The journey from small guy to teenager...

[Mr Moofo]

I seem to remember that RaceFace are a PITA to remove / fit - requiring an extractor ?

[weeksy]

I seem to remember that RaceFace are a PITA to remove / fit - requiring an extractor ?

Nah, only your usual crank extractor tool, 45-50Nm install, 8mm allen key... It's maybe 30s longer than a Shimano one, but the same BB on both.

[weeksy]

So it's race weekend at Southern Enduro, which means it's the Privateer out for all 3 of the riders.

Conditions look somewhat on the wet and potentially muddy side of things so i've whipped off the Schwalbe Hans Dampf and fitted the Specialized Hillbilly T9 for the weekend. It's a bit more suited to the conditions of loamy trails and also better for the wet, so hopefully he'll enjoy it a bit more.

Bike is ready to roll and he tested it last night for a few hours in the woods and was happy... So it's just a question of getting up, getting there and seeing how we both go

[weeksy]

The boy ended up 19/44 but was a bit disappointed. On Stage 1/2 he was ahead of his team-mate (and his local mates), but stage 3 he ended up with a off-track excursion and stage 4 he got mud splatter in the eye and couldn't see. So Drew his team mate ended up 13th and 11s quicker over the 5 stages, with Olly his local mate in 15th and Jack another riding mate in 18th... It's close as always in their cat and just that 1 mistake cost him the difference between 5 places . On 1& he was 12th and 14th... but on stage 3 he was 31st.... so it really hits your finish position.

No excuses though, he finished where he finished and as we know, Enduro isn't his main focus as a rider so he's not completely gutted, but i'd say he's a little disappointed.

Onto this weekend and it's Bikeparkwales for a day out on Monday, before we then head to Fort William.

[weeksy]

Due to the wonky cranks i've now fitted a new crankset onto the purple bike. It was running a 32T front chainring, but the race bike has a 36T, so i've set both bikes the same, so if he uses it, he's got the same gearing on both bikes.

2023-04-28_09-46-45 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[weeksy]

Phew. That's that done.

Today was BPW, arguably it was a potential banana skin with us heading to fort William this week. But if you take time off before every event, you'd never ride.

The boy spent the day trying out a few little things on the bike (as did I) and just being a smiley happy lad. His mate Pringled a front wheel which ended his day at 3pm and after a last run we called it a day.



We did have 2 instances of dropped chain on the blue Fury which surprised me, but it looks like the chain guide is simply a little far away so a quick 1mm spacer behind the arm moves it a little bit inwards and should mean the chain can't drop now.

Other than cleaning and lubing, we're good to go for the weekend I think

[weeksy]

All fun and games this morning. Fixing fettling, checking, sorting.

Just little things like aligning calipers on both DH bikes, sorting and checking spokes, sorting chain tensioner (as we've changed gearing), checking pads, wheels, brakes, headsets, giving both a decent clean, lube, sort... You know, just making sure everything is as perfect as they can be really.

[weeksy]

[Dodgy69]

Fcuk me.. fair doo's

[Taff]

Fcuk me.. fair doo's

Wot e said

[Mr Moofo]

Fcuk me.. fair doo's

That looks scary.
I assume that was the brave Weeksy ?

[Noggin]

Fcuk me.. fair doo's

Yup - normally I avoid watching the videos cos they scare me!!! I was right!!! Fair play to Weeksy Jr, damn he's got guts!!

[weeksy]

Fcuk me.. fair doo's

That looks scary.
I assume that was the brave Weeksy ?

As opposed to the not brave one? Yes

[weeksy]

Rocks mmmm

[millemille]

Now that's my kind of track!

[weeksy]

Practice and qualifying day

2023-05-06_08-03-30 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[weeksy]

2023-05-06_09-33-18 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Well he made it down

[weeksy]

32rd in qualifying. Wasn't going nuts. May have a bit more tomorrow

[weeksy]

[weeksy]

Race day, dry and sunny
Having a few chain dropping issues. Spent time chatting to GT Viris mechanic and they've had same lol. But it's that rough it seems like half the field are dropping chains or snapping.

He's just had what's known as a HUGEY. But he's ok. Trying to pick up speed and putting things together now.

Just off up for another run after some food and chill.

Let's see how this goes