The journey from small guy to teenager...

[Count Steer]

You got him jet washed then?

Good luck today.

[Dodgy69]

I was thinking the same, htf do you get all the kit clean.

[weeksy]

24/lots.

I think 65+ riders appeared Sat morning but the track claimed many victims in all classes.
So he got 24th overall. Which we're pretty chuffed with.

More reports when I've cleaned the van, bikes, kit and cooked us food.

[weeksy]

I was thinking the same, htf do you get all the kit clean.

This weekend was 5 sets of riding kit.

I just throw it on the kitchen floor and magically it gets cleaned

24/lots.

I think 65+ riders appeared Sat morning but the track claimed many victims in all classes.
So he got 24th overall. Which we're pretty chuffed with.

More reports when I've cleaned the van, bikes, kit and cooked us food.

[weeksy]

https://m.pinkbike.com/news/race-report ... la-uk.html

[weeksy]

New helmet and kit

[weeksy]

Sunday was race day and was damp once again... more race/riding kit... more water.... more mud... more trips to the river to fill the Mobi washer needed.

Practice was again carnage, with people crashing everywhere, all the time. The boy was following Mary, one of Katys students/mates... they're a similar pace so was good. She chucked it in the floor 3 times and then let the lad past, who then chucked it in the floor in front of her lol.

He had a few long chats with Katy before the race as she was watching in various positions on track and offered some wisdom.

We went out for his race run, due to being a DNF he was down early... Which was good because after him were plenty of delays on track with various crashes and issues. He came down and was sitting in P2. (we took a pic of the leaderboard lol). As rider after rider came down it was slowest > fastest from Seeding and the boy say in 2nd place for a fair few riders, before eventually the faster guys came down and he dropped into his finishing place of 24th.

Considering it was our first National and conditions as they were, he was (and so was I) more than happy with that... As usual when he saw 65 riders on the start list, he was looking more at getting close to top 50. He's quite harsh on himself in terms of where he thinks he can finish and i was hoping for a bit higher up for him
Katy was really happy with his effort, but knows he's got a lot more in him and will be attempting to drag the next level out of him of course. But it's all a learning curve, in terms of how it all works, the tracks and within himself. It's a full on weekend with run after run of crazy hard stuff and it must take it out of him. So just to register a finish was bloody good
As far as courses/tracks go it's probably the 'worst' for him in terms of what he generally 'likes' as a type of track etc so we hope a few of the others will suit his style a little better.

Out of the 5 lads we know really well there and class as mates, my lad was only one of 2 of them who actually registered a finish time. It was DNF after DNF. His team-mate spent the rest of the afternoon with the medics, but happily no breaks

It was then onto bike cleaning, getting the van loaded and dragging ourselves home.. He slept half of the trip home, i wished i could. It's amazing just how physically demanding the weekend is just 'doing stuff' and i'm properly knackered and aching today.

Next weekend is straight into a Southern Enduro on the Privateer 141, so there's very little in the way of rest, but he'll be taking on a decent bit of rest this week to recover.

[weeksy]

Just been checking and the riders all thought conditions were worse than the weekend before at Gravity regional race…the lad went 12s quicker yesterday… Got to be pleased with that

[Taff]

Well done for getting a time in the board, that's really impressive on that track in those conditions.
my FB timeline is full of pictures of people crashing.


There's a FB post from Billy Pugh with a video clip of him crashing over the 'drop at the top' (I'm sure that means more to you than me)

He basically crashed and left the bike before the drop and landed on his arse at the bottom of the drop. It was a huge crash and he says he still managed to finish top 10.

[weeksy]

2023-04-17_06-13-47 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[Taff]

That looks pretty damn terrifying and there's no doubt that I'd be on my arse

[weeksy]

I just noticed, the kid who won the 15-16 Cat, would have been 15/31 in Elite

https://www.rootsandrain.com/event11005 ... a/results/

[weeksy]

Well that's a bit weird.

I noticed when checking something today that his chainring wasn't quite straight. So I took it apart and fitted a new chainring. Guess what , still wonky. You can see the chain line go in and out. (Maybe not with the rubbish camera work).
So it's either the frame/BB or crank spider.
Took cranks off the spare bike and yup, straight and lovely on the blue race bike.

Fitted the wonky cranks to the purple and it now drops the chain off front when pedalling backwards. He's dropped it a couple of times when riding which is now explained by this.
So I fitted a narrow wide chainring to the wonky arms, which keeps it on. But sadly I think we need some new cranks. It's Shimano style so any Shimano like a Zee or Saint will be fine, or a compatible Raceface crank.

[Mr Moofo]

I have some SLX cranks. 165
But I think they will be too lightweight

[weeksy]

Ah thanks mate... very kind. They also need to be 83mm BB not a standard 68/73.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285235534726

This sort of thing...

As they're now fitted to the spare bike i'm slightly less worried and at a push on a race weekend i could swap the cranks in about 10-15 mins... but i would rather get them 100% with some new cranks.
Sadly i've got to pay for the rear wheel to be re-rimmed this week and after a pretty expensive weekend in Rheola last weekend, well, lets just say £150+ on new cranks isn't ideal

[Mr Moofo]

What ever happen to standard sized parts?

[weeksy]

What ever happen to standard sized parts?

Techincally they are standard... for DH bikes.. DH have always run 'bigger is better' so the front axles are 110x20... the rears are often Superboost which is 157x12, bars are 35mm dia, wheels are wider channel, everything a bit more burly... so the cranks may be unusual in that context, but still pretty normal in DH contexts.

[Mr Moofo]

I trust Weeksy Jr is working hard at school to become rich and famous and keep his dad from the Reading Workhouse in future years?

[weeksy]

I trust Weeksy Jr is working hard at school to become rich and famous and keep his dad from the Reading Workhouse in future years?

yeah he's a good lad matey... he's deffo one of the good ones that's for sure.

[weeksy]

Currently on the list is the Zee, which is £130 delivered
https://www.bike-components.de/en/Shima ... et-p31982/

there's also this Raceface which will be a bit/chunk less potentially
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204305304630

It's not exactly urgent... but i would like both bikes to be 100% by the time we head to Fort William in a couple of weeks.