got to where we’re supposed to park at 6.15pm. It wasn’t necessarily that we wanted to ride the track, but with a new venue i like to at least know where i’m going. Weirdly this one had the parking and the event over a mile apart (although it actually transpires we could have parked at the venue).
Once we’d checked it out it was food, beers and chilling.

The morning brought bacon, coffee and a chilly start. The lad was moaning about being a bit cold “MTFU and get on with it boy” was about all i could manage as far as inspiration goes. We ended up chatting with one of the organisers for a while on the way to the top and were discussing where we’d come from. “oh, if you’ve travelled all that way, you must be here for the win”…. The boy laughed and said “i’d like a top 10, maybe a top 5…”… Me, i was a little more confident in his ability though and thought he’d be on for a podium based upon entrants.

With the Pearce race being cancelled it seems none of the big boys had ventured down for this, so i knew it was a weaker field that we’d often see. Giving us something of a decent chance. The course walk was done and the boy was picking his lines and his why and where to go… It was WAY better than i expected for a local race and i’m most envious of the wood these guys have to play on.

While practice was on i spent a lot of time watching and chatting to various people including a few coaches of the Project. ‘Ewan’ was apparently one of the kids to watch and he’d only done 2 runs in practice because he felt he was good enough to win. He was asking who my lad was and i pointed him out on the DH bike and flying over the next section…. I had to laugh as Ewan didn’t look quite so confident.

Just in the lunch break things got really funny. Behind the pit area there was a trail with a 22′ gap jump, not massively tall but a decent length jump… 5-6 of the 13-16’s were lining it up, running into it and not hitting it. I said to the boy “go hit that, it’ll freak them out”…. What does he do, but he walks over, checks the take off and landing and hits it first run. Their faces of “oh dear” were funny. We then had a laugh chatting with another of his age cat, Felix who also hit it…. My lad then hit it again towing his mate from our village who we’d also taken to come and race.

There was semi-live timing through and app so as race 1 went off, i could see where things were.. 15-20 mins later he was down the track and looking smooth,… but so were plenty of others.
Run 1 brought a P1 in his class and the 3rd quickest time of the weekend. As i walked to meet him at the push up, i asked him and he replies with “that went OK, i’ll be happy with fifth”…. “oh, you’ll love being first then”… His face was a picture and we were both beaming. He had a decent gap over 2nd place of 3s… which at this sort of level is pretty meaty a gap, but you never know if someone made a mistake or left a bit of safety margin in there.
His time overall was 2s off the best, whether he could make anything up was open to debate though, he felt he’d had a sweet run at it.

Run 2, he was one of the last off the gate.. but happily even before his run i knew he’d won as his new buddy Felix was the only one who’d close the gap and he’d only pulled 1s on my lad, so still 2 behind.
In run 2 he managed 1s quicker overall, but he didn’t pick up anything on fastest of the day in the U16s as both of those guys picked up a second as well.

So not only his first podium, but of course his first win… BOOM !

THe weekend, well actually the week as we’ve been to Afan, Fod, bought a new bike, BPW, hotels, fuel, then with the racing, has been CRAZY expensive… but i feel so so happy for him that i’ve given up caring and he’s crazy happy to have won. Of course we both know that in his next race which is a Pearce, he’ll be finding things a lot harder in terms of terrain and position, but hey, we’ll take the win all day.

The afternoon finished with chocolate ice-cream and Dominos pizza in the car on the way home… Doesn’t get any better than that in a 13year olds mind.

Today will bring some strip down and checking of the bike… but even if he wants to go out riding, i don’t think i actually have it in me !

I’m sure we’ll be buying a few more pics, but you’ll have to accept a re-post for now.

2022-04-23_10-29-30 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

Steve, that is awesome. Well done to you both.

Ian

Would your son / you be interested in vloging ?

I have no idea what is involved cost/time wise but some people appear to get loads of sponsorship from it (see Pinned TV)

I would certainly be interested watching every week

Depends if you are in to that kind of stuff though, or I guess if races allow you to vlog?

