I know, not sure how you do it!

Fitted the Zee shifter and mech this morning before the 9am work stuff..

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oexdJj]2023-02-01_08-21-47[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oexdNc]2023-02-01_08-22-04[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

The boy fitted the new DMR bars last night. He’s hoping to get an hour or two in the local woods later.

when fitting the mech/chain i noticed the idler was, somewhat not nice.

Thought i’d have a little peek at the manual as i recalled it being a little bit of a weird setup.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oeCGiP]furypivot[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2oeCGj5]idler[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Got it all apart, checked, cleaned and made nice, then re-setup. It wasn’t quite as bad as i thought it may be, but it wasn’t the most intuitive setup. It’s a fiddly sod to get it back together as there’s not a lot of space to get the ‘pivot shaft end’ piece re-fitted with the nut on the end, i think I dropped the nut about half a dozen times. But both the bikes are now running smoothly. It’s a 6803 bearing so i’ve ordered up a couple just in case.

I noticed in the piece of bits the previous owner gave me it had a various number of sprocket choices, but i do wonder what bigger or smaller would actually bring to the party… Why would i fit and run a bigger/smaller idler gear ?

You need to hire a mechanic, give yourself a rest.

+1 on getting him a mechanic!

Bit confused by this one.. Why would i do that ? The work was done outside of normal hours at home… Any of the other stuff on the day wasn’t for my lad or his teammates, it was for random other kids in the paddock we know, who were having issues on the day.

But the thing is, the mechanic stuff is ‘my thing’, it’s what i am and what i do within the team and i really enjoy it. Apart from the internals of shock/forks, i can do any and every job that comes up and from chatting to other parents, i’m clearly far far more clued up than most in the paddock. It’s my happy place, with spanners and tools in the garage, bit of music, a beer… perfect.

But the thing is, the mechanic stuff is ‘my thing’, it’s what i am and what i do within the team and i really enjoy it. Apart from the internals of shock/forks, i can do any and every job that comes up and from chatting to other parents, i’m clearly far far more clued up than most in the paddock. It’s my happy place, with spanners and tools in the garage, bit of music, a beer… perfect.

I hear you – I find tinkering in the garage with bikes is quite satisfying and relaxing for the most part. Apart from the occasional **** of a job that goes south.

But the thing is, the mechanic stuff is ‘my thing’, it’s what i am and what i do within the team and i really enjoy it. Apart from the internals of shock/forks, i can do any and every job that comes up and from chatting to other parents, i’m clearly far far more clued up than most in the paddock. It’s my happy place, with spanners and tools in the garage, bit of music, a beer… perfect.

Maybe because you put so much emphasis on it. Its obvious that its what makes you tick but it might not be so important to your lad. Does he sometimes just go along with the endless equipment changes because he knows you enjoy it? Does he sometimes wish he could spend a few months on a not so perfect bike happy that he can make allowances. Does he spend much time just messing with his mates/coaches doing the fun, stupid stuff or is it all measured. He may be missing out on building relationships which in the future will be vital support mechanisms if he has a chance of making it. From the parent of an aspiring Olympic athlete who competes on world level the best thing i ever did was take a step back and hand my kid over to people who live, breathe and understand what it takes to be better at the chosen sport. Your kid has a lot of opportunities with sponsors etc which will bring new pressures and tbh he is going to need other riders, coaches, friends to help him cope with disappointment’s. Trust me, i have made some huge mistakes from similar perspectives and trying to be too involved is the biggest.

Does he spend much time just messing with his mates/coaches doing the fun, stupid stuff

Every minute humanly possible 🙂
As it so happens with the teachers strike i’ve just dropped him off with his 2 mates at the woods about 5 mins ago… They’re going to mess about all day, get lunch from Co-Op and i’ll pick them up later. The only reason this isn’t more often is because of the early nights. That’ll change in months to come of course. But i/we try to encourage him to go out ‘playing’ as often as possible. There’s been a slightly complexity to that lately as he hasn’t got an appropriate bike yet for some of the rides the others are doing. But often even if he had the bike, he’d pick the DH riding option instead of the ‘Day out in the hills’ type riding. We’ve had long days at Afan, Surrey etc… They’re actually what I would pick instead, they’d be what i’d rather do than endless laps of Mr Rooty lol. But i certainly won’t stop him.
I never ever make him go out and ride, when we ride it’s because he comes to me… But as you’ve seen, that’s fairly often. All we’ve had for the last 3-4 days is “if i finish my schoolwork can i go out early”
Obviously as i’m sitting here WFH and have dropped him off, the answer was yes 🙂

