The journey from small guy to teenager...

[Crosshair]

That’s awesome !

[crust]

Fantastic result, well done that lad.

Its great to see all the hard work and sacrifice by team Weeks paying off.

[G.P]

Fantastic. Well done James!

[weeksy]

2023-03-05_09-30-59 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[weeksy]

Well..... I think it's time to sack the mechanic

He comes in yesterday after riding up and down to test the bike "brakes feel a bit rubbish today"... I tested it too and yeah the rear was garbage.

However, he wasn't too unhappy, so we put it down to a bit of contamination on the pads and 'something to sort on Monday'.

I looked at it and whipped the pads out to sand them over and clean the rotor, as i was putting them back in i noticed there was something not quite right as the pads were not meshing with the rotor.
It then dawned on me that he'd been running a 180 rotor on the rear this week not a 203 lol. We had the Hope Pro4 off for repair and i didn't want to change anything as we'd set up the gears etc nicely. So we left the 'spare' wheel fitted.

Obviously it now has a 203mm fitted LOL.... but the Hope has gone back in this morning anyway

2023-03-06_09-46-13 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[crust]

That might explain his extra speed

Next race the front as well

[weeksy]

Playing with some setup stuff at lunchtime and i noticed that i REALLY dislike the chainline on this... I know i've mentioned it before but i was thinking "i'm sure the purple bike isn't this bad. There's 2 differences with the purple bike and this bike, 1 being the front chainring and the other the wheel.

I thought a bit more and i then released some of the tension on the chain tensioner at the front. It was pretty high/tight. That's made a MASSIVE difference to the chainine. Basically when in the biggest cog on the rear (28T) it's a wayward chainline, but you can't move it over as the chainguide spacering it out to the 83mm. 2 spacers on the non-driveside and none (apart from chainguide) on the drive-side. I can now spin the cranks nicely in the big cog.
My other thought is that potentially a smaller chainring on the front may give me a better feel even more so. I think it's got a 32T on the front of the purple bike and a 36T on the blue (current/main) bike. So i may come up with a plan and fit a smaller front chain-ring to the blue one. I'll chat with the lad a bit first on what gears he's using on the DH side of things as if he's hitting 9/10 all the time then we arguably don't really want to drop the front by 4T. But it's deffo nicer than it's been.

[weeksy]

2023-03-06_05-36-08 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

2023-03-06_05-38-26 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

2023-03-06_05-40-11 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Rocking his new Crankbrothers shoes and pedals. Awesome surprise from the coach

[weeksy]

The level they race at is just bonkers close, the kids are stupid fast.
https://www.rootsandrain.com/event11138 ... n/results/

If you see the times you’ll see how tight. He’d have got top 8 in u18 for example, he’d have won the grand vets, 4th in 19-29, got 2nd in 30-39 etc etc.
The youngsters are just rapid!



Even yesterdays crash was brilliant as she was recording him from the side of the trail, then showing him how and why it went wrong, he got his rear kicked out on a root, to compensate he ended up pushing his weight back, which is of course the wrong thing as that unloads the front and as he tipped in the front was light and he slid out. It was then a lesson in how to fix that next time. It’s just details details and more details. No 1 thing is the answer, it’s little bits.

[weeksy]

I love seeing his style on a bike. I'm obviously very biased, but he makes it look effortless

[Taff]

That is a cracking photo, it says so much about where his skill set is at and the confidence he has in riding

[MingtheMerciless]

I love seeing his style on a bike. I'm obviously very biased, but he makes it look effortless

And that is the mark of a very good rider.

I used to ride with a mate who raced supermoto. On an MTB he was a joy to watch, I could just about keep up with him, though he would arrive at the bottom of the trail barely breathing hard and I would arrive absolutely hanging, bleeding and with various bits of undergrowth attached where I'd not quite made a corner.

[weeksy]

2023-03-12_07-57-12 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[weeksy]

Also just ordred this helmet


to make some of the sponsorship agreements a little simpler in terms of pics and vids.

along with one of these



It's never ending at times.

[weeksy]

2023-03-13_09-14-38 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

2023-03-13_09-17-02 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[Mr Moofo]

Also just ordred this helmet


to make some of the sponsorship agreements a little simpler in terms of pics and vids.

along with one of these



It's never ending at times.

I assume you don't have to pay full whack?
Or else you and Welsh Dragon are going to be getting very thin over the next few years

[weeksy]

Well we have a deal with a sponsor, but that's on helmets that are RRP, so still makes them pretty damn expensive.

https://www.rmcycles.co.uk/rider-protec ... een__16479

This is a 2021 i assume and £99 there instead of £400. I can live with paying £99 for a FF helmet... but £400... heck no.

[Tricky]

Some terrific action pics in there matey

[MingtheMerciless]

I like the TLD stuff, also got a good deal "crash replacement" price after Mrs M's Levo spat me off head first down a bank and into a tree last year.

[Mr Moofo]

Well we have a deal with a sponsor, but that's on helmets that are RRP, so still makes them pretty damn expensive.

https://www.rmcycles.co.uk/rider-protec ... een__16479

This is a 2021 i assume and £99 there instead of £400. I can live with paying £99 for a FF helmet... but £400... heck no.

400 quid ! You can buy a bike for that.

99 GBP, however, is more more reasonable