The journey from small guy to teenager...

[millemille]

Him.

Practicing manuals on rollers, looped it. Game over.

There's pics but we dont need then.

Game over

Genuinely sorry to hear that, hope he's not suffering too much?

[weeksy]

He's in pain but essentially ok. Thanks for the kind words

[MingtheMerciless]

Oh dear, hope he heals soon. Try not to make him laugh or sneeze.............

[Tricky]

Oww!- I feel for him, hopefully he had no other injuries
I'm still suffering with mine from Pembrey- I wasn't sure at the time but turned out that I broke no 4 & 5 on the LHS, one of them in two places and TBH it has got beyond tedious- I thought I'd be sorted by now but is still waking me up at night and I dread sneezing!

Anyway, James has a few years on me so hopefully he'll heal quicker- GWS fast boy!

[millemille]

If it's any consolation BITD I once drove all the way from Birmingham to somewhere in Northumberland to race a NEMBA DH race (the series that Steve Peat first raced in on his hard tail kona and blitzed everyone). Slept in the car, up bright and early, one of the very first people on the course when it opened for practise, managed half a dozen pedal strokes, clipped a tree, broke a finger...

A very long and painful drive back home with the top of my index finger sticking out an angle that made me feel sick every time I looked at it.

By the time i got back to Birmingham and to A&E it was too late and it couldn't be reset straight and it's still twisted to this day...

[Taff]

Oh dear God, boy needs more lessons in self preservation.

Gws Ickle man

[weeksy]

Oh dear God, boy needs more lessons in self preservation.

Gws Ickle man

I think he was showing off a bit. They're doing this thing where they manual between doubles and then carry it as far as possible. It's great to see, but clearly he got it wrong and straight off the back of bike and into his back.

He was only supposed to be testing his bar setup, so wasn't wearing armour. But in honesty for messing in local woods, he generally doesn't.

Rubbish timing though and not only screws up this weekend but next weekends enduro race
Not sure I can go racing if he's laid up.

[millemille]

How's the patient today?

[weeksy]

How's the patient today?

Sore. But wants to race.

I told him to do a star jump. He sort of did but pulled a face like he's eating a lemon.

[millemille]

Sure you know the biggest risk with broken ribs is displacement of the broken ends and damage to internal organs, particularly the old lungs...

[weeksy]

I honestly don't think they're broken. Bashed, bruised, very possible, broken, hmmmm I'd say no.

With Covid stuff, getting a weekend x-ray isn't quite so simple.

[weeksy]

Well he's come to terms with the fact he's not coming tomorrow. He was better ish earlier and rode in the close to test. But he's in bits tonight now and can barely move.

So he's off to bed to sleep with some medication in him and a bit of a sad face

[weeksy]

He listened to wisdom and instead of driving to FoD he's tucked up at home chilling.

Will we make Milland, I honestly don't know.

[MingtheMerciless]

Keep going with the star jump "test", heal properly weeksyminimus.

[millemille]

How's Weeksy junior doing?

[weeksy]

Race day. Milland. Southern Enduro series.

I'll let you know after practice lol

[weeksy]

Coaching day tomorrow for the lad

https://wyemtb.co.uk/wye-course/downhil ... ent-camps/

This one is a DH development course, run by Wyemtb. Curious to see how it goes.

After that, we're straight into race 1 next weekend.

[weeksy]

Onto this weekend it’s race time at Berwyn.

The boy managed to ride last night on the new bike for the first time and is trying to get used to the new riding style/position. One thing he did notice was tyre stiffness, noting the Schwalbe Magic Mary Bikepark version seem very harsh. So i’m thinking of going back to the Shorty/DHF combo he’s more used to. Just to try and keep things as simple and samey as possible really for him.

I’m sure the Schwalbe Magic Mary Bikepark are a great tyre in their own right.. but just makes sense to me really. They review really well, but heavy and stiff are 2 criticisms.

Suspension feel plush though, feels great if a little ‘dead’ feeling on the rear, but i get the impression that it’s always going to feel less poppy and that’s a good thing.

Headset was a bit clicky/creaky, wasn’t sure at first if it was a fork internals thing, but happily a clean of the upper, lower and a decent bit of grease and it’s quiet again.

Saturday for practice runs and then onto race day on Sunday… he seems excited.

[weeksy]

Top weekend of fun. With beers, merryment, new bike test and racing.

The boy did great and had an absolute blast out there on the new bike. He loves it and thinks it's the best thing he's ever sat on.

Course was tricky, i rode most of it on Sat in practice, it was rooty, techy, droppy and jumpy in the woods. Fast and swtichy on the top end, then an off camber finish. Lots of crashes, but nothing major we saw which was good. The boys in our gang all fell off once each.

Race day the boy was happy. He was up against a fair few of the boys he races regularly now. Including his mate from school Ollie. In 5 races he's never beaten Ollie, but they usually finish right next to eachother in results and usually less than a couple of seconds between them.

2022-03-20_06-15-41 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

2022-03-20_06-15-26 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

2022-03-20_06-15-17 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

2022-03-20_06-18-13 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

The boy ended up 14/40 which was brilliant and not only that but 6s ahead of his mate Ollie. Run 1 is above and Ollie was 9s behind but in race 2 Ollie picked up 6s or so but my lad picked up 2s.
It's a good gauge of how he did, but with some Roots and Rain stalking and checking of previous results, he also beat 3 lads who usually beat him. I'd generally expect to see him 20/40 in this series, as it's a level above some of the other races we enter.

Most of all though, each and every one of our lads came down smiling and happy. And of course uninjured... (well apart from the broken metatarsal he did 15 days ago lol).

He's got next weekend off as i'm off to Belgium to ride for the weekend, so we've got a couple of weeks non-racing until the next one on the 10th April.

[weeksy]

2022-03-21_08-38-49 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr