Weeksy08 the ongoing racing trials and tribulations of a crazy teen

Well done.

https://www.instagram.com/jamesweeks08/reel/C-icW27MVt6/?igsh=YmRzZjhtNWhxNmpn

That’s it. Beer and pizza time here

Thought you would be at the after party

We were all fried after weekend and we’re staying in Morzine which is 1hr 20 away. So came home for beers and pizza

Cool video, you must be a very proud dad!

That’s awesome Weeksy!! Enjoy your beer, well earned!

That’s brilliant. You must be well chuffed

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxG4YgCQDa27F7lm2dv1J4TpOC9bzZ9ODW?si=toESO6Ujt-9g7mHy

Great bit of footage. Rides like a pro 😀

I’d say thanks and like a fair few posts, but cannot

We’ve had an interesting week up to now.

The boy has been riding with a bunch of mates (well they are now) including 2 junior WC racers. It’s been an absolute blast it seems.

We had another shock bushings issue which is really irritating me now, so I’ve been chatting with Ruth at TFTUNED on thoughts, we’ve got a few things to try when back. But chatting to others in paddock, this isn’t uncommon on Sessions

So what we’ve done for now is fit what was at the time a brand new shock, it was taken off a new 24, it has a completely different mount with a big housing and bearing top end. It’s been golden for 3 days now

We’ve had some loose spokes but nothing major and a few sets of brake pads. New ones in tonight for tomorrows last riding day.

I’ve been nursing a sore hand which I actually thought I’d broken when trying to walk home from Rhodos bar on Monday night. A little bit intoxicated I admit. But it’s been sorta ok for riding and with painkillers I’ve managed well enough.

We’ve had meals Sat next to Pros, we’ve had broken bones and plaster for mates, broken bikes, but it’s been pretty much epic here.

Looks like your all having a fun time

Has he convinced you to let him stay for the rest of the Summer yet

Has he convinced you to let him stay for the rest of the Summer yet

I don’t need convincing, I’m up for it. But realistically it doesn’t work at the moment

Well we finally made it home from what was the best holiday ever. Holiday in a very loose term of course.

The first few days was stressful beyond words, especially after walking the track which really didn’t help. But the actual race weekend went smoothly in truth. There was only the shock bushings that was an issue. (And not brining enough footwear for myself)

The riding was a bit meh for me at times, the tracks are just not that brilliant at my level of skill, but honestly we have some excellent riding, I’m not good enough to hit the blacks (mostly, I did a few though) and the rest are pretty battered. But things like Serpentine were just ace fun. Ace was the bottom of Pleny Black.

So it’s time to completely pull the Session apart as I’ve still got a few days off work yet as the boy has coaching with Katy this week. All bearings will need checking, brakes sorting and deffo some spoke tension sorting.

The lad formed some excellent friendships and even a bit of love interest lol. It deffo seems to have ticked all the boxes we’d hoped.

We’re all a bit fried now, so really looking forward to getting the tools out and playing with all the bikes and fettling them.

We had another shock bushings issue which is really irritating me now, so I’ve been chatting with Ruth at TFTUNED on thoughts, we’ve got a few things to try when back. But chatting to others in paddock, this isn’t uncommon on Sessions

So what we’ve done for now is fit what was at the time a brand new shock, it was taken off a new 24, it has a completely different mount with a big housing and bearing top end. It’s been golden for 3 days now

Chewing through shock bushings?

Loading them up on one side?

Or just going slack ?

Run one of these on my kenevo Sl (geometron is sphericals both ends) to protect the shock from side loading.

https://dhsign.it/en/14-fixshox-classic

Just going slack and a tiny bit of wiggle/play.

Apparently it’s a ‘thing’ on these.

The 24 uses a bearing mount top which we’ve now got fitted, but his 23 shock is more adjustable and setup so we’d ideally like to run that.

We have a couple of options with TFTUNED on this, chatting to Ruth they can check the eyelet size and make a 30mm spacer of a fractionally bigger diameter to compensate for it.

Or there’s

https://www.tftuned.com/fox-shock-mounting-hardware-bearing-roller-full-complement-8x30mm/p3730

Which could replace top mount with bearing mount, again this would help/solve (hopefully)

Short term, he’ll run the 24 shock which after 4 days hammering was still sweet.

We’ve had times where the bushing lasts a month or two, but Sunday of race day it lasted 24 hours lol. Chatting to others in various paddocks it’s a fairly common thing, which I think is why they fitted the bearing shock in the 24 models.

The boy is still sleeping so I’ve been sorting the Status 160 this morning and waiting for him to get up and fed and we’ll start on his Session. It was checked every day sk I don’t think there’ll be anything to fix, but I’d like to go through all the bearings and see how his pads are etc.

The rotation on that top shock eye is pretty big and the forces its dealing with are high. Is the hardware wearing as well, or just the bushing?

That’s the $64,000 question. To me one of the spacers I removed looks pretty polished, so I’m guessing that’s a bit worn.

I replaced that with a new spacer and bushing, but like I say it developed play in 24 hours. So maybe a fractionally bigger spacer would be the answer.

I’m not massively concerned as it’s a quick fix, but obviously I’d prefer months rather than hours between swaps

Stripping and sorting the Session today, it all started well, but then 2 upper pivot bearings were running very slow, so they were replaced.

Next he complained he’d dropped the chain, I checked the idler wheel, oh jeezy that’s very dead, the teeth are barely present lol. The joy of having an idler you can’t see well.

The Argotal he had on the back is completely dead, the knobbles are all falling off, so that’s been replaced.

Forks, triples, headset etc all checked, cleaned, greased as well as all pivots and bearings.

He’s hammered this thing for sure.

So it’s ready to roll again and some bits ordered up.

Shock is booked in with TFTUNED next Tues so need to get that shipped out.

Hope he got up and helped out.

Hope he got up and helped out.

Sure did. I think he’s starting to grasp that things need doing often when they’re riding as they do, hence having a few minor niggles in Morzine so he now knows he needs to learn stuff

I’m running one of those Fox bearing mounts (not on a Session), they work well and are much better than bushings IMO and easier to fit

That’s the $64,000 question. To me one of the spacers I removed looks pretty polished, so I’m guessing that’s a bit worn.

I replaced that with a new spacer and bushing, but like I say it developed play in 24 hours. So maybe a fractionally bigger spacer would be the answer.

I’m not massively concerned as it’s a quick fix, but obviously I’d prefer months rather than hours between swaps

Had a brass shaft and polymer bushing in my KSL, and that had done 300hrs, granted the rotation is lower.

Careful with that fox bearing mount, its a pain in the ass to pull the bearings and also remove it altogether (you need a special tool)

Careful with that fox bearing mount, its a pain in the ass to pull the bearings and also remove it altogether (you need a special tool

I’ll be waiting on TFT to get their views on the way forward. Worst case, we keep this as a spare and use the 24. But I dunno yet, we’ll see what comes

I think I had that Fox retro fit bearing mount on a previous shock. The coil spring wouldn’t fit over the mount maybe – so you had to remove it to change spring rate. But I didn’t have any special tools – other than a cheapie bushing fitting tool from offset bushings and some other bits and bobs. Worked out a way to get the bearings and cups out.

My coil fitted over the mount but it’s a Rockshox shock and I think their coil springs are a few mm wider than others.

This gives a good idea of what they were up to after racing.

Sacha is a junior WC racer and they’re now good mates, along with her brother. The other 2 are lads we’ve known from the paddock for a few years now

Looks/sounds like it was a great trip for all! Amazing to see the progression the lad has made since you first started this thread. Go Team Weeks! 🙂

Yesterday he was out coaching for 4 hours with Katy. They were messing about on GBU at the end of each fast run on a race track and one of them he was pulling whips and lost a pedal/foot….

Weeksy, you got yourself a cameo on the Making Up The Numbers vlog from Euro champs (around the 33 min’ mark)

https://youtu.be/hoEFTR-SNok?si=81HkMmm8niHoQKGa

Mmmm so I was told earlier today yes. I know I was chatting to George but had no idea it was being recorded or even what I said. I was so drained at the time from watching the race I honestly have no clue.

I’ll have a listen later, cheers for pointing it out.

It’s been kind of an irritating time at the moment. The hand from Morzine still isn’t 100% so i’ve basically been a van driver for the lad in the last week rather than a rider. He was at Rogate with mates on Sunday and then yesterday was Ponty with another mate. So he’s getting plenty of time in on the bike, he’s out on Weds with Katy and then we’re off racing again this weekend.

Which brings us nicely back onto the Trek Session.

If you recall we’ve been blowing through shock bushings in a fairly alarming rate at times. So the shock was sent off to the lovely people at TFTuned who’re supporting him and the team this year thanks to Ruth and Katy.

Just been chatting with the Tech Guy Mike about his shock and sadly it’s seen better days, the shock body is damaged and marked up a bit more than they’d usually be happy with. Sadly the part is due “next year” lol. So they don’t have a spare lying about either. It’ll get put back together and after a fair bit of discussion on options the shock will end up at the spare.