Maybe because you put so much emphasis on it. Its obvious that its what makes you tick but it might not be so important to your lad. Does he sometimes just go along with the endless equipment changes because he knows you enjoy it? Does he sometimes wish he could spend a few months on a not so perfect bike happy that he can make allowances

Truthfully, absolutely no idea. Not all of these decisions are brought about by me. When the purple bike was off the trail due to a chain issue at Dyfi (messing with his mates hahahaa), he jumped on the older blue bike and declared “really don’t like this any more, plus it’s too small”. Hence the swapping of that… We really don’t swap just for the sake of it often.
Currently he’s trying Mallet DH clips, he’s been trying them for the last 3-4 rides, not because i wanted or needed him to, but simply because he wants to.
However at times, if i’m not involved then the bike simply isn’t working.. it’s sitting there broken. I can’t see how i can’t be involved and keep it running… Unless i just throw it to an LBS and considering i can actually do the work myself, that seems bonkers.
But some of the things we change/fit/do are not just because I choose or he chooses, it’s because we’re contractually fitting them/it/whatever. But that’s why i’ve tried to build 2 bikes that are basically identical, apart from the brakes they’re the same bike. So there’s no switching/changing/getting used to different things on different days. The plan is to run both the DH bikes exactly as they are for the whole year. The Purple bike will be bike 2, because he prefers the colour, lol.. but that’s the only reason it’s bike 2.

From the parent of an aspiring Olympic athlete who competes on world level the best thing i ever did was take a step back and hand my kid over to people who live, breathe and understand what it takes to be better at the chosen sport. Your kid has a lot of opportunities with sponsors etc which will bring new pressures and tbh he is going to need other riders, coaches, friends to help him cope with disappointment’s. Trust me, i have made some huge mistakes from similar perspectives and trying to be too involved is the biggest.

in many ways we don’t have an aspiration or a target in that context. Neither of us think it’s likely he’ll make it as a WC Racer that’s for sure. But some of the opportunites he’s getting may one day give him the chance to work/ride/etc within the MTB industry in some context and that’s a good thing. The disappointments, well that’s a toughie as he doesn’t really talk to his mates about the racing side of things, the kids these days seem to see anything like that as ‘bragging’ and end up talking rubbish, but not talking about things that are on their minds in the deeper contexts. The sponsorship stuff is complex.. but i hope we’ve got a bit of a track on it and what’s viable or not. But i do make it very much apparent to him that, even if the sponsors went away tomorrow, we’d still race. We’d still do the same trips, adventures, riding, racing as we do now… Just we’d have to foot everything ourselves.

Like you’re saying above

Trust me, i have made some huge mistakes

I have little doubt i’ve made a few… I have little doubt i’ll make some more. I don’t have the answers and reading different perspectives deffo helps so thank you.

Quite funny in the singletrack article…

See 2 mins in.

He wants to get input from them on setup, etc…. 😀 😀

Maybe i’m not that unusual.

One thing that does frustrate me on here is I get slated at times either way.

“Why are you running different setups”
“Why have you bought XYZ”

Well i bought XYZ to make the setups the same as eachother as people told me to.

“Why is he running Guides”….. “because he likes guides”
“But his new bike has Codes….”. “Ok, i’ll take them off and fit Guides”
“why are you always messing about swapping things”..

See… I get 1 person/group say 1 thing, then another group say the opposite… and people wonder why it’s complicated.
Thing is…. i base most decisions upon what he wants… I don’t care what bike he rides, what brakes he uses, what tyres, helmet, gloves, pedals… i simply don’t care… I just make it happen.

It was a joke, because you spend all your time fettling and now he’s on a racing Team he can have his own mechanic like the pros (😉). That way you can put your feet up and sleep.

We all know you love the fettling and fiddling with bikes. I think most of us like it as well. (Not cheapo BSOs though, they can go in the tip!!).

It was a joke

I assumed so, but sometimes i’m as rubbish interpreting things said as i am at saying the right things.

he can have his own mechanic like the pros

Yeah still me 🙂 i fixed Drews wheel at Bringewood the previous weekend.

That way you can put your feet up and sleep.

Sleep?? Sleep?? priorities all wrong there…

Ride, bacon, ride, cake, ride, more cake, ride, beer 😂 (maybe a spot of fettling 🤔)

Ride, bacon, ride, cake, ride, more cake, ride, beer

Sounds like a perfect day at Southern Enduro… Which funnily enough the entries for Milland open this Sat. Happily i’ve also talked my lads mates into racing too, so even though i’ll be the only grown up racing, it’ll be a hoot watching them all disappear in front of me.