Thank you 🙂 it’s taken a fair bit of time and effort, obviously a chunk of cash too lol. But he/we are exceptionally lucky that because i’m a MTBer too, it’s not a chore… his race practice this week was flying down trails at BPW and sessioning it to get as high as he can. HE ended up 35th overall on Strava out of 34,000+ riders on a segment he was trying on… Now i wasn’t anywhere near his times, but heck, i had a blast there too ! So it’s awesome for me because i get to ride with the lad and sort of see him progress… from a distance !

I had to laugh when doing Vicious Valley the other day, i get to the bottom (in what ended up being my fastest time of the day), the lad says to me “did you crash” ….. No… i’m just not a bloody racer like you !!! hahaaha…

We’ve now got 6-7 weeks or so off from racing with nothing of note until JUNE !!! Seriously lol. Sadly i can’t see that changing as it Fort William which we’re not entering this year and Llangollen nationals, which again we’re not going for. But we’ll be keeping our hand in and practicing various stuff, along with some days out and messing about on bikes.

Got lucky with the weather. Raining down here this morning and from memory grogley is greasy as **** in the rain.

Would your son / you be interested in vloging ?

I have no idea what is involved cost/time wise but some people appear to get loads of sponsorship from it (see Pinned TV)

I would certainly be interested watching every week

Depends if you are in to that kind of stuff though, or I guess if races allow you to vlog?

THe only downside to that idea is that you can’t film British Cycling races, no GoPros allowed. I think at some places you’d potentially get away with it in practice, but deffo not in any races. So a lot would be missed in that context.

The sponsorship side of things would be ACE, but in honesty it wouldn’t play a massive factor in some ways to how and when we race… Something like a frame/bike sponsor would be a huge help, but i’m not sure i’d want to take him off his GT anyway, he absolutely loves the thing and swapping to something else now, well, i’m not actually sure he’d want to.

Despite some of our talk earlier in this thread about where we’d like to see ourselves in the future, in the DH world we’re very very much a very small fish in a small pond and i just don’t see why/how we’d get a sponsor. There’s a couple of UK based junior teams and i have emailed a couple of them in recent months, but we’re in mid-season, not in sign-up time for the teams, one in particular would be awesome which is the GT Viris squad, both for their bikes and their affiliation to Sprung suspension, which would be awesome for setting up his bouncy bits

Recently though we’ve become mates with https://www.rsrbikeworks.co.uk/ who do the GT Factory suspension so i’m pretty happy that unless we threw £1000+ at a set of forks, his bike is currently as good as it’s getting and indeed as good as it needs to be.

He does do things like Instagram reels and stories….. but he’s not gone full Vlog/blog type stuff yet… He’s not a shy kid by any means, but i’m not sure he’s quite there yet 🙂

It’s a great idea though, thank you.

Good to see him doing so well on the Fury, I rode one a few years back and it was one of the oddest feeling DH bikes I’ve ridden (and I’ve ridden them since the 90’s)
Just imagine how fast he’d be if you put him on a Session or a Tues!

It’s a question mate. But back in the day the GT was being ridden by some top riders like the Atherton crew, then later by some fast guys too. So it’s clearly not a terrible bike.

Let’s just say that, if next year brings nationals, it wouldn’t be impossible for him to be on something different. But as to what, heck I dunno. He’s still not convinced by 29, despite liking the Mullet. But something Andorran wouldn’t be against the realms of possiblity.

We had the option of an older V10 when buying the GT, or even an older Tues. But at the time our budget was £2000 and you don’t get 2022 bikes for £2000. As we’ve established in here, I’m not shy at throwing money in, but I have limits for sure.

There’s many months and many races before that though. Despite the 6-7 week lull in racing, we’ve got plenty more planned.

His first win and you keep posting that photo that looks like you’re tracking the Predator 😉

Interestingly (maybe) still something slightly odd going on with his rear brake positioning. Not a huge problem but will lead to him having to use more effort or longer/steeper tracks. Thought I noticed it in one photo then there’s a really clear shot of it on RnR, I’ll send you the link

Great result! Good to see he’s getting on well. Enjoy it.