His current shock is off a 2024 Session from a mate which we bought as a spare.

https://northwestbicycle.com/cdn/shop/products/942777-01_1.jpg?v=1644677145

RockShox Super Deluxe R Eyelet Assembly Bearing Eyelet 11.4118.073.002

This shows the top mount, rather than the standard bushing/spacer. It’s thought of as being far more durable (especially with LLUMax bearings installed).

The standard shock is showing wear on the eyelet, so the recommendation from TFTuned is to keep the 23 shock as the spare and run the later 24 model as the everyday shock. Apart from the fact that we’ve used a little bit of ‘mmmmm’ and ‘hows’ that?’ to get it setup, there’s no real downside to this shock, but it does mean we may now have a bit of a play with this.  Of course TFTuned could dial that one in for us, but that means getting it out of the bike and off to them, which as we’ve got some racing coming up for a few weekends means we’ll just have to wing it for now.

The boy had his first go on Dirt Jumps. 

 

He got a DMR Sect last year but in truth it’s not been used more than 4 times at the local pump track. Katy had an idea to work on some jumping so he went and hit the DJ stuff with her.

 https://youtu.be/BpYJs1UbXIY?si=ngoYjHGb4yM03RB7

Can’t get the vid to embed.

So this weekend was Pearce at Bucknell, Shropshire.

As you may (or may not) know by now, Pearce is a well regarded series and a step to Nationals for many racers, often you get people like Ethan and Jordan rocking up to race as they did it when younger and like to show support still.

The boys best result came a few month ago at Bringewood with a P11 beating his target of Top15 at Pearce for the year. We’ve always enjoyed the Pearce due to their organisation etc and relaxed attitude in the paddocks. We know a lot of the racers there, some slow, some fast, National Champs etc…

Saturday was a 5.30am start and we’re getting up early and on our way, coffee and pain au chocolate and we’re good to drive. Sadly with the A417 closed for weekend we had a longer and more twisty route.

He gets to practice from 9.30am till 4.15 (followed by a track walk ) so can get plenty of runs in. A couple of changes to the track irritated him a little but he was happy enough apart from that. He was riding most of the day with his new race/Morzine buddies and really enjoying it.

We sat and watched the World Champs, had a chill and then back out again…

The day ended with a happy boy 🙂

As he went for track walk i got the fajjitas on and cooking.

When the world is like this, racing is a bloody wonderful place to be. Eventually after some (too many?) beers it was bed… I was in the van and didn’t sleep particularly well.

Sunday started overcast and low hanging clouds, but dry. After coffee, sausage baps and waking up slowly, the Session was prepped and he went out for practice, you get 2 hours or so on the Sunday. Weirdly after 3-4 runs he came in saying he wasn’t massively feeling the track compared to yesterday. But that doesn’t change anything, he’s still got to get on and race it 🙂

He came down 3rd last off due to championship position of 3rd (currently anyway) and looked pretty smooth and fast in the run in… Going into P3. Sadly he dropped 2 places as the 2 ahead of him in the championship are obviously damn fast lol. So ended the day in P5 after run 1. Awesome and epic.

(there’ll be better pics/vids i promise)

He was happy, i was happy and his riding mate was ecstatic as he was P3 !!! HIs first time potentially on the podium

As we’re waiting for race 2 the drops started from the sky, then more, then more. As it got more we decided to fit a more rain based tyre, which i don’t think massively made any difference but the feeling was that in the grassy field it may offer more grip.

Essentially speaking no-one (of note) went quicker on run 2 than on run 1 so he finished the day in P5. He was 4s slower on run 2, which considering the wet, we’ll take that 🙂

A very happy day for us all

The boy with his riding mate and rival. Just thought it was a cool pic as they’ve been riding a lot lately

Onto the weekend and it’s a bit of a play race for the boy. MIJ at the Forest of Dean, which is this week on Sheepskull, it’s a track he knows pretty well and has raced (and won) on before. We’ve got some testing to do on the rear shock as we’re throwing on the earlier standard shock for the weekend so i can see a bit of a comparison between both setups. We’ve also got some tyre testing to do but that’s slightly dependant upon the weather in terms of Argotal/Kryptotal testing.

I think we also need to start upping his pressures on the tyres a little. At the weekend he was running 18F 20R and when doing the Ski Jump you can see the tyres are basically flat on compression, so thinking maybe we need to throw a couple more in there in line with 21F 23R that we normally run at places like Dyfi and Fort William.

Now is a good time to be testing these sorts of things out, so we’ll be giving it a little bit of a testing over Sat and Sun.