The journey from small guy to teenager...

[weeksy]

Who's idea was this!

[Mr Moofo]

A bit of information for you……..
I fitted that Ohlins shock on to a Trek Session last night. Struggled to assemble it with the 25mm shock hardware. Measured the RS Super Deluxe and it had 24mm hardware and had bent in the frame mounts.
Had to open the frame up a little to get the 25mm hardware in.
So it’s not just your shock with the wrong hardware.

I feel like @Noggin. Didn't understand a bloody word

So, the pic shows the lower mount on the shock. The inner circle bit is an aluminium spacer which is M8 and 24mm wide.


The frame mounts are 25mm spaced... therefore if you tighten it to 10Nm you don't actually take up any slack (and don't really want to as you're then bending the frame mounts closer together), you need to whack it to 30+Nm to get it 'tight'

Hence me fitting the 25mm spacer to sort.

Fault of Trek or Rockshox?

[weeksy]

I assume it's Treks hardware, but we'll arguably never know the answer I think.

He's on his 3rd run at Tirpentwys now so will check after this run. Not sure how many we'll manage today as the road is getting sketchy with snow

[weeksy]

[weeksy]

Well the bike survived the day without any rattles and wobble, so hopefully that's it now, shock mounts sorted and it'll run happily.

We have been having a few issues over the last few months with the cable ties snapping on the front mudguard.
The boy got a message from Mudhugger to try and work out a solution or send him something different to try.
However it transpired after letting all the air out of the forks, it's the race number board which is hitting the cable ties and snapping them. You wouldn't think so, but you can see the little marks when you look. Then with the air out you can see it's hitting.
So 5 mins with a craft knife and we've trimmed about 8mm off the number board, sanded it and it doesn't hit any more.

This does highlight that he's bottoming out his forks at times of course, but there's always a compromise between plushness and bottoming out I guess. It's not like he's hitting small things, but maybe we need to tweak his pressure just a few psi higher as maybe he's getting a bit heavier.

[weeksy]

Inappropriate trail bike

[weeksy]

3 races in on the 2024 season and ranked #1 in UK.

With the big races (more points per race) and racers coming out to play in April, we're likely to see him drop positions. But hey, can't argue

UKRankingsMarch by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[Yorick]

As the saying goes "You can only beat what's out there"

Enjoy the moment

[Noggin]

A bit of information for you……..
I fitted that Ohlins shock on to a Trek Session last night. Struggled to assemble it with the 25mm shock hardware. Measured the RS Super Deluxe and it had 24mm hardware and had bent in the frame mounts.
Had to open the frame up a little to get the 25mm hardware in.
So it’s not just your shock with the wrong hardware.

I feel like @Noggin. Didn't understand a bloody word

I actually understood that post!! (Weeksy's!). Basically, Trek built something at 25mm but the bit that fits to it isn't that big

[SSS]

Its a pity you dont stay local to Glencoe. Glencoe are looking to sponsor two local riders on their grass roots development program.

https://www.facebook.com/GlencoeMountain


Nothing like that at any venues down your way?

[weeksy]

He's already in a team as such

https://www.privateerbikes.com/blogs/jo ... pment-team

At the moment (and foreseeable future) we wouldn't leave what we have with Katy

We've not even looked into other options as it could jeopardize that

[SSS]

No worries, i know you were obviously too far away, but its the first time ive seen a venue advertise like that. May have been useful to walk into other venues - 'hey see what Glencoe are doing?? Oh and by the way thats what my boy does...' kinda chat (if not already committed)

Maybe you know someone in the loop who could benefit from that, Id have posted on STW, but dont need the drama

[weeksy]

We got a message last week from DMR Bikes who are one of the main companies who help out the team. They'd notice in the boys social media he wasn't running DMR parts on the bike. After working out the reasons why etc they simply said "send us a list of bits and we'll get them boxed up and sent ASAP", there's several parts that are waiting for shipping due to the sizes/colours wanted, but here's the first batch of bits.

Not sure yet which saddle he'll run on the Trek, he likes the new Stage 2 saddle (non-camo pattern one) and has been running that on the Privateer for a while, but i also wonder if the shorter length Sect seat may actually work better at getting out of the way when he wants it.
The Deathgrips are a staple product for us, he runs the soft compound and is really hard on grips, so we go through them pretty often.

