We’re off to Pontypool/Tirpentwys and Dyfi this weekend. We’re doing the family thing on Fri and Sat, so a little quiet, but i’ll be out on the bike Fri and then at Dyfi on Mon. I’m hoping to get a few runs in at Ponty on Sunday as i’m dialling in the Status with Shockwiz. But depends on whether my other driver is there and has space in his van to uplift me and the boy, if he’s got a bunch of teens then i don’t see me getting a ride in.

As always, the weather at Dyfi is looking a bit wet LOL. But it’s something we do and just get on with :D

The pedals are staying on so he’ll be running the DMR V-Twin pedals for racing this season for sure. He’s bonding well with them and more than happy, so will be sticking with them.

I hope you manage to get a ride in! I can’t wait for our next Dyfi outing…!

It’s looking somewhat wet, but Dyfi is about as good as the world gets when wet, so i’ll be out on the Status.

I’m not sure when we’re next ‘playing’ as it’s right into both race season and GCSE’s for him after this weekend. But i’ll post up when we find time

Well I’ve just been told off for my post from yesterday which was me/him posting about some merch that’d been sent by a sponsor or two.

So it seems that’s now not allowed, which IMO is bonkers as part of the story here is not only the riding but the fact that he’s picking up support from various companies with the riding.

But based upon that it now puts me in an incredibly tricky position with what I can or can’t post, the pics, the stories, the kit, support etc is all part and parcel of the thread.

I give up

******end of thread flounce ******

To be fair you’ve had numerous warnings about doing just that and continued. Even creating separate threads about them. Use your own social media pages for that.

@weeksy I suppose the contradictions about the just giving page for cash Vs new ebike are chucked in also. With the internet is sometimes best to filter your posting to match the audience/rules etc 🤷🏻

Pics and vids of riding, his coaching sessions, race results, tech help etc are all good 👍🏻😊

While I thought the just giving was a bit questionable, I struggle to see the difference between anyone mentioning that Hart is sponsored by Conti  GT or Athertons own a bike company or anything else.

Let’s try celebrating a bit of success round here for a change, and giving us the opportunity to support a company who supports one of our own (Weeksy being the one who pays the bills)

‘I struggle to see the difference between anyone mentioning that Hart is sponsored by Conti GT or Athertons own a bike company or anything else.’

That’s not the actual riders/representatives themselves coming on to the forum to advertise though.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5QHQfRsUFR/?igsh=aXpoeGV5cmZ0NDE2

So today was practice and Rheola didn’t disappoint again.

IMG_20240406_140831 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

IMG_20240406_140836 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

Once again it was very very messy. Mud a plenty.

Happily, the boy came down and was telling me he loved the track and how awesome it was.

He knocked out 7 runs of practice with his mates and came back smiling every time.

It was even commented upon by a few of his riding race peers that they were shocked by how much he’s improved! We’ll take that for a compliment.

Back in our accommodation now for a beer and a well deserved chill before heading for an Indian and I expect an early night.

Let’s see what insanity comes tomorrow

randr-photo-12643339-6000px-by-fstop-media by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

randr-photo-12643259-4000px-by-fstop-media by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

randr-photo-12639828-6000px-by-fstop-media by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

randr-photo-12640262-6000px-by-fstop-media by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

We’ll blow me! That’s a hell of a result, honestly. He’s beaten guys who creamed him many times. The lad in 4th was the Pearce overall champ last year and dominated it.

I’m not thinking he’s now going to beat these lads week in week out, but heck that’s bloody incredible and a proper list of proper racers in there.

There’s lots more coming in for the National this weekend, but wow, just

wow.

Top work the pair of you!

Great result for you both. Bet he’s stoked with that. 🔥🔥🔥

Kept checking on Roots and Rain but looks like they were having problems

Well done!

Nicely done!!! That’s a great reward for all the hard work, travel and spannering! Love following this story!

That’s fabulous.

HTF though is one lad nearly 10s ahead of the rest of the field!

If that is really George Chapman (bmx) in 3rd that’s a hell of a result. It’s his first mtb race ever on R&R, and he only turned 15 a couple of days ago. My son races him a lot on bmx. Looks like he should change discipline!

That’s a good result and on a pretty decent length track too by the look of it!

Great photos as well by the way.

Well, that’s Rheola done for the 2nd weekend and once again it was character building… in massive ways, both for me, him and in truth, most people :D

Fri started lovely, the weather was decent and we spent a couple of hours playing at Pontypool, just a bit of a warm up really, no reason other than “why not” and he was loving the bike. :D
Well, mostly… it had developed a creak…. which was then my job later on Friday to diagnose… That got interesting. I was stripping the bike down while he was out with Katy Curd on the track walk. I stripped pivots, linkages, everything, still got the noise…. WTF..
As i was putting the bike in the van, completely unweighted it creaked as i stopped… I ended up diagnosing it as a caliper bolt/caliper that was creaking.. Bit of a clean on the rear caliper/bolts and it was golden. The boy checked and confirmed. Awesome.

Sat brought… wet… rainy wet, again..
The bikes were coming back with their usual patina :D
IMG_20240413_130940 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

IMG_20240413_125559 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

But the boy was happy and seemed to be going well :)

The bike though, well that had developed a bit of play.. lol… yeah i know.. i know. We’re talking minimal things here but i do like/try and have it 100% each start of the day so back at the AirBNB and i’ve stripped the back end down again and replaced the pivot bearings which i think got damaged in the Friday repairs… but it still wasn’t 100%. So i thought it was the upper shock bearing, i removed shock and fitted a spare shock we have which is brand new. Perfect… Shock back out and top bushing replaced in the shock and off we went for Indian and a relax.

It’s hard to put into terms how much it takes out of both riders and crew at times, it’s full on for both sets, the rider because they’re doing all the work and the crew for standing round for 7hours, the pressure, intensity, etc… it’s just pretty tough. We were both in bed and asleep fairly handy. (Well he was asleep, i struggled with sleep for some reason, maybe because it was the first National? Dunno).

Sunday brought dry and cold… well, dry in the sky but just as wet on the track. It was absolutey carnage all day, bikes, humans, everyhwere.. delay after delay, run after run of reds… getting flow wasn’t happening. More delays, more ambulances… etc. Reports in the pits of rider XYZ having done this and that, broken this, broken that…. Jeeez.

Seeding/Qualifying was massively delayed, like 2.5 hours ish. He then didn’t come down at his allocated time… Oh… As a parent when the clock hits about 5 mins, your heart sinks a little.. You know how good/bad your rider is and you have a time in mind that even if they had a small slip off, they’d still come down by… He ended up coming in after 7 mins something.. But he was down and apart from looking a bit muddy, was OK.
IMG-20240414-WA0002 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

IMG-20240414-WA0004 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

He’d come off in the same spot countless others had done and waited for a gap so he didn’t mess anyone up (mistake to do that really i guess) and came down. On the positives, he wasn’t hurt and on Split 1 he was 19th, with Split 2 showing as 13th..

The bike was cleaned, then cleaned again, then again, lol…. new kit fitted and more and more delays, more and more ambulances.

Timing showed he’d finished 51st in Seeding which is good and bad as it means he gets to come down early in terms of riders…

But sadly that’s where he finished… more and more delays meant the racing ended up being cancelled without anyone completing a run in any Cat. Results were taken from seeding times. So 51st.. bah. He’d been at the top of the hill for nearly 2 hours and eventually came down, but he was happy, he’d made a new friend up there chatting and had had a laugh :D
To put into perspective, his class started Sat morning with 72 riders… with 52 completing seeding..

From what i can see on the results, 110 riders were DNF or DNS for seeding… I mean WHAT !!!!! That’s bonkers.

https://www.rootsandrain.com/event12569/2024-apr-14-british-cycling-dh-national-series-1-rheola/results/

The day then went even more bonkers as the Transit wouldn’t start at the lights on the boot had been left on all day… But 30 mins later we got the bugger started lol… eventually rolling home late on Sunday evening.

It was… a weekend of… character building.

That is a great synopsis of why I have zero interest in ever doing a DH race in the UK again.

Also a great advert for picking a bike which doesn’t need endless maintenance.

@hobnob 😂😂😂 how to shoot a man down in 🔥 without looking like a knob

Oooft, tough weekend.

Fair play the effort you put in to supporting your son.

@hobnob 😂😂😂 how to shoot a man down in 🔥 without looking like a knob

I didn’t mean it to be an arse, more along the lines of all that money & effort for the same old issues that they had 10 years ago when I used to race the nationals. It’s such a sh*t weekend on the bike, literally hundreds of pounds to ride your bike for about 20 minutes if you are lucky 🤦‍♂️

The second part is more of a reflection on the bike industry & their inability to produce reliable products (apart from a handful of companies). I think if I had to fix a bike that much & replace bearings at that rate, I’d set fire to it in the garden.

After the weekend I dropped the bike at Rotec to get some TLC. None of the jobs were outside of my skillset but I trust him massively and he does an ace job.

The main reason I dropped it off was ‘time’ and faff. The gear outer is a pain to route on the chainstay.

So the list was as follows..

1. Mech hanger fitting/replacing (bent in final practice)

2. Chainstay bearings (greased in Fri afternoon but we’re past best)

3. SRAM RSC bit sticky on lever and RSC adjuster (been like that a while, needs rebuilding)

4. Gear outer replace, route internally at main triangle (squished by fork)

5. Reroute rear brake internally (to protect)

6. New 11sp chain. (4 months old, time to replace)

The shock and forks are off for rebuild and service soon, so want the bike 100% for Fort William in May.

He found a few other things too

I love that video. Brilliant UK racing.

Have to echo the above comment, the amount of workshop time for a 7k race bike is really staggering. Not sure it is a great advert for Trek. I appreciate it is ridden a lot in all weather’s but that’s the same for most regular riders and bikes. Most of my riding group dont race but ride in equal weather as regularly and will only get an annual service with half the issues that get posted here in a month.

That bike is getting significantly more hammer in the time than most normal bikes though I’d say. So whilst it’s a bit needier than some other DH bikes anecdotally – it’s still getting way more hammering than say my enduro bike.

Having seen the lad sessioning 50 shades at BPW; the speed he’s carrying and therefore the impacts the bike is getting is another level from most average riders.

Of course, he’s riding downhill, better than I or most can.

But it’s a downhill bike with downhill parts. A very pricey one at that. It’s not a 2010 marin quake or something similar bodged together, it’s a top end privateers favourite downhill bike. With some of the best parts money can buy for that purpose.

Not sure I’d agree Joe, I’m with suspended animation on this – the trek just seems to need a lot of tlc. Whether it’s because it’s not well thought out for UK I don’t know, but as rider in all uk conditions I never need to change as much

A lot of what Weeksy does is very much on the preventative maintenance side of things. E.g. a 4 month old chain on a DH bike that’s barely done any miles and the rider definitely isn’t putting down 1000watts when it is being pedalled. Along with bearings that weren’t tip top but weren’t wobbling or seized.

I’d imagine you could run the same bike with far less attention, but we all know that he loves spannering

That bike is getting significantly more hammer in the time than most normal bikes though I’d say. So whilst it’s a bit needier than some other DH bikes anecdotally – it’s still getting way more hammering than say my enduro bike.

Having seen the lad sessioning 50 shades at BPW; the speed he’s carrying and therefore the impacts the bike is getting is another level from most average riders.

I’ll also disagree with that. The amount of actual riding time a DH bike gets compared to others is minimal. If you got an hour in total in a day you are doing very well – I can do 3 times that on a Friday afternoon.

There are plenty of people on here riding just as hard/fast on bikes that probably see significantly more overall use which don’t need a fraction of the amount of maintenance this thing does.

Been quiet on thread lately, apologies.

We’ve been sticking in the usual insane amount of riding, playing and just having fun, along with some pre-race testing.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6LOuazMUqJ/?igsh=MTlnZjNlOGx0bXEyOA==

First up was Staunton, that was somewhat eyeopening for me in terms of tech/trails and i got lucky a couple of times. The boy was having a blast with Katy and working on a few things though, he came back laughing lots afterwards.

We then went up to Rhyd-Y-Felin for a Pearce uplift day which was awesome for all of us.Him for riding and playing with mates, me for catching up with and chatting to parents. It was a long day with 5am start and getting home at 8pm, but it was worth it.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6TcITss0F8/?igsh=MWx2d3VtbWVhdzZuNQ==

Dyfi this weekend coming on Monday for a last proper day out and then 11/12 of May is the first of the Pearce races, which is on the track he practiced. I’ve not entered myself for Dyfi as we’re trying not to go too nuts on spending as i’ve had to throw some money at the Transit to make sure it’s 100% for the upcoming trips to Scotland and Alps.

We found out he finished 3rd in the Stile Cop series, but we were not there for the final race as we were at a mates birthday, whoops. So we missed prizes and podiums, but it wasn’t really significant in the grand scheme so doesn’t much matter :)

https://www.instagram.com/stories/weeksy08/3358540533553302880?igsh=MXFnaXdlNW5yMGthZg==

Bit of fun for me and him up at pump track the other day, just messing about really. He carries so so much speed but what really impresses me is that he can switch between bikes so effortlessly, on the Dirt Jump, then the MTB etc….

Last weekend i had Mrs Weeksy spend some time with a scalpel and a new tool setup for this year.

IMG_20240421_111522 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

IMG_20240421_111509 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

IMG_20240428_090846 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

As a side note, we’ve been playing a lot of golf at the moment and is getitng there, his swing now looks half decent.. I used to teach/assitant-pro back in the day so i’ve been trying to guide him on technique etc.

Lastly, if people recall something from 6 months ago he was given a guitar from a member on here for cheap money and has been playing it a lot. Well, tonight is his first gig.  It’s only a school thing, like a battle of the bands type scenario, but he’s playing lead on Hotel California, Roxanne and a couple of other songs i think.

Awesome day at Dyfi. Some great camera work by me 😄 😄

The bike seems to be holding up lovely at the moment. I fixed a few bikes today with broken bits for randoms, along with a local Enduro ride while he was playing.

He did have a creak when pulling his rolling stoppies in the paddock, but happily that’s nothing more than his number board rubbing the top triple.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6of9TsspJu/?igsh=MWx1a21vZGN0eWIxOQ==

Here’s the weekend video instead of Insta, i know not everyone uses Insta.

The jump on the hip nearly never happend, i waited there for 45 mins standing precariously holding onto a tree, he decided to take other clips at the top instead.

He then somehow spots me on the hip waiting as he’s flying towards it and gets all steezy (his word not mine) and almost takes me out !!! lol… daft bugger.

we’re back to race weekend again, heading up Fri afternoon after his Biology exam (Yes he’s leaving school this week !!!!) and kipping over both Fri night and Sat night. I’ll be in the tent again this season and as with last year he’s kipping in the van. I expect it’ll rain, it always does
BBQ and maybe even a test of some pizza on the BBQ to change things about a little bit.

