The journey from small guy to teenager...

[Crosshair]

Good luck team Weeksy

[weeksy]

2021-09-12_09-30-16 by Steve Weeks - Flickr2BBcode LITE

He's out but after run 1 isn't exactly flowing with confidence.

Practice run 1 is done.

Race run 1 is 12:01

[weeksy]

Run 2 done. Course like talcum powder everywhere.

Run 2 seems better in his head and he looked good out there compared to run1.

[weeksy]

Race run 1 completed. Both riders down to the bottom without issue.

[weeksy]

Race 2 didn't quite work, he got tangled up with tape/pole and lost a bit of time, despite feeling he did better on the rest of it, he didn't improve his time.

However, talking to the Marshall who watched him this morning in practice and was chatting to him was interesting as he said on run 1 the boy stopped at the top of the section he crashed on and looked super nervous, they chatted and the Marshall was 100% sure my lad was going to bail and fire road it down. The suddenly he says "ok, let's go" and went flying down.

To then do 2 race runs was awesome from him.

We're back home now and he's properly delicate and can barely move, so I'm proper proud of him for taking the pain and putting it in.

We're both a little surprised at the pace of his opponents, but it's why we went racing and why we've got the next 4 weekends racing.

[weeksy]

The terrain was tough on the bike actually. His rear caliper mount bolt came loose and have him a squeal at the end of practice. Along with his main pivot bolt being slightly loose.

Talking to parents was awesome, so so friendly and helpful, honestly stunned with how nice they were. But also eyes opened with some of them, glentress, inners, South Wales, the Hamsterley in 4 consecutive weekends. Another had 26 out of the next 52 weekends booked away as they race 4X too.
Financially, emotionally and in terms of a family, that's not a road we're prepared to go down.

We also had a chat about him feeling bad as I wasn't able to race this weekend, which I think will lead us into Enduro more than DH after this year I think. We both love spending time together and riding.

There was also the "if you don't wanna race, that's cool, we'll just go playing" which I thought I ought to mention.

The last thing coming up is bike debates, with the 2105/16 SWorks coming to an end in terms of sizing for him, it's something we need to consider for next year too, DH or 170mm enduro as the options for example. But that's a whole other thread sometime.

Overall though we both had a fab weekend away and dont regret a second of it. Lessons learned for both me, him and out riding mate/parent.

[Taff]

Nice write up, pass on our congratulations.

It's tough, really tough and 99% of kids couldn't even get down that hill so for him to achieve what he has this weekend is amazing

[weeksy]

Thanks mate.

We're over your way next weekend

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/event ... OM-AT-LAST

I assume we'll be coming to practice on Sat if you wanna play ?

[millemille]

Fair fucks to the young feller for getting back on riding and racing the course after a crash that big, he's obviously got some minerals about him....

[Couchy]

Fair fucks to the young feller for getting back on riding and racing the course after a crash that big, he's obviously got some minerals about him....

Takes after his mum she’s brave

But yeah as per my message earlier well done James

[Taff]

Fair fucks to the young feller for getting back on riding and racing the course after a crash that big, he's obviously got some minerals about him....

It's fair to say he's pretty experienced at crashing and getting back up and on with it

Thanks mate.

We're over your way next weekend

https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/event ... OM-AT-LAST

I assume we'll be coming to practice on Sat if you wanna play ?

We're away in Somerset next weekend at our last agility show off the year

[weeksy]

One minor thing we picked up on, the boy is riding his bars with a load sticking out the sides.

https://www.rootsandrain.com/photos/6299370

bars by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

We've also discussed it before but never changed anything, however this time, looking at his pics i have a spare set of bars in the box that are about the right length. He's running 780s currently and they're closer to 720mm (with the extra length of grips) so i think we'll give it a try for today/this week depending on when he can try them and ride.

He's up and about today, but only just... so maybe today won't be the plan lol.

I've got an hour after meetings with the bike today, cleaning sorting, checking stuff like pads, wheels, nuts and bolts etc... make sure it's all good for weekend.

You never know, i may even get to see my own bike again one day.

[weeksy]

Nice write up, pass on our congratulations.

It's tough, really tough and 99% of kids couldn't even get down that hill

It was funny at one stage, me and Dan asked the boys. "Would we be able to get down it"

They laughed....actually laughed at us... "No, you'd only get down in an ambulance"

I don't doubt them for a second lol.

[millemille]

One minor thing we picked up on, the boy is riding his bars with a load sticking out the sides.

https://www.rootsandrain.com/photos/6299370

bars by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

We've also discussed it before but never changed anything, however this time, looking at his pics i have a spare set of bars in the box that are about the right length. He's running 780s currently and they're closer to 720mm (with the extra length of grips) so i think we'll give it a try for today/this week depending on when he can try them and ride.

He's up and about today, but only just... so maybe today won't be the plan lol.

I've got an hour after meetings with the bike today, cleaning sorting, checking stuff like pads, wheels, nuts and bolts etc... make sure it's all good for weekend.

You never know, i may even get to see my own bike again one day.

Is his hand position on the bars being driven by the brake lever position? it looks, from the photo at least, as though he's got his hands inboard from the end of the bars because he's having to in order to pull the levers. Maybe try moving the levers outboard a bit more?

Narrower bars obviously reduce leverage and it'll take more effort both to turn the bars and to resist the bars being turned and with him being a young lad anything that requires extra upper body strength is going to make it harder.

[weeksy]

Is his hand position on the bars being driven by the brake lever position? it looks, from the photo at least, as though he's got his hands inboard from the end of the bars because he's having to in order to pull the levers. Maybe try moving the levers outboard a bit more?

It's a very good point mate and something we're also considering yes... We've run them 3-4cm in from the grips to give the best leverage on the brakes, same as most people do but as you say, that encourages people to ride with their hands 'inside', which is also accentuated by the fact he's got smallish hands, both in terms of how it looks and how it feels for him. It is a little tricky with the small creatures to get things 'right', i feel that's also his fault as the bugger is rubbish at feedback with me and "feels exactly the same" is his favourite saying.

The only way to find out is to experiment with both bar length and as you say, lever position. What i've done for now is fit narrower bars and positioned the levers very close to the grips. So they're at the maximum they can't be for the length of bars.

I've also ordered a new stem in the same length as his current one. 40mm. Reason is, i've got a 3rd set of bars, Renthal Fatbars which are roughly the same rise as his usual bars, but are on a 35mm stem diameter. So in order to test and cut down one set of 'other' bars, i need a stem to test fit. The Renthals are at 800mm in length, which we won't be running, but it then gives me the option to either cut down his usual bars he had on this weekend, or cut down the Renthals. As the Renthals are a pretty expensive set of bars, i'd rather not trim them until we have an idea whether we'll go shorter or not... i don't mind trimming, but obviously it's a one-way job, we can't go back once we've trimmer.

[weeksy]

randr-photo-6297160-5568px by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[weeksy]

i wasn't going to post this, but i'm sure he won't mind...

2021-09-13_10-43-41 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

just gives an indication of the pain he must have been in yesterday to race... tough little bugger.

I really thought he wasn't going to race a few times.. he seemed properly worried about the section he binned it on. "shut up and get on with it you pussy" seemed to sort him out though

[MingtheMerciless]

"shut up and get on with it you pussy"

Moto-X Dad!

[weeksy]

New rubber for the weekend.

[Taff]

Dude, for context here's a screenshot. I'll be amazed If this kid doesn't race at world level.
Remember that Billy is racing nearly every weekend, 4x, BMX & DH