All we’ve had for the last 3-4 days is “if i finish my schoolwork can i go out early”

He wants to do homework so can go and have fun. Awesome. Keep doing what you’re doing @weeksy and remember, at some point in the future, you will be asking for the ‘requisite’ board and lodgings payments – at which point all of this will be calculated into the equation 🤣🤣🤣 (oh and you need cake too so he needs to learn to bake, if hasn’t already)

Ive said enough. Really hope young weeksy has a great season.

32 pages since I last commented on this thread!

Dipping in though as I had a Ben Deakin YouTube video come up from his first race of the year at FOD, which I assume is what your lad did. (Mr Rooty was mentioned)

It sort of struck me that it was kind of “tame” for a DH course and Ben was riding an enduro bike with a single crown fork. Lots of pedalling and very slow sections. Are all the tracks going to be like that in the DH series your son races?

I did wonder therefore if there would be any merit in selling the two DH bikes and buying him a Privateer 141, exactly as he is getting as part of the deal. Pooling the monies from the two DH bikes you could have a no compromise 141 maybe, even avoiding the colour clashing on the current rig 😂😂😂. You could have one “tweaked” for DH, burly tyres etc, or even some DH wheels and tyres spare, but, essentially, he’d be riding the same bike whatever the discipline, and he’d get super familiar with it. That would also avoid the need for another NBD, if you thinking of getting him a full standby bike for enduro races?

I suppose my point is does weekly Jnr need a full on DH rig, or would a big enduro 141 suffice for everything he is lined up to enter? He’s a lithe looking lad so lighter and nimbler might be better, even on any big hits he probably won’t be blowing through the travel or needing triple clamp forks?

Hiya.

The courses are generally way more tech than Mr Rooty. He’s racing Fort William, Glencoe, Rheola etc this year.

DH is deffo correct for most races, but I’d agree not all of them.

However, persuading him of that on the less DH ones, well, it’s not easy. He loves the DH feel and getting him off it, well that’s the challenge.

I’ve never ridden Ft William, so can’t comment on how gnarly it is. But this lad seems to do ok on an enduro bike, on the WC course, whoever he is!

You never know, when the 141 arrives he might fall in love with that and it becomes his go to bike. It was just a thought, with so much going on with kit, races, coaching and what not, having one bike might offer some consistency and familiarity when there is chaos* around him.

*in a good way

The DH bike is the right choice of bike for the tracks/races Weeksy mentions

@Weeksy – Well now he has a fancy enduro bike from his sponsors to motivate him to use that on the smaller tracks (where it would probably be of benefit). But I’d definitely be keeping the big bikes for the big tracks like you plan on doing.

Good luck,

PS – most of what I say is in jest if it sounds like it. I’m not one to really be mean to others. You’re doing a good job (even if you did seem a bit “crazy and pushy parent” right at the beginning) and it seems to have paid off. I can’t say much as my 4 year old son and daughter have Hope Academy bikes with hydraulic brakes 🤦🏼‍♂️

Some of the easier stuff like FOD mini DH and Flyup 417 would probably be faster on the Privateer. But the big stuff like Fort William / Rheoa you need to be on a DH bike if you want to be at the pointy end as you develop.

TBH i’m not sure how much it matters, it’s as much confidence in the bike you’re riding at the smaller races.

weeksy08s team-mate beat him and is a faster rider than he is, he was racing on his Enduro bike… Not because it’s faster on Mr Rooty, but because he’s having a minor crisis of confidence on the DH bike after some crashes. He’s also looking to focus more on Enduro this season than DH. So his Enduro bike is getting more bike time. The majority of the faster riders were on DH bikes, but again i think a lot of that is because that’s their preferred bike. Sometimes their only bike of course. Many can’t have £5000 of Bronson as well as a V10 sitting there. So you ride what you have.
I’m still fairly convinced that even at less gnarly races, he’ll mostly be on the DH bike… Right or wrong, doesn’t even come into it, it’s what he wants to ride.

Once again we get to the differing opinions.
“Just keep him on the same bike for a while he needs consistency”
“swap for some races to the Privateer”

We can’t do both… 😀

You see, there’s no simple answer here… apart from riding to have fun. Which is the main goal and target… anything else is a bonus.

We can’t do both… 😀

Adopt another son* and buy him 47** bikes too 😉

*this is not an application for the role, but if you’re offering bikes, beers, bacon and cake, you could change my mind 🤣
** some or all of that number may be made up 🤷‍♂️

You already know my thoughts on the bikes Weeksy because I’m an ex DHer but:

1. Imagine suggesting your son would be better off on an enduro bike because an adult professional can ride Fort Bill on an Enduro bike!

2. I think it’s superb you’ve got the spec matching on the dh bikes, nice to have same setups for the spare bike.

3. DH bikes are always more fun when they pint downhill, so if you’ve got one, and your track is going downhill you should be riding it because dual crown forks are better than single crown forks. Always. Even when they aren’t, they are.

I look forward to seeing him riding his enduro bike but I won’t care as much as when he rides the big bike 🙂

Thanks Gimp.

He’ll ride the heck out of it and have fun. But I’ll be astounded if it replaces the DH..

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CoKk3_yP2lE/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=

Report here on PB articles, gives an idea of the bikes and indeed the roots/crashes

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/race-report-100-mini-downhill-round-1-forest-of-dean.html

Report here on PB articles, gives an idea of the bikes and indeed the roots/crashes

It looks quite tough in spots and makes me wince in others haha looks like it was a good day regardless.

“…foot dabbed his way along to the next section of the trail, with increasingly louder swear words the further he went…”

Now that was hardly surprising given the image clearly shows a clem to TT interface 😱

The majority of the faster riders were on DH bikes, but again i think a lot of that is because that’s their preferred bike.

Were they? It looks like most of the fastest riders were on trail & enduro bikes?

1. Imagine suggesting your son would be better off on an enduro bike because an adult professional can ride Fort Bill on an Enduro bike!

Is it not about picking the right tool for the job? As above, there were faster riders who chose to ride their trail bikes over their DH bikes because they are faster. Yes, places like Fort William, which is just like hanging on to a jack hammer for 5 minutes, I would agree a DH bike will definitely make life easier, but on tamer venues, you pick the fastest option, surely? If you are not going to a race to go as fast as you possibly can, what is the point in going? 🤷‍♂️

As above, there were faster riders who chose to ride their trail bikes over their DH bikes because they are faster.

Were there ? Or were they on Enduro bikes because they don’t have/like another choice ? Unless we ask, we don’t know. The only one i 100% know was on his trail bike and owns a DH bike was his team-mate. He rode that because that’s what he’s riding at the moment due to confidence issues with the DH bike… So yes it was faster for him, but not necessarily because it’s faster

but on tamer venues, you pick the fastest option, surely? If you are not going to a race to go as fast as you possibly can, what is the point in going?

You’re not seeing the world from a kids perspective… 🙂

Beside that, we don’t currently have a ‘faster’ option 🙂 He’s only got the DH bike.. So whether an Enduro could or would be faster doesn’t even come into it.

Persuading him to test/time it even when it does arrive is another story. His feeling is, he can brake later, corner harder, go better on his DH bikes… Until he actually risks it (when it’s here) we won’t even know. He is 100% convinced the DH bike is the fastest choice for him, irrespective of terrain/course. Even his local XC/normal rides, are done on the DH bike. It’s like these fellas you see driving their Caterham to Tescos… It’s not the best for the job, but it’s what they want to do.

FWIW, i agree with you, many times i’ve tried to persuade him at 417 to race the Trek i had, with 29er wheels and faster geometry… but he doesn’t agree with me. I can bitch, whine and moan all day that he’s wrong… but that’s not what the day/riding is about. It’s about enjoying it, riding well, having fun, being with mates. Irrespective of the fact we both want to finish high up, killing the enjoyment wouldn’t help with that.

I noticed in the piece of bits the previous owner gave me it had a various number of sprocket choices, but i do wonder what bigger or smaller would actually bring to the party… Why would i fit and run a bigger/smaller idler gear ?

Well normally an idler wheel is used to keep the chain in line with the pivot point, swapping to a larger or smaller idler cog will move the chain higher or lower affecting anti-squat and pedal kickback – it’s a trade-off between the two depending on what you want out of the bike.

From the parent of an aspiring Olympic athlete who competes on world level the best thing i ever did was take a step back and hand my kid over to people who live, breathe and understand what it takes to be better at the chosen sport. Your kid has a lot of opportunities with sponsors etc which will bring new pressures and tbh he is going to need other riders, coaches, friends to help him cope with disappointment’s. Trust me, i have made some huge mistakes from similar perspectives and trying to be too involved is the biggest.

This is very very good advice. Having done sport to a very high level myself, and now a son who is excelling in sport, I so want to be with him on every step of the journey, but I know its not good for him or myself so I have let go to an extent.

The best thing I can be for him is a Dad and not too deeply involved.

Now might not be the right time, and indeed in the MTB world there doesnt appear to be the same support structures as in other sports unfortunately so there may be no option, but at least have this in the back of your mind.

Doesn’t that depend on teh sport though ? I can’t just say “ok, see you” and expect him to get to Wales, ride the bike and come home…. I know that’s a slightly flippant answer, but there has to be a certain level of involvement ?