His first win and you keep posting that photo that looks like you’re tracking the Predator

We’re waiting for all the pics to be completed on roots and rain before getting the wallet out. So we’ll put up some more later, just not yet.

Great writeup.

I wouldn’t bet too hung up on which riders did or didn’t ride a Fury, it didn’t have as much success as it should have given the calibre of riders that were on it and it was in a state of constant change. GT were just trying to keep their identity that they had built up with the I-Drive.

I’d consider the way the bike rides when judging how well he’s done, which is to say he’s done a brilliant job with it!

Obviously don’t want to detract from the thread too much, I’m loving following the story. Well done to him, and to you for supporting him.

Great stuff. Nice that he’s winning at that level. Like a boxer winning his first “area” title, gives the experience and confidence to get better against improving opposition.

The thread is in track, even if we discuss the bike too as it’ll only be a matter of time before it’s swapped. It’s in a size M, so in say this time next year he’ll be pushing a large.
This time though we’ll be giving things a bit more thought and planning I think.
We jumped onto the GT due to timescales and impatience as much as an actual desire to have a GT. It was just shiny and the right price and condition.

Time will of course tell if he gets on better with something else, but will be interesting to find out, along with the adventure of what it may be.

I already know what his dream bike apparently is.

However I can bet that’s 99% based upon him thinking it’s pretty rather than anything else like spec, pivots, handling, forks etc. He’ll just think it looks cool.

The one interesting thing for me after some posts on the thread was how irrelevant the DH aspect of the bike is. People were saying “it’s very focused” etc, but they forget the teenager excitement side of things as I suspected would be the case. Yesterday he rode it 1.5 miles or so to the race, then 1.5 back. Last week he rode it 6 miles to the woods for the day and then back home at the end. He doesn’t care it’s inefficient, he just loves it. Lol

2022-04-24_07-45-21 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

2022-04-24_07-45-14 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

2022-04-24_07-45-08 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

2022-04-24_07-45-02 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

2022-04-24_07-44-56 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

2022-04-24_07-44-52 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

That kid on the podium does not look like the guy riding the bike, riding beyond his years!

He’s a funny lad, because sometimes he’s still 10. Well, 10 is optimistic, about 8. He eats Petit Filous and still has his teddy.
Then nails the trails and gaps lol.

He’s 5’6 maybe 7 now, but weighs about the same as my left leg. Has power and strength in abundance though. I can’t outsprint him even in short hills that should suit me.

I see him sitting next to me in the car and think “am I really about to send you down xyz” but I do and yup, he does it.

It’s a properly bizarre world me and him live and ride in. But I wouldn’t change a single thing about it. The adventures we have really are second to none. I’m an exceptionally lucky guy.

Long may it continue and his interest in Mtb stay strong.

Good on you @weeksy! Times like these should build a father/son bond that will hopefully last a lifetime.
When my son hit 14 he took up drumming and became the drummer in our band. He was a big lad so could get away with hanging around pubs with the rest of us. The next few years were some of the best of my life with him and I pretty much living through music together and being the best of mates. He’s been up and away in the world for many years now and we pretty much ride bikes together on the few times a year we get together but that bond is still strong!

We went to Fleet bike park on Sat for one of the lads birthdays. 6 of the crazy teens all jumping like fleas.

My lad spent some time praticing no handers on the smaller line… but was having an absolute blast

Sunday was a day off from riding and Monday brought more jumping/trails and his first flat on the Status. He/We think he burped the front on a bad landing… i took him the wheel from my Trek and he was out in minutes. When i checked the front tyre i found “yeah mate, it was tubelessed just a few weeks ago” doesn’t actually mean it was tubelessed with fluid !!! hahahahhaaha.
When i checked the rear this morning, that too was completely empty of any fluid…

We’re mostly just sitting and waiting now, along with some DoE stuff and family stuff, riding, having fun and enjoying ourselves, with racing now on-hold until the early part of may. We’re then back to a few races on the bounce.

The weekend of 21/22 of May i think is free though so we may come up with a plan for that one.