Race is at Rhyd-Y- Felin which is sort of west ish of Oswestry. It’s a track the lad knows fairly well and mostly kinda likes it, although he has been a bit crashy there in the past, his massive over-the-bars and flying through the air crashes were both there, funnily enough at the exact same place on track both times … Hopefully he’s got that sorted now

Practice all day Sat and 2 race runs on Sunday, both counting for the series prizes but only the fastest counting in British Cycling terms.

playing lead on Hotel California, Roxanne

Christ! Poor kids having to play the old crap their grandparents were into! Equivalent of us playing Gracie Fields songs when we were in bands! 😂

Well as always this won’t be the shortest one. Fri brought traffic, driving and eventually getting to track to set-up. We parked in the same place as the previous year and tried to save space for our mates, which worked out nicely and we had plenty of space and friends around us. I sent the boy out on track walk while i set up the pit and got some food on the go.
IMG_20240511_183737 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

Sat morning/daytime was practice and he spent the day with his mates riding, going crazy and having fun. The bike was running sweetly and he was happy with everything. The evening almost turned things sour as they were all playing on little bikes made for 5 year olds and doing ramp jumps, just about every rider came away with some bruising or cuts. But they were having a laugh and being kids for once at a race meeting. It was SO nice having a few beers, catching up with people and just seeing everyone enjoying it. The weather held and it was honestly just a brilliant evening.
I’d spent part of the day rebuilding a Hope Pro4 wheel for one of our paddock mate, re-taping it as it was losing pressure and sorting a few other bikes out too. The gazebo was so hot, but i was rewarded with a beer every now and again, so it’s always nice.

Sunday was of course race day and it was time to play. The lad did 2 runs of practice and i then spent the next 2 hours sorting out a complete new drivetrain on a Specialized Demo which had ripped everything apart. It was cause IMO by a Chainguide that was fitted poorly, once that was realigned and a new mech, chain etc fitted it wasn’t too bad, i sent that lad back out to play.
IMG_20240512_075718 by Steve Weeks[/url], on Flickr

Race run 1 i still get a little nervous as the boy has crashed a few times at Rhyd-Y-Felin near the finish area. He was the 4th rider down the hill and came in with what looked a decent time, but as the field came down he was always going to drop a fair few places of course. His run was a little scrappy he tells me but not a bad run all in all.
Last year his best result at Pearce was 22nd, yesterday on run 1 he stuck it in 11th.

Run 2 we changed a couple of little things, sent him out and thought we’d see what he could do, he felt he had something left to pick up some places potentially but you just never know what can happen. The weather was getting a bit dodgy, rain and thunder/lightening forecast and the sky was darkening.
A couple of small delays due to crashes but eventually he came down and his time was 0.008 different than run 1. He ended the day in 11th place.
I’ll be honest and say it was slightly bitter sweet as pre-season he planned and set out “Finish top 15 at Pearce” which he had of course managed. However as we got closer to the race he’d targeted a Top10, so slightly unfortunate there
https://www.rootsandrain.com/event12601/2024-may-12-pearce-cycles-dh-1-rhyd-y-felin/results/#h-15-16m

Happily though race run 2 was 8th quickest of run 2s, so that’ll give him a little something. But he was really happy with 11th, it’s a damn fine performance and even though the gap to some of the guys ahead is fairly substantial, it’s not the end of the world. Of course Felix is a mile away, but that lad is a World Cup podium in waiting, so you know what, we accept some are just quicker.

To top the day off, his teammate Katie managed to get the win in the girls Cat, which was honestly brilliant for her and completed the day nicely.

The rain and lightening then came and the day was canned mid-way though some of the other Cats, but apart from getting slightly damp putting stuff away, it didn’t affect our day.

Eventually we made it home at 9.30pm and after unloading, a shower, it was basically straight to bed… It’s sooooooo hard both as a parent and as a racer, the weekends are just LONG !!!

He’s back to GCSEs this morning, with English Lit as the days exam, he spent 2-3 hours on the way home revising yesterday and some of Friday, so hopefully he’ll get on OK with it

Nice to hear you both had a good weekend. 👍