I sat down with him last night and discussed all aspects of the above earlier posts, either he’s great at lying, or he’s happy.

but I know its not good for him or myself

Why ?

but I know its not good for him or myself

From my perspective its the better they get the more responsibility they have. The stakes are higher and for all involved it becomes a professional relationship. Most of the time its fine but there are times where it will be a difficult working relationship.

You need to be able to maintain that Dad-Son relationship and that can be hard if you are too involved.

I ferry my son all over the country. I have now learnt my role is to be there as a Dad support him when its going well, console him when its going bad, just give him a hug etc. A pastoral kind of role. If you are too involved it blurs those lines for him.

I agree completely with what you say about mtb, there isnt the same support structure, but if he continues to get better I am just pointing out where I have learned from my own past experiences, and it was very interesting to see some one else with the same perspective too.

I love this thread, I love to see the bond you have with your son, and how together you are both progressing through his journey, its just a heads up for potential things to come.

I’m listening mate… honestly… I love getting persepctives and thoughts, whether i’m 100% onboard with them or not isn’t the point, you fellas have done this stuff before, both in terms of MTBing and in terms of children, so it’s always great to hear thoughts.
I’ll admit, sometimes i think “Nah, that’s not….” but then sometimes i come back to certain aspects and think “well, hmmm, maybe….” so it’s all cracking insight.

Some of the lines are blurred at times, like the “ride the trail bike”, because of the kid factor… it’s like telling them to eat sprouts, they’re good…. but the kids just want cake…. Sure we don’t always give them cake… 🙂
I will be pushing the lad to ride the Privateer 141 when it’s here and we’ll also be testing it for speed/trails to see how it’s times compare, i’m not even slightly against him riding it… In the same way, part of me would prefer he races Enduro rather than DH, partly because that means i can ride/race too. (But then that goes against the ‘getting involved’ thing) but it’s also fabulous bonding time together.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2mcoYSf]2021-07-21_09-47-35[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

The above pic shows one of my/our best days. Dangerbrain was there too from this here place. But it was just a fantastic weekend of beer, ice-cream, food, riding, trails, danger and laughs… I’ll admit, he doesn’t see it quite as fondly as i do 🙂 but he wasn’t a pedal monster and it was a fair bit of climbing 🙂 But i’m pretty sure the whole weekend was right up there for him.

Were there ? Or were they on Enduro bikes because they don’t have/like another choice

The two fastest times of the day were DH riders on their trail bikes…

I have previously stated that I think you should have gone down the route of buying a good enduro bike rather than the lower end DH and trail that you previously were. You say he loves the DH bike over your trail bike, but is that because it’s a better and ‘cooler’ bike?

Now you’ve got the good DH bike then it makes sense to run with it, especially knowing there’s a new trail bike incoming.

The two fastest times of the day were DH riders on their trail bikes…

LEts be fair here, they’re not exactly slow on anything 🙂

In the 15-16, 11 out of the first 13 were on DH bikes (from browsing the pics) 9th was his team-mate.
Maybe that says a lot about the mindset of the age-group, maybe it says something about their abilities… I don’t know. But it’s not quite cut and dried that Trail bikes are/were faster… Sometimes the rider makes all the difference… as is the case with the WC racer who won the fastest time of the day lol

Hey weeksy. You had a chat with your lad. At the very least he knows that you are conscious of it and the door is open if he did get any of those feelings in the future. That for me is healthy.

Life isnt alsways black and white and the lessons we have learnt may never effect you and your lad. As i mentioned yesterday in our messages, there are things that crop up in whatever particular sport that we, as mere mortals, cant really get our heads around and its healthy for them to have people other than their dad who can guide them.

Sorry if i came across negative, it wasnt meant that way and i apologise if i was a little blunt. I am on team weeksy.

No need for apologies at all fella… it’s all good debate about MTB/people/riding/racing…

We as a forum don’t always have to agree on the in-out of a particular subject, as long as we can disagree in the right way, there’s no downside

Thought I’d mention this course to you as you mentioned your son might want a career in mountain biking even if it’s outside racing. There’s a course run in the Scottish borders called base.

https://www.borderscollege.ac.uk/base
https://www.dirtschool.co.uk/base/

The youngsters on that course are rapid. I see them out training and being coached round here in Innerleithen. It seems to prepare them for life outside of racing if they don’t quite make it.

It’s still early for you but maybe something for 2-3 years from now.

Oh we’ve had that chat more than once.

2 of his race mates are at interviews there in march so we’ll get lots of info.

But yes, great tip, thanks