I wouldn’t worry about chasing sponsors..even though we were extremely well positioned and paid nothing for most of our product, we always said that if we had monetized the amount of work, comp’ed holidays etc that we put into our sponsor relations, we could’ve just bought the stuff anyway – I wouldn’t change that though as we met some absolutely amazing people in the process!

When you break it down, grassroots sponsorship is actually going to be pretty expensive. There will be the obligation to buy the current season bike every year, which at “sponsorship” might be wholesale plus 20/retail less 30. These days, it might not even arrive till mid season meaning you can release the ‘old’ bike when you want to. Sponsorship isn’t what most people think it is, not many people will tell you what their “sponsorship” actually costs them, plus you don’t want to end up being Crosby Zoomermans dad right 😉
Then with the content deliverables you’ll start to miss the point of why you’re doing it and totally change the dynamic you have now.
I’d say carry on how you are. Seems to be working brilliantly from an enjoyment, results and father/son relationship perspective at the moment!
Well done W08 on the result too!

I wouldn’t worry about chasing sponsors..even though we were extremely well positioned and paid nothing for most of our product, we always said that if we had monetized the amount of work, comp’ed holidays etc that we put into our sponsor relations, we could’ve just bought the stuff anyway – I wouldn’t change that though as we met some absolutely amazing people in the process!

When you break it down, grassroots sponsorship is actually going to be pretty expensive. There will be the obligation to buy the current season bike every year, which at “sponsorship” might be wholesale plus 20/retail less 30. These days, it might not even arrive till mid season meaning you can release the ‘old’ bike when you want to. Sponsorship isn’t what most people think it is, not many people will tell you what their “sponsorship” actually costs them, plus you don’t want to end up being Crosby Zoomermans dad right 😉
Then with the content deliverables you’ll start to miss the point of why you’re doing it and totally change the dynamic you have now.
I’d say carry on how you are. Seems to be working brilliantly from an enjoyment, results and father/son relationship perspective at the moment!
Well done W08 on the result too!

I think the Sponsor thing is more a kudos and telling his mates thing than a reality of getting a Santa Cruz V10 every season. It wouldn’t honestly change a great deal apart from my disposable income/spending.

I do also see it as you say, the complication being added in where a certain complexity can come from it.

Specific question but here’s as good as anywhere.

Anyone done Edge Cycles races? It seems the lad can race Sunday in Torpoint. It would be 5.30am start to get down in time, but that’s only my normal get up time, early for him though.

Not many entrants yet, but 2 of them do well in Gawton races, so a decent bit of competition I guess.

Not worth your drive mate. Do the next Gawton round in a couple of weeks. Track looks fun.

Can’t dude, he’s away that weekend. We gave him the choice of Duke of Edinburgh or racing for a few weekends, he picked the DoE which I’m good with. But he will miss a couple of useful races.
Will be good time spent with his mates though

Edge cycles could be ok if it stays dry, it was wet for it last year and it was a shitshow. I know people who went home after one practice run.

and if you are thinking it’s Plymouth, it’s another 40mins on despite being 1/2 mile by seA…

I’m not sure he’s feeling it due to expense and non-ranking event.

Which is a bonus for me as I’m riding in the Peaks on Sat so would have been a tough weekend lol

That new Gawton track they’re building looks ace and sculpted on instagram

I had a look and chat with chaz on Saturday. Looks fun, hope we get some rain before the race to bed it down or the race is going go blow it to pieces.

Only just stumbled across this Weeksy, Read page 1 and page 14 because I am supposed to be working and am lazy, how old is the boy? Looks to be doing great on the bike!

HE’s 13 coming up to 14 now John.

Was sorting the above wheel config today… It all got a bit messy as i’ve got some wheels with center lock rotors, some with 6 bolts..

The front wheel was a bit graunchy, so thought i’d check and whip out the bearings. They were not to bad so they’ve been regreased inside and re-fitted, but i also got the bearing number 6904 and ordered up a new pair.

I then fitted the rear off this set above to the bike which is smooth as silk and nice…. That’s a 6 bolt…. weird as the front in the pair is a centerlock lol.

I then took the other rear apart which was the one that came with the bike and went to remove/sort the bearings…. apart from the fact they’re not a sealed bearing ! loose bearing type…. ewwwww. Not feeling that at all. I think i’ll be giving that to my LBS mate to rebuild instead. I may even go nuts and think about a new rear wheel. But it does get a little complex as it’s a 150mm hub width which isn’t common.

How does the mtb world work in terms of development ?

Back in the day when I skied it was

A local race -> Join a local club -> National Race Licence -> National Rankings -> International Race Licence -> Rankings -> Europa Cup Racing -> World Cup

Is mtb as structured or more look of the draw ?

Partly the reason I ask is because my son is getting on in the football world, but due to the nature of the sport you cannot tell how good your son is. I loved skiing because the rankings made it so clear.

Surprised me seeing Rachel Atherton at Fort William. In skiing you would be able to rock up and practice unless you had the points etc, you would have to enter the event, and have enough points to enter the event.

He can race anything from grass roots to Nationals. Although obviously he’ll place lower in Nationals and they’ll be harder in terms of terrain and other competitors.

I’m not sure yet how it goes for WCs as you need to be 16 to enter the WC Juniors. But other than that, he’s allowed to enter anything.

They have ranking points that go towards his licence, but i don’t know at this stage whether they actually matter in terms of anything, but i expect when he gets older if (as he tells me) his wish is to go to Nationals (next season) and then to attempt to Qualify for the WC races, they then may/will become more of a factor.

One of the kids in his school was at Fort William last weekend, he got 33rd (out of 54) in the junior qualifying, but looking at the results it’s only the top 24 who are allowed to race, so he missed out.

We missed out last weekend when at Rogate as when we were there we found out there was a race on the Sunday on Bikini Top and bottom, but when we enquired there was a waiting list a mile long, so no chance of getting in. One of his mates Ed was racing, who he’s a reasonable amount quicker than, Ed got 6th, which was an epic result.

We’re still waiting for racing at the moment as we didn’t go to the Nationals at FW a few weeks ago and then he was at Duke of Ed, so missed 2 races that weekend. We’re at FoD this weekend for family holiday and plenty of riding, he’s then got a session with Katy and eventually on the 11/12th we’re off to Pearce Cycles near Bala for a fairly high level event. It’s a “Regional A” which is the highest below Nationals. Regional Bs are less ranking point and then the Go-ride are non-ranked.
Weekend of the 18th we’re at MIJ at Forest of Dean which is a Regional B on a course he should know with luck, they sometimes swap it about but can often be either Ski Run or Elephant man.

How does the mtb world work in terms of development ?

Literally nothing, until you reach World Cup DH or EWS main event levels. You used to need enough BC points to race nationals, but then they realised DH was dying on its arse & they were stood with a gun to its head, limiting entries even further by adding restrictions, so opened it up with a free for all, which coincided with a load of organisers giving up running events.

To race WCDH you either need UCI points, which means a UCI sanctioned event (of which there are very few in the UK, due to the fees & red tape), or basically be a known rider with an unlucky set of circumstances & you can apply for a BC jersey & race under BC, as the national bodies have the right to award a select few for a race. Getting UCI points is almost impossible in the UK, which is why the fast ones go abroad to obscure European countries in the hope of picking them up that way.

The whole BC ranking thing is still as irrelevant as it always has been, as you can be ranked disproportionately high, purely on the number of events you do.

EWS is a bit more structured with qualifier events & if your results are good enough in the EWS100 races you are invited to race the main events.

Surprised me seeing Rachel Atherton at Fort William. In skiing you would be able to rock up and practice unless you had the points etc, you would have to enter the event, and have enough points to enter the event.

She has essentially been on maternity leave. I suspect her many, many uci points were protected from prior to going on leave, hence her ability to practice and potentially race.

@robz uci points will have lapsed but she’s on an elite uci team and is Rachel Atherton which will open any doors she wants.

This was a huge one, long and at least 10′ in height of drop too