Well the craziest of crazy weekends was once again upon us. Hopton for Pearce.. The boy wasn't in the best mindset as the weekend before there he wasn't in love with the track. But after an evening of banter and a REALLLLLLLLY cold night in the tent on Friday we woke on Sat for practice day and he was happy all day, the bike was sweet, the track was sweet and everyone of him and his mates were having an ace time.
Until it went a little wrong. Isaac who he's going to Switzerland next weekend came in looking sorry for himself. He'd lost a chainstay/pivot bolt from the bike... Not only that but it had completely stripped the frame thread. That was game over completely..
So me and his dad discussed some plans, we had an option from a mate of borrowing their 2020 Session, great option but they have it for sale on PB and they were not feeling the love for taking it to Switzerland. In the meantime we found 2 cracks in the chainstay on the Fury... so it really was game over for the frame.
We moved onto "you can borrow my Status 160 for both Pearce and Switzerland" but it was a 3 hour drive and he wasn't feeling it for a 160 in Switzerland, so we thought "wonder if we could fit his Fox 40s"... So that was then the new plan A and B.
The boys then went nuts on Instagram/media and found a mate who would sell him a Fury frame !!! £300 but it was in Dyfi !!
So a plan was hatched, they'd pick up the frame on Sunday at 9am, i'd strip their broken Fury while they were collecting it and have all the bits ready.
IMG-20240929-WA0000 by
Steve Weeks, on Flickr
They got back at 11.52 and i started work... It needed the shock, BB, headset, gears, brakes, chain, shifting etc... Then of course forks, wheels, seat.
His race run 2 was at 1.15 he had to leave to go up.... at 1.14 i'd finished the bike and sent him up for his race run. It was honestly bonkers getting it built in time, the headset wasn't quite 100% as the frame had offset cups fitted which took taller bearings i didn't have, i kinda made it work with some improvising.
While i was doing all the stripping i of course also had to concentrate on my boy and getting his bike race ready and out for it, as well as re-taping a tubeless setup for another mate who's wheel wasn't holding air. My boy came down in Run1 with a P6. He was a little unhappy as he really wants top 5s in Pearce now, so 6th wasn't quite there. His run was scrappy but sort of OK.
So our mate came down in P36 on his newly built bike, it's lower than you'd expect by 5-6 places for him, but it was completely new with a dodgy headset and he hadn't practiced at all today, so him and his dad were actually really pleased.
The boy was coming for his 2nd run and another mate had gone quicker on run 2 after stacking it on run 1, even though James went 2s quicker on run 2 he ended the race in P8.... again, a little disappointing but shows how far he's come to be disappointed with nicely inside the top 10 at a Pearce.
We suspected the results between him and some competitors went well, but in the end he finished P5 in the overall series results.
IMG-20240929-WA0005 by
Steve Weeks, on Flickr
It'll be interesting when they put it online to see how far from P3 he was.
Back at the bikes and van i stripped the headset on the Fury and knocked out the headset cups and replaced them with standard offset cups that run the stock Fury bearings, which i had 4 of in spares
His bike is perfect and ready to go.
I've got to investigate the Session headset as it still troubles me just a bit as it's never quite 100% for week after week, sometimes feeling a bit sluggish... weird.
His bearings have been GREAT for months on the Session now, but the bottom pivot ones have given up the ghost and developed a bit of play, but that's 30 mins work tomorrow evening to get that done. The Session will then be cleaned and he'll be sent off for IXS in Switzerland.
He's very excited that he picked up £35 in cash for P5 overall... his first prize money...
I need a lie down in a dark room.