The most interesting one for 2024 is the DMR SPD Pedals, V-Twin.
He's been running CrankBrothers Mallet DH pedals for a while now in various forms but we'll certainly give the DMRs a try in the coming weeks
https://www.dmrbikes.com/Catalogue/Peda ... less/VTWIN

IMG_20240305_165342 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[weeksy]

No worries, i know you were obviously too far away, but its the first time ive seen a venue advertise like that. May have been useful to walk into other venues - 'hey see what Glencoe are doing?? Oh and by the way thats what my boy does...' kinda chat (if not already committed)

Maybe you know someone in the loop who could benefit from that, Id have posted on STW, but dont need the drama

TBH i don't know a lot of local riders up there, but there is one i can think of who may be considered 'local' yeah.. I'll ping him a message over.

[weeksy]

Well that was a bit of a surprise when moving bikes about as the Session bottom bracket on the NDS is completely dead. I'm sure it was fine, but it's really really not now.

To make it worse it's a DUB and apparently it seems the DUB tool is a different size to my BB tools.. GRRRR.

I've borrowed one and ordered a new BB from Biketart, so it'll be easily sorted and replaced.

[SSS]

I find stuff just doesnt last anytime now. Whether theyre using inferior materials, poorer weatherproofing/shielding etc. Im finding im replacing my BB about every 6 months on the training bike, and now when i was regreasing the wheel bearings last night, the freehub isnt so clever either, and it was replaced only about 6 months ago too! (on a now year old bike)

I dont remember doing this so often before, and my mileages havent changed. Like you, one minute its fine, few days later, seized/grindingly fooked.....

Dashed annoying!

[weeksy]

Well we've had it since summer and pretty much every day out it's been in slop, mud, mess and rain.... so in truth i don't feel too badly done to with it. It's had a decent run and died, i can live with it.

[weeksy]

So the BB was replaced, along with a bit of extra marine grease in the jockey wheel bearings and the Session is spinning as lovely as it can be, the bottom and top idler wheels were checked and are smooth and nice too. So it spins lovely and sweet.

The boy has fitted (well i did, he's using/testing) the seat, grips, pedals from DMR (still waiting on new bars to come in on a big boat).
I'm pleased to report that he's getting on well with the pedals, which are different click/release to the CrankBrothers pedals, so i was a little worried he'd struggle with them. They'll get more testing this weekend as we're at Antur Stiniog on Sat and then straight to Dyfi on Sunday, where they'll get fully tested in anger.
IMG_20240305_165342 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr
We're off to Rotec Cycles today as the very very kind people from Oxford Products are dropping off a load of their cleaning/lubing products for us today... Which considering the rain at the moment, should come in pretty handy for the weekend.

After that it's mostly gym/golf (yeah he likes a bit of golf to unwind) and then back up for Dyfi/Llangollen/Antur before the racing starts in the first weekend of April. He's got multiple days out with Katy as well to try and work on some details and hopefully get up to speed. It's straight in with Rheola on the 6/7 and then the weekend after is the Nationals at Rheola as well.
Rheola last year was somewhat challenging in terms of weather
2023-04-15_02-14-43 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

2023-04-14_08-05-36 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

I'm really hoping we get better weather this year, both for his sake and my sanity..

We've gone for airbnb this year for Rheola due to the parking/camping situation there, which does add in a level of expense but last year was pretty hard on us, so we're trying to learn from some of the things from 2023 and take us forward into 2024.

[weeksy]

Tomorrow then brings the start of the busy. I know it may seem like we've been busy, but it gets crazy now.

We're away from tomorrow till Sunday with Antur and Dyfi.
The weekend after 2 days at FoD and a midweek away at somewhere
The weekend after that is Ponty and Dyfi, with a midweek trip to Llangollen and BPW
Then it's Fri to Sun at Rheola
Then it's Fri to Sun at Rheola again.

The bike, kit, wallet are all going to take a hammering as there's quite a few hotels, meals out, likely parts, spares, pads, tyres and of course gallon upon gallon of diesel.

It'll be fun though spending time with the boy

[weeksy]

The boy hates it when I do these as apparently he looks rubbish on the ebike. But we had a couple of hours spare and he can just smash lap after lap.