The journey from small guy to teenager...

[weeksy]

LOL far from it matey, i'm not a millionaire.

BTW, shout me whenever about the bleed, i'm at home all day.

[Mr Moofo]

LOL far from it matey, i'm not a millionaire.

BTW, shout me whenever about the bleed, i'm at home all day.

Then it depands on how easy the smaller frame would be to sell.
Or build it up for Weeks senior?

Why do people say the bike is too small for him?

[weeksy]

They were watching from the side. This pic showed why also

IMG-20250326-WA0020 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

I can kinda see it... But as i say he's happy and flying on it..

There's the other complexity that i don't expect him to be on the Session in 2026, but what he'll be on could at the moment honestly be ANYTHING at all...

[weeksy]

[weeksy]

DSC00787 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

DSC00403 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

DSC00617 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[Skub]

There's those gloves missing again.

[weeksy]

Oh I know mate, I know.

We send the fucker up with them. He doesn't always put them on. As you'll see tomorrow he stuffed it in the floor a few times, but seemingly as they're covered in mud, had his gloves on.

[weeksy]

This weekend is racing at FoD and a good little test as there's a few fast lads out, James his riding mate and Ollie Sinden who raced WCs last year and is 2nd year Junior being the 2 main lads we know well. It's not often at all that he's beating Ollie, so will be good to see how he goes against him. 

Just been sorting out some new bits for the bike from DMR, it seems he's scuffed the heck out of his bars and our spare bars are 20mm rise instead of 35mm rise... i know he likes the 35 rise so i'll get the DMR boys to throw some new ones out in the post ASAP, but obviously won't be this weekend. I had to spend a bit of time re-setting the bars/claps as he'd twisted them in his 2nd last run trying to catch the fast boys. 

The rear mech hanger was slightly out, so that's realigned and checked.. 

Going to be a dry sunny weekend so he's riding Kryptotals front and rear. 

[weeksy]

Well this weekend as you've gathered was FoD race. The competition was as always tough. I was disappointed on Sat as one of his main fast guys to beat was taken out in a crash from some rogue roots and is now out of action.

The chats went like this in the van
"How you liking the track then?"
"hate it, it's a horrible track"

That didn't quite set the tone for the weekend, but it was clear the boy wasn't feeling it, however he'd still be fast as we've worked out by now.

Sunday brought sun, warm, lovely and dry. I got him to the top and sent him first man down to get a clear run, it's funny as there was 10-15 riders at the top when i got there but none wanted to go first down. I love it for him as it's clear track and no issues. He got down sweetly and ended up with 3 practice runs and was happy enough.

Race run 1 wasn't the cleanest i get the impression but it was fast and he ended up in P1. Lunch was had and lots of chats with friends and laughs, i didn't have any water for myself (fruity fizzy) so i had a beer.
Race run 2 as always got exciting with the fast boys.
Rider in P4 went to P1
Rider in P3 went to P1
Rider in P2 went from then P3 to P3.
The boy went from P1 to P3 lol.

Was was 0.4 off the winner (a good mate) and 0.05 off P2.
I must admit we all felt a tiny bit flat with it, of course it's Podium but i think we expected and hoped for more. But there's no such thing these days as an easy win in DH, there's always always fast guys out racing.
He did make me laugh as he came over the final drop and was telling me he was always in the wrong gear as just before the drop there's a tight bit so needs gear 3, but then he wanted gear 5 for the line sprint. But not enough time to change gears.
"what we need is a gearbox bike so i can change on the fly" lol.
Funnily we've been in discussion with a gearbox bike company who are offering us a massive discount on a frame/bike, but now isn't the time for a change as you really want to do it over winter. But if other things don't work out over the year it's certainly something that's going to get consideration over winter this year.

However, that's a very long way away

Long feeling drive home and had to unload SOOOOO much stuff as we picked up a squat rack this weekend and a pully thing for pull-downs. We've already got all the weights, but that needs painting/building.

https://www.rootsandrain.com/event13643 ... n/results/

[Count Steer]

If the riders ahead had gearbox bikes and were getting just that fractional edge it's probably a real consideration for the future. Are there any downsides (apart from cost, obvs)?

