The journey from small guy to teenager...

[weeksy]

I'm sitting at the bottom of the hill after dropping him off yesterday at Llangollen.

"I've just had the biggest crash of my life"...

Oh.. .errrrrrm. But he was actually fairly OK... bit beaten up as you'd expect. He did another run but couldn't ride properly so came home early. He's a little delicate but OK. My only real concern is that it would have affected his confidence after that, but that remains to be seen.



Where he crashes isn't the trail he was on, it's the adjacent trail. As he goes into the heather he should be going right, not straight, but a small mistake and then losing his footing means, he went way off and it's about 20' down onto the next trail. Very very lucky boy.

[weeksy]

We then had a funny one at home. He's complained for a couple of weeks about a 'noise'.. it sounds like something is loose/lost in the frame.

So there's 2 of us in the garage rotating the bike to see if we can hear it... it seems to be coming from where the dropper post is.

Dropper comes off, still same noise.
Forks come off, still the same.
Checked all the in-frame storage, still same.
Bottom bracket off to view us a viewport, still same.
Rocker linkage off, still same.
Forks, headset, front end, still same..

In the end we did manage to trace it, to the shock !!! So that's heading off to TFTuned to be fettled.

20260412_181515 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

[Skub]

That crash looked hurty,glad he's young and bounceable.

[weeksy]

That crash looked hurty,glad he's young and bounceable.

He does generally bounce really well, but this one i think shook him up a bit as he felt it was HUGE and potential for massive injuries... He also didn't feel he was going that hard (he probably was though).

It was an interesting weekend with crashes as several people are now out injured for the next National after racing this weekend.

[weeksy]

Well i found the cause, if not yet the solution. His bottom out bumper no longer sits on the shaft correctly, so the disc of metal slides up and down the shaft constantly.

20260413_123442 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

[weeksy]

So his shock has gone off to be fettled by TFTuned, once again Ruth and the crew coming up trumps. However we've had a few developments here with the decisions and if he's not off racing WCDH then the plan for a few weeks is to race EWS (Enduro World Series).
For those who don't know, instead of being taken to the top in a van and riding the same track, Enduro is a multi-stage scenario where you pedal to the top and get yourself back down on different tracks. 1 day of practice and 1 day of racing. There's a couple of locations that interest him, so we may get on some of them. We'll potentially be over in Europe at the time holidaying anyway

Of course the dream for him is still World Cups... and with that in mind this weekend is the first National of the season. It'll be a tough day, a fast day and probably a wet day But he'll go fast and do what he does... (once he gets his head past last weekends crash).

[DirkPitt74]

EWS would be awesome.
Good luck for this weekend at Nationals!

[weeksy]

EWS would be awesome.
Good luck for this weekend at Nationals!

Thank you... lets see what happens.

[MingtheMerciless]

I'm sitting at the bottom of the hill after dropping him off yesterday at Llangollen.

"I've just had the biggest crash of my life"...

Oh.. .errrrrrm. But he was actually fairly OK... bit beaten up as you'd expect. He did another run but couldn't ride properly so came home early. He's a little delicate but OK. My only real concern is that it would have affected his confidence after that, but that remains to be seen.



Where he crashes isn't the trail he was on, it's the adjacent trail. As he goes into the heather he should be going right, not straight, but a small mistake and then losing his footing means, he went way off and it's about 20' down onto the next trail. Very very lucky boy.

Thats a hefty off, that'd defo be a limp to the pub to console myself.

[weeksy]

Nationals this weekend, insanely stacked field of thr best UK riders.



Practice done and apart from a few teething issues, all good. Ready to play tomorrow for seeding and race.

[weeksy]

Tough weekend at the races really. The mud and woods were something else, rider after rider lying down time and time again. There were people going home on Sat evening and Sunday mornging with "Not for me" and calling it a day.

Sunday brought seeding after practice and the boy had had a wobble of confidence during morning practice... it was arