@twonks
Excellent news and well done to all the Weeksy family and friends.
Do Privateer offer bikes similar to the GT, which I presume is DH only?
Might be worth a few questions and conversations because when the team grows and James gets known in his own right, any sponsors to the main team (at the time) will likely want their riders to use their kit all the time, in case they are spotted out and about etc.
Not from a ‘free bike’ perspective, more to keep it commercial and also ensure your lad can at least feel comfortable on another bike if asked to ride it.
That’s the interesting bit…. No is the answer, they dont. However they are very much aware the kids are currently racing DH as their primary interest.
https://www.privateerbikes.com/blogs/journal/katy-curd-youth-development-team
They will all be on the Privateer 141 for training and enduro racing. The people behind the company have an amazing ethos to the company and are so keen to continually improve products and bikes. Its amazing to be a part of the family and the bikes ride so good! They all have their own downhill bikes and will be racing the downhill races on these.
There are some people, mostly in the US who’ve ridden and raced 161s on Dual Crown forks and loved it… Whilst obviously that’s not quite a DH bike… it’s a decent compromise. I do 100% get your point though and it’s something we’ve thought about a fair bit.. We’re obviously hoping to stay with Katy and the team this year, next year, as long as she wants, but obviously this is a youth squad and there’ll come a time when all 3 of these move on and are replaced by other youngsters.
All 3 of them are going to be riding their Privateers in Enduro this season, maybe not as much as the DH stuff, but we’ll be ensuring that Privateer do get as much of a share of their time as we can. But i’d absolutely LOVE Privateer to make and develop a DH bike, that would be so much the ideal scenario. But that said, you never know, he may fall in love with Enduro and ride less DH in coming years… Really, i just don’t know.
This is all such a bonkers time at the moment it’s honestly quite time consuming in terms of bikes, kit, hardware, media etc… I never quite grasped how it would all go. I’ve made some new friends and i’ve made a few mistakes and said the wrong thing at the wrong time once or twice. Hence you’ll arguably see me going back to more “this is my boy” type posts rather than “this is the team/stuff” type posts…
there’s so many little pit-falls, traps, and holes to fall into… we want to keep people who are helping happy.. but sometimes you think “oh, can I post….” and you end up finding you can’t/shouldn’t…. Then end up looking a bit foolish.
Another hard part is “pictures and videos” and the question of what gets created as content, why and for who.. My lad has VERY different thoughts on what’s right and wrong here with me, i think of it from “does sponsor A want more or less content” and he’s more about “how cool do i look in this video/photo”.. He’s also quite a shy lad so getting pics, images, videos with him in are also quite tricky.
This may sound a bit daft but i’m so so so much looking forward to this weekend, just to get back to riding, racing and having fun out there… it’s what we both now class as ‘normal’ and a return to normality is what we both need i think. The world has become a little surreal at the moment for both/all of us..We’re enjoying every minute.. but it’s sure a bit strange.