[weeksy]

They didn't. No one outside of Pros gave the gearbox.

I think it was half in jest, half in frustration as he wasn't quite there today.

Simple answer, he was just a smidgen lacking today. It happens.

However to answer a bit more in depth, they're a bit of an unknown quantity currently as very new to the market, so it's hard as a consumer to know the truth yet. The theory is superb, but whether the application and reliability is there, we'll have to see.
They lower the CoG as they carry their weight low and central. They seem 'planted' according to riders.

[weeksy]

randr-photo-15134034-1024px-by-peter-smith by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[weeksy]

Oh the fun we have.

After the weekend we had a slightly loose shock lower bolt. Then I noticed the axle on the back UDH wasn't right enough, so they were sorted.
A new Kryptotal on the front for this weekend at innerleithen.

Then today we were out in the van dropping some bits off so my Orbea Rise can be sold on Friday and the boy was chatting about the bike stuff. "The bottom bracket was creaking at the weekend" oh, I'll sort that then.
So I whipped the chain guide off and the cranks off, both sides felt smooth on the Saint BB but the drive side was filthy, so I cleaned it all up and a bit of grease here and there.

I asked the boy just now to do a quick test as he was in the garage.
"Oh, not on the Session, it was the Fuel that was creaking."

Ummmm that wasn't what we discussed lol.

Ah well, it's nice and clean now anyway

[weeksy]

Pretty damn impressive, DMR are a big big company in the MTB world.

[weeksy]

Bit of a weird day at times yesterday. Innerleithen SDA practice. Track is super tight in places so last night we agreed to trim the spare scuffed DMR bars and fit them to try. He wants a bit more clearance. They now come in at 760mm with grips.

IMG_20250405_085138 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

We had a few Maven issues yesterday but haven't really worked it out yet. However the last 2 runs of practice it was all good so we didn't fit the Code RSC which at one stage was looking likely. I gave both front and rear a bleed this week, so maybe depending on practice this morning I'll need to check again.

He's loving his new goggles and slowly getting used to the track. Early start this morning as always, but I was up and about way before the alarm.

[millemille]

My two penn'orth, for what it matters or not, is that I think both of you ride frame sizes that are too small for you.

Not because of height but because of reach, you are both so cramped over the bike any fore or aft movement has such a disproportionate effect on wheel weighting it is working against you.

[weeksy]

Today went well enough, he did 5 runs of practice, but did stack it on the drop as the landing was blown out later on. But run 5 went well and he called it early so he could watch some riders on a few sections as he was walking the track. He picked up a few lines he'll try in morning.

We had debates on swapping to an Argotal front but he didn't decide on it so I left it. 

It was a simple enough day for me, only doing 1 flat on a random bike and 1 rotor true job on another. So much so that me and a mate cycled over for a beer in town while the boys were walking track.

Tomorrow, well I have no clue. But as often is the case, I don't care much. Racing is not all about the results. We've had an ace weekend, beers, lots of pizza and an excellent time. He'll go as fast as he can, the rest is guesswork 

[weeksy]

My two penn'orth, for what it matters or not, is that I think both of you ride frame sizes that are too small for you.

Not because of height but because of reach, you are both so cramped over the bike any fore or aft movement has such a disproportionate effect on wheel weighting it is working against you.

It's not impossible but currently I don't know. We'll see what this year brings but he's not a fan currently of long bikes. I generally let him do what he thinks is best, but we do try and listen to advice.
When it gets to next bike choice it'll deffo be bigger in reach, but within sensible limits.

[weeksy]

Decent enough run for run 1. Sitting in P7 with a few reruns to come due to red flags.

He's happy  

P10

[weeksy]

Run 2 wasn't quite as good as run 1, the boy smacked a tree stump which took him out. His time was about 15s off his first run.
Sadly the 2 people we expected to sort their runs out after issues on run 1 did just that. So overall he came in 12th.

We're all pretty happy with that. New track, new place, new experiences.
Weather was fab all weekend, if a bit chilly at times.

We did a nice clean job and what we set out with as goals.

Couple of days off and Cwmcarn for National this weekend