It would need a different set of forks though too, which i don’t know if that’ll happen. The boy has to go 29er one day potentially, but currently he’s very much against the idea.

I thought you had a spare set

Only 27.5 forks. He’s tried the odd 29er but only in passing. As time moves in I may set the Slayer up for him and throw him down on 29, but currently he’s very much set on 27.5

We’ll try 29 of course when the 141 arrives, but that’s a bit more trails than DH. So tricky to compare

So the blue GT went and the new bike is collected

29er front end
Hope brakes
Boxxer Forks
Bomber CR shock
Halo wheels

We’ll see how it rides tomorrow

and the new bike is collected

And clearly now, you need a ‘new’ bicycle as well. It would be rude not to 😉

Looks good. Is it mulleted at the moment

Yup mullet currently. Comes with all the bits to go 27.5 along with spare shock and 29er swingarm.

And clearly now, you need a ‘new’ bicycle as well

It’s barely been used. Although was ace on DH course at Bringewood today.

Would it have made sense to swap the fork and shock from the old bike? Didn’t you pay rsr to set it up? Or am I miles behind

I’m in pub so haven’t go the depth of reply right now, will do that tomorrow lol

The other forks and other other forks have both been done,both are options if he goes 27.5. it may end up a culmination of 2 bikes to be race/spare.

Stop posting and get boxing boozing ya but southern fairy 🤪

Sparkle paint

The observant amongst you will see it’s running the XFusion shock. Reason for that is that the Bomber is sprung with a 550 and he’s a 350. So the logical easy step for today was to swap the shock from the purple to the blue, so it’s sprung exactly how he likes it. Due to logistical nightmares this morning of leaving a bag at the hotel 80 mins away, we didn’t get to FoD, well we did, got out of the van, saw we’d left the bag full of clothing and drove back to Aberdare LOL.

We then made the decision to just ride locally instead. Well, he rode locally, i got to drive then come home and sort all the kit while he’s out playing.

It’s barely been used.

No, no, mon ami!! You clearly need another bike too 😁

Dad’s Taxi
Dad’s Launderette
Dad’s Bicycle Repairs
Dad’s Travel-Bookers

Dad’s keeping a track for when you make it big son, and then your board will be negotiated 😉😉

Lots of discussions with the boy after his riding, it seems he really really likes the mullet feel. Which is interesting because currently it’s ‘wrong’

Why is it wrong you ask.. well, you don’t but maybe you think it slightly.

The answer is that the previous owner didn’t have quite the correct logic. He stuck in the 29er headset cup (we had loads of spare headset cups, including 3.5deg offset. That would have been fine if he’d put in a 29er back end and wheel too. But because he’s running as a mullet with a standard headset, the back end is lowered and the head angle too slack.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2ocQ8Y4]2023-01-22_05-58-22[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2ocSyXv]2023-01-22_05-58-07[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

The answer is that you get a 2deg offset headset
https://www.workscomponents.co.uk/20-degree-zs49-zs49-angle-headset—to-suit-1-18-steerer-tube-59-p.asp

Just like that. The boy actually seemed happy with the head angle as it was today…. but it still should be ‘right’ so i’ve got one of these ordered up.

Happily i checked the current headset bearing and they were knackered anyway
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2ocQ8Tz]2023-01-22_05-58-13[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Apart from that, the Hopes are ‘better’ and stronger than the GuideR’s…. Which won’t be a massive shock to many but he does love the Guides… I think he may now love the Hopes more lol.. Oh dear.. we know where that’s going.

So i think the long and short is that we’re going to be running a mullet and getting the mulet bike setup next weekend not the 27.5 as we’d planned. It’s also going to mean that the 27.5 Boxxer forks are going to be up for sale as will the 27.5 Xfusions potentially (although i may keep those for selling the bike longer term putting back to standard). But for sure the Boxxers will be on their way out and replaced by some 29er forks. I’ll then need a 29×20 boost front wheel to match, but all of this is just something ‘for the future’, however as we know, in my world, things escalate and happen quickly at times… but it’ll be a couple of weeks so he can test, try and practice on both bikes for now.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cntl-wyrBgC/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=

impetuous
/ɪmˈpɛtjʊəs/
Learn to pronounce
adjective
acting or done quickly and without thought or care.
“she might live to rue this impetuous decision”

Deffo not me. Whilst it may look like it, these things, ideas, plans get a LOT of internal discussion before i jump in

By eck it’s a bit bloody cold for working on MTBs in the garage today. It’s deffo below 0, but only just at a guess, but the fingers really do feel it.

Went to fit the DMR bars, the boy wanted his bars narrower on this bike as they’re at 810mm with grips, his race bike is 770mm with grips. However the DMR bars are 35mm and the stem is a standard stem not a DH stem, so couldn’t fit the bar combo.

So in the end i trimmed down the Renthal bars to 770mm for him so he’s got pretty much the same on both now give or take a mm or 2.

Got to wait now for the headset parts to arrive and the new shock spring though before i can do anything else particularly constructive to the bike. I also need to learn a bit about Hope brakes and bleeding, whilst they feel lovely at the moment, i’m guessing one day i’ll need to do stuff to them.

Buy the Hope bleed kit. All nicely machined Alu parts and makes the bleed super easy.

Buy the Hope bleed kit. All nicely machined Alu parts and makes the bleed super easy.

Sounds good… I’ll get on the case. I don’t even know what models of what i have yet.. I’d guess they’re Tech3/E4, but I need to do a bit more checking as i’ll need some pads of course.

We’ve both just entered the Southern Enduro in March, which will be his first race on the Privateer, i expect the whole team will race there too.

His weekend coaching went really well and it seemed like KAty unlocked a few things in his brain. She was pushing all of the riders a little outside of their comfort zones with “right, follow me and do this”…. “can’t do that….” was both of their replies at times… “sure you can, get on with it”.. LOL… they both did what she’d asked, but needed a bit of persuasion for the first time of asking. It was brilliant to see how she sees the lines that they don’t necessarily see, the places to pick up speed/time they’d miss… The body position things that people like me simply wouldn’t be able to pick out.
Yesterday we then went to the local woods and he was looking faster, better, happier again, even on the new bike with a new front end size and bars too big and a head angle of a Harley Davidson lol…. He felt the flow more. It just shows how the right person can make a massive effect on a riders head.

This weekend has now changed slightly i’d say, from riding the 27.5 and getting suspension setup, to likely riding the mullet and getting it set up. With the outside knowledge we have on various aspect coming in to advise on the setup of it as a mullet, we both think that this is the way forward for him. This weekend is a no pressure kind of race at FoD so will be perfect for him to test different things, from pedals to bikes. Admittedly it’s the first ranked race of 2023 so would be nice to get off to a decent start in points… but it’ll be a toughie as it’s his first time in ‘youth’ which means he’ll be racing all the fast strong U16s, along with his usual juveniles from last season… He’s got i think 57 in his Cat this weekend !!!!

It’s also going to mean that the 27.5 Boxxer forks are going to be up for sale as will the 27.5 Xfusions potentially (although i may keep those for selling the bike longer term putting back to standard). But for sure the Boxxers will be on their way out and replaced by some 29er forks.

I thought you’d sold one of the 27.5 bikes? Did you have spare forks?

You’re aware putting 29 front end on a 27.5 isn’t the same as putting a 27.5 rear end on a 29er? Which is how i read the above?

I thought you’d sold one of the 27.5 bikes? Did you have spare forks?

You’re aware putting 29 front end on a 27.5 isn’t the same as putting a 27.5 rear end on a 29er? Which is how i read the above?

The GT Fury is completely compatible with 27.5 full, 29 full and 29/27.5 mullet using both headset cups, chainstays and flip chips. It’s raced in mullet form at WC races using the configuration we’ll be going with by both Ethan Craik and Wyn Masters. But yes i’m aware it’s ‘different’ but it’s completely ‘correct’ according to GT if you do it the right way of course.
So you run a non-stack upper and lower cup if you run 29/29. You run a 30mm lower stack cup if you run 27.5/27.5 , then if you run mullet you run non-stack upper and lower, but with a 2deg angle headset to bring the front end back 2 degrees to compensate for the difference from dropping the rear with 27.5 wheel.
The boy has the option using the spare 27.5 forks of course to run both bikes in full 27.5 mode.. But he wants to give the mullet a try, so that’s where we’re going. We sold the old 2018 bike, so he’s got the purple bike which is running 27.5/27.5 along with a spare set of forks and spare front wheel. We’d need to fit the other headset cups to allow full 27.5, but that’s no biggy.

Hope Bleed Kit in whichever flavour you need.  I suspect Tech3 – the difference is in the reservoir caps (you replace the usual cap with the kit one, screw in the cup and then do the gravity style bleed).

I’m using T3 / E4s.  I’ve found Galfer Pads to be good, green are really nice, but I’ve been using standard sintered ones for winter and they’ve been just fine.

Forgive me for asking but i cant seem to find any recent racing history for the boy. I check in from time to time to see how he is going but its all been taken over by talk of equipment and sponsorship.

Has he got a web page or somewhere listing his performances please

You’ll find him on Instagram as @weeksy08

https://www.rootsandrain.com/rider111960/james-weeks/results/

Results are there.

Racing has been on the ‘off-season’ recently mate, so he’s not raced since Oct as he also crashed and broke his collar bone (only missed one race though)

First race of the year is next weekend at Forest of Dean.

You could buy some boxxer 29 lowers to save having to replace the entire 27.5 fork perhaps, assuming the rest of it is good.

You could buy some boxxer 29 lowers to save having to replace the entire 27.5 fork perhaps, assuming the rest of it is good.

That is potentially exceptional information mate.. I wasn’t even aware that was viable.. But certainly something to consider. But i think for now it’ll be kept 27.5 until he’s fully sold either way on wheel sizes.

Fantastic. Good luck younger weeksy

Lowers will come with new bushes and seals already installed too. A lot of the time they work out quote good vfm, especially if not fussed about colour/decals

There is this set of lowers.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266082903567?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20211130125621%26meid%3Dfa082ffa54084a019240c5b10b7b1187%26pid%3D101465%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D354194395143%26itm%3D266082903567%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D3817808%26brand%3DRockshox&_trksid=p3817808.c101465.m3507

the Germany ones are £320+ duties to import i’d expect.

Me and the boy spent another couple of hours in the woods last night and he’s 100% sold on the Mullet setup. I think it just feels better to him, it’ll also help as we’ll be running a 29er front on the Privateer of course.

What that does mean is that we need another wheel to start with, so a quick call to Rotec Cycles and a Pro4evo with Fortus30 has been ordered and on it’s way over.. That’ll then mean he can run both Pro4s on the race bike and have the 2nd wheel for bike 2 (purple currently) so we’ve got complete compatibility between both bikes.

He’s looking forward to the weekend now and apart from a gym session, he’ll likely chill mostly and then we’ll be spending the day in FoD on Sat to play on the race-track and then racing on Sunday 🙂

Id be tempted to go with the eBay ones with a cheeky offer assuming you have another axle. What you save will go towards the new wheel

Funny you say that @tracey They’ve been bought and are being fitted this afternoon LOL.

The new wheel is ordered and will be here tomorrow.

We’ve now got 2 headsets arriving instead of 1 headset. So by the weekend, both the purple bike and the blue bike will be mullet. The new spring has arrived for the Bomber, so that’s good too… both done… Long-term project complete 😀 😀

Sounds good. Parents work is never done.

But for sure the Boxxers will be on their way out and replaced by some 29er forks. I’ll then need a 29×20 boost front wheel to match, but all of this is just something ‘for the future’, however as we know, in my world, things escalate and happen quickly at times… but it’ll be a couple of weeks so he can test, try and practice on both bikes for now.

24 hours later…..

They’ve been bought and are being fitted this afternoon LOL.

The new wheel is ordered and will be here tomorrow.

😂😂😂

Classic Weeksy!

More Boxxer 29s 😀

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2odeib5]2023-01-24_03-45-55[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

You need one of the old fork bags that Marzocchi use to supply back in the day.
Great for spare fork transporting

@tracey how about a pair of salopettes 🤣

So as per the carbon frame issues discussion thread. We’ve now got 2 similar/same bikes. Both running mullet setup and both running in ‘Lo’ mode on the flip chip with the correct -2deg headset. This gives a head angle of 62.5 deg using an android angle measuring/bubble app.

I need to get some headset spacers and a front wheel that’s on order to complete the purple bike, but it’s back together with the new Works Components headset fitted at the same angles too. This also means with the shock in the Lo position that the BB and of course ride height sits slightly lower, which should in turn improve stability.

It’s been a bit of a day the last 24 hours, but i think we’re in a place where both bikes will be ready to roll for the weekend. The boy has been putting in plenty of bike time. Just a question of getting there, getting in some practice and seeing how the weekend goes.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2odw5C3]2023-01-26_08-11-27[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

New wheels now in the purple bike, both bike are happy with headset angles, ready to roll for race 1 of 2023.

genuine question, what do you do as a job? you seem to have th holy grail of infinite time and money

I’m in IT. I certainly don’t have lots of money, we’ve decided we’ll support the boy 100% in racing and at times that means we do without other things, like a family holiday abroad etc. But it’s a struggle to fund this for sure, without some of the help we get, it would be a lot tougher. Time, i work it so i start stupid early and do stuff in evenings too, so have a little more time if needed during day. But i still do a 40 hour week, just some of it is at different times to other people.