The journey from small guy to teenager...

[weeksy]

It looks like we may have a bit of sleet or snow this weekend. But not enough to cancel the race anyway. The boy has 75 to race against up to now this weekend, which i think is the biggest race field he's faced potentially. Considering the size of the venue, it's a massive field. We've devised a few plans to put in place to try and keep him somewhat warm before his runs, but i have little doubt he's still going to be a bit chilly this weekend.

But hopefully it'll be a fairly non-pressured day for him with some laughs and a lot of messing with his riding mates. He's obviously quite a regular in FoD these days and with that comes a massive pile of riding mates, so there'll be 8-10 at least of them all arsing about on bikes on both Sat and Sun.

[weeksy]

Another weekend of epicness with the boy.

FoD race so Saturday was spent with race practice and he was feeling good, back home for 7pm for food and a couple of hours rest before a 5am start to get to FoD for ra e. Parking can be tough so getting there handy can play a factor.

The bike was good but it was icy, frosty, frozen and cold. He was first off in practice as we wanted to try and get 3 runs in. All went well, no major issues.

Race run he was off 69 out of 75 in his class, not a problem whatever order really. He came over the line with 6th place. Awesome. Made all the better by his teammate being in P1.

Cold, wet, cold, wet, muddy, wet, new kit, new new kit, more kit. Off out for run 2, I was at the top on hand warmer carrying , jacket, wooly hat and jersey. He improved by 1.2s but still came in with a 6th place. Drew came in with P3, awesome.

Really tired now after coming home to wash bikes, kit, more bikes, more kit. It'll all need washing again tomorrow I bet too

[Count Steer]

Cold, wet, cold, wet, muddy, wet, new kit, new new kit, more kit. Off out for run 2, I was at the top on hand warmer carrying , jacket, wooly hat and jersey.

And RTTL buff I hope.

[weeksy]

This weekend is the final race of 2023. I'm half happy and half sad... But mostly i'm also a little nervous as i'm racing too. As you've gathered, it's not something i do a lot... So when i do it's quite a concern. I'm not that concerned about getting down it, but more worried about holding the fast people up in practice. So i'll probably go off in front of my lad for practice, that will mean the only person i hold up, is him

He's got some feisty competition racing this weekend, including the boys from Trailrippers of recent STW article, he'll be fast as always will Nathan, there's George Cawdell who races for GT as well, although my lad was quicker and beat him last weekend at FoD, but George is more local to Stile Cop and will know the place well. So the boy will need to be on his A game.

But it's more just for fun this weekend, mostly as the weekend was quiet in terms of other plans and we couldn't get a space on the Pearce uplift day at Bringewood, so we've headed to Stile Cop instead.

Time to get my big-boy pants on !

[weeksy]

As always an entertaining weekend of racing.. Well yesterday he was on Xmas tree decorating while i went out for the local riders Xmas ride/beers. Although i did only have 2 pints to make sure i was OK for today.

Me and him did a track walk in the morning and i was 50-50 (maybe less) as to whether i could get down 2 particular rooty sections. They're a bit gnarly for me.
Practice i sent the boy behind me giving me a decent gap and i knew no-one else would be filling it... It worked well. I had feet off on both rooty sections but sort-of managed them... ish.

Practice 2/3/4 went better and i almost got the roots half right, although i was taking the slower of the 2 lines in 1 of them... but the left line i didn't have in me today. Run 4 i felt was as good a run as i was likely to put in though, which was nice as then it started monsooning... Oh joy, wet impossible roots now !!!! Epic.

Race run 1 for me i came to the roots and section 1 went ok, but section 2 i had a foot off and got back in OK... Managed to make the rest of the run OK and got over the line.. Sadly for me i was in 6th place out of 6.... Damn...

The lad rocked down in P3 over the line, although it was apparently a sloppy run..

The rain was on-off-on-off for the next 90 mins and just before run 2 it kinda got OK... I sent him off while i waited for my run...

My run started in much sloppier trail conditions than run 1, i didn't go well... Pace was OK in top section and coming into a tight line i lost a foot, then clipped a step/rock with my pedal and spat me over the bars. .. I decided that even though i was OK i didn't want to get in the way of the guy behind me who'd be flying down the track and took my bike off for a DNF on run 2.. So 6/6 was as good as it got. After the crash i was never going to beat my run1 time, so just called it.

The boy went down and even though he improved he ended up 4th. Someone had snapped their chain out of the start-gate and got a re-run which put them in 3rd... Weird.

The video will explain why he lost some time though



An epic race day and i'm really glad i entered, despite my position i pushed myself hard and gave it a decent try...

The boy, put in an excellent race and the guys who beat him, he's never beaten before in Nationals, so to be pushing them is an excellent performance by him... impressed.

[weeksy]

Some answers to questions over on the other forum which may give a bit more insight

Wow... so much to answer there mate.

We've already had a 2 hour sit-down with the Coach/Boss and we've gone through everything for next year. That was put in place a little while ago. So yes as long as it's not top secret and i don't think it is, we'll still be racing for Katys team next year. We don't deal with any of the sponsors at all (apart from DMR) and i just leave that to the boss as to who the team rides for next season in terms of kit, helmets, shoes, pedals etc... It's her team, we're just a bit-part within it.
In Nationals you get an overall championship position but that is also integrated into 'all' races, well, all ranked races anyway.
You can flatter your position in the overall rankings a bit with picking smaller events and picking up points, but whilst we've not targetted that (yet) it's a by-product of the racing we do of course. In Nationals he was getting 30-35th in the races, which as a first year Youth and first time in Nationals we were more than happy with. His overall championship position was i think 41st. Which was pretty fair in a representation of where he's been this season. Not at the pointy end in the big boys, but somewhere around mid-pack.

2nd Season in Youth results go some way towards where he ends up in Junior in terms of chances of getting an entry to a Junior WCDH race and whilst he's not 'there' yet, of course the hope is that he keeps on improving and gets to the positions where he gets considered in 2025. But at this moment in time, he's not quick enough to get there.

Next year we're planning a full season of Nationals, Pearce and of course a few FoD smaller type races. But we're also lining up 1 or 2 races in France in the French DH cup. Which for example the 1 that's a main goal is at the course where last years European Champs was held. It'll be a massive thing for us/him and i think it'll really help him along.

The only downside to this of course is funding.. I still have no idea how my bank account isn't crippled each and every month, well, in truth it IS crippled... But we still bumble our way along and sort of make things happen. I'd love to do MORE where we're at Dyfi every weekend, BPW every weekend, etc but you know what, this even as a parent is REALLY hard. In terms of time, effort, money, cleaning, sorting, prepping, driving, it's really bloody tough. No tougher for me than it is for another 100 parents out doing the same thing of course.. But still it's hard.

Anyway... enough babbling..

Attack position engaged

IMG-20231211-WA0001 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[Noggin]

I know you've said in the past that you don't want 'help', but would you consider setting up a 'thing' (go fund me or something) that people can put money into? It's not a charity thing but lots of us would love to help a young sportsman and maybe it might help with the smaller costs?


My friend here fundraises for her son to compete in the Alpine Slalom with a view on the Olympics (the UK has stopped all alpine ski funding in the junior class ). She uses 'easy fundraising' . This is linked to a persons shopping so everything they spend in a shop/online that is linked to EasyFundraising gets a small percentage donation to the account of the fundraiser. If I buy a card on Moonpig or various other sites, they give a small donation. I believe in the uk you can link supermarket shopping to that.

I 100% realise that this is not the point of the above post. BUT - rather than accepting donations direct (which you've said you don't want to) maybe something like this will help. There's enough people that you know that shop online and in supermarkets that you might get money towards some tyres or something. Ok, small beans, but every little helps?? And then you don't get 'handouts', but you get a percentage from someone's weekly shop that doesn't cost that person anything extra, but maybe helps you guys a little?

https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/

[weeksy]

I know you've said in the past that you don't want 'help', but would you consider setting up a 'thing' (go fund me or something) that people can put money into? It's not a charity thing but lots of us would love to help a young sportsman and maybe it might help with the smaller costs?


My friend here fundraises for her son to compete in the Alpine Slalom with a view on the Olympics (the UK has stopped all alpine ski funding in the junior class ). She uses 'easy fundraising' . This is linked to a persons shopping so everything they spend in a shop/online that is linked to EasyFundraising gets a small percentage donation to the account of the fundraiser. If I buy a card on Moonpig or various other sites, they give a small donation. I believe in the uk you can link supermarket shopping to that.

I 100% realise that this is not the point of the above post. BUT - rather than accepting donations direct (which you've said you don't want to) maybe something like this will help. There's enough people that you know that shop online and in supermarkets that you might get money towards some tyres or something. Ok, small beans, but every little helps?? And then you don't get 'handouts', but you get a percentage from someone's weekly shop that doesn't cost that person anything extra, but maybe helps you guys a little?

https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/

The problem with this is that it can end up messy in my head, like the fact that we're not doing anything special here, not like a Macmillan Nurse, nor the bloke who even saved Hedgehogs on here... we're just playing at being racers.

We earn/have more than a lot of people on here, i don't want them being out of pocket to fund the lad, or someone giving money to me who then is short later in the month... This is a whim, an extravagance, etc... I wouldn't be happy to take money from you/others.

A particular member on here offered to throw in a substantial (to us) amount into a fund for it, but i told him a simple straight NO. Now maybe that's foolish male pride, probably... But i can't change who i am.

[weeksy]

Onto something slightly different anyway.

We were chatting in the paddock yesterday with a stupid-fast kid and his dad. Brandon Turner is his name. Anyway, he also rides and races a Session like ours. He was chatting with another mate about the bike and how the only issue they've had is with dropping chains. It doesn't happen until you're getting into the proper sharp end of speed/tech, but people like Tom Elsmore who has been racing a Session has also experienced it (he's a mate of a mate too).

Bloke had designed and 3D printed a new upper guide on the high pivot which stops this. Basically (as i was discussing with the mum of the Trailrippers yesterday about her GT) the chain drops/skips off the top of the idler pulley and then drops off the chainring from there. On the GT Fury you can buy different sized sprocket/wheels. I'm not aware of that as an option on the Session. So was straight in with "where i can get one mate"... "£20, i've got some in the van"



https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115846733894 ... BMvqX9hotj

[weeksy]

As you'd expect, it wasn't a taxing lunchtime quick job

IMG_20231211_133506 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[Noggin]

I know you've said in the past that you don't want 'help', but would you consider setting up a 'thing' (go fund me or something) that people can put money into? It's not a charity thing but lots of us would love to help a young sportsman and maybe it might help with the smaller costs?


My friend here fundraises for her son to compete in the Alpine Slalom with a view on the Olympics (the UK has stopped all alpine ski funding in the junior class ). She uses 'easy fundraising' . This is linked to a persons shopping so everything they spend in a shop/online that is linked to EasyFundraising gets a small percentage donation to the account of the fundraiser. If I buy a card on Moonpig or various other sites, they give a small donation. I believe in the uk you can link supermarket shopping to that.

I 100% realise that this is not the point of the above post. BUT - rather than accepting donations direct (which you've said you don't want to) maybe something like this will help. There's enough people that you know that shop online and in supermarkets that you might get money towards some tyres or something. Ok, small beans, but every little helps?? And then you don't get 'handouts', but you get a percentage from someone's weekly shop that doesn't cost that person anything extra, but maybe helps you guys a little?

https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/

The problem with this is that it can end up messy in my head, like the fact that we're not doing anything special here, not like a Macmillan Nurse, nor the bloke who even saved Hedgehogs on here... we're just playing at being racers.

We earn/have more than a lot of people on here, i don't want them being out of pocket to fund the lad, or someone giving money to me who then is short later in the month... This is a whim, an extravagance, etc... I wouldn't be happy to take money from you/others.

A particular member on here offered to throw in a substantial (to us) amount into a fund for it, but i told him a simple straight NO. Now maybe that's foolish male pride, probably... But i can't change who i am.

I do get that. But also, something like easyfundraiser allows people to 'help' without you knowing who or how much and they are only spending what they normally would, nothing extra.

Also, people like to help local talent and when there's a connection like this place, it makes other people happy. But I know that doesn't really help if it doesn't make you happy as well. xxx

[weeksy]

Stupid sodding internal cable routing. Had to swap the gear inner today on the Trek Session, but the outer was crap.

Jeepers it's bloody terrible for routing in the chainstay, no guides at all, just 2 holes at the ends, took me and the boy forever! Done now, but need to finish it off tomorrow with a new inner and put everything back on that we had to remove. Madness.

[weeksy]

Anyway, today was fod, coaching/riding for the lad and playtime for me.

After we'd finished riding I sent him out on the DH bike. He comes down holding the chain! It'd snapped. I'd just been discussing it a few days ago and ordered him 2 new chains, but didn't fit yesterday when it arrived. We decided to bail and get home handy.

Then the fun started as after fitting the chain I did the gear cable, which started as a five minute job inner and ended 90 mins later with an Impossible routing outer (but inner through chainstay).
Set up gears, regressed all the pivots, re-torqued everything and it's all finished, not the best fun, but it's sweet again now.

The lad needs to work on his fitness as we've been doing a bit too much DH and not enough miles/training so we'll get cracking on that next.

[Yorick]

Anyway, today was fod, coaching/riding for the lad and playtime for me.

After we'd finished riding I sent him out on the DH bike. He comes down holding the chain! It'd snapped. I'd just been discussing it a few days ago and ordered him 2 new chains, but didn't fit yesterday when it arrived.

Just curious. If they can make chains to cope with 300 BHP MotoGP machines, surely they can make decent bicycle chains ?

[weeksy]

Weight. The MotoGP chain weighs 10x the bicycle chain.

As with motorbikes there are levels of quality and price too. It seems Trek fitted a cheapo chain, to a £7500 bike! Lol. I've fitted a higher quality chain now.

[weeksy]

More exciting cabling today.

IMG_20231217_162309 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Both the gear cabling and brake are now routed externally

Need to give it another bleed tomorrow now to finish the job off

[weeksy]

Sometimes I think I have issues. I'm lying on the sofa, fire on, relaxed and chilled, "maybe I should go bleed the brakes on his bike"

Don't be daft comes back my reply to my brain.

5 mins later I'm in a cold garage and bleeding the brakes
Anyway, it's done now

[Dodgy69]

You didn't spill any on the paintwork did yer.

[weeksy]

You didn't spill any on the paintwork did yer.

MTBs with SRAM brakes are a completely different kettle of fish to motorbikes in their 'filling' they use something called SRAM Bleeding-Edge port which is a funny connected that you push into a port on the caliper. This uses a twist/release mechanism which means you can fill the system with 0 loss of fluid and no messing about in the usual way.

So, the answer is No

[weeksy]

End of year montage/write up time i guess.

It's been a somewhat incredible year for the boy and for me and the wife. It's interesting to see how he's progressed in 2023. For example race 1 of the year was a 100% at Forest of Dean, the boy came in with 26/52. Which to be honest at the time we were not excited with, but not exactly disappointed. In the last race in the series a couple of weeks ago, he claimed 6/63 finishers and only just off the podium.

In Feb the new Privateer 141 arrived along with 2 video/photo shoots... weirdly nothing ever came of either of them hahaha.
2023-02-19_09-18-34 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

But the bike came and was ridden, raced and thrashed all year.

We then went to his first National DH race at Rheola....
2023-04-04_07-58-22 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

This was just a complete mess of rain, mud, more mud and more rain. With the boy finishing 24/49 in Youth we were pretty damn happy. He was still a long way off the fast guys... but less so than the previous year in races.

From there it was a few Enduro races which we enjoyed being part of Katys team and bonding with Drew and Scarlett..

And then onto the biggy.
2023-05-09_09-03-41 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Fort William National. With the WCDH being there not long after it was stacked full of talent, he had Bruni, Minaar, Hatton, Daprela etc all behind him in the queue in practice but he took it in his stride. I won't be ashamed to admit, after the track walk i wasn't sure it was even possible to get down.
2023-05-05_05-25-04 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

But he did...and ended up with 28/55 i think about 70 turned up to race but quite a few either went home injured or broken etc...

National Championships brought more rain... yeah more... and a crash on race run meant he ended up 50/55 which was a tough day for the lad.. but he got his head around it well. He was now scoring around 20th place in Pearce Races generally which was 20+ places higher than the previous year.
The next few races was where he really started getting stronger and picking up speed, with a podium
2023-06-11_06-44-50 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

The boy then got his new toy the week after, the Trek Session... which was properly painful to purchase, being a crazy amount of money, but i felt he deserved it..

IMG-20230925-WA0035 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Antur Stiniog was the last National and that didn't go to plan, lack of course knowledge meant he struggled and despite picking up time over practice he qualified 48/63 which ended up being his final position as bad weather stopped play.
IMG-20230925-WA0035 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

He finished the year strongly with 5th, 6th, 4th, 6th, 4th in the run in, all smaller races than Nationals of course, but still plenty of fast racers in there.

image0 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

It's been a whirlwind of a year for both of us and it's only now we can sit down and evaluate a bit.. It's been HARD... for both of us. I've done 23,000 miles in the Transit this year, despite working from home 5 days a week. But we've driven a LOT.. We've spent weekend after weekend trying to sleep through the rain, storms, wind... Standing round freezing and wet ... It's been challenging for sure.

I'm hoping next year brings a bit nicer weather if i'm honest... i could really do with it.

Once again, we'll be racing the same stuff... With the hopes and plans to get nearer the front of the Nationals, maybe top 15, that'd be a lovely goal/target, starting off strongly with some FoD races with 100% to kick of 2024 and his 2nd year of Youth. We're racing in Scotland twice, we're even racing in France in Les Meniures (last years European Champs course) and of course anything and everything else possible.

It's getting harder though and the time when i can remove some of my pension could really do with being NOW rather than later lol... but we've got a while for that yet... so we just do what we can and this year could potentially mean struggling at times... but it's what we do

Bring on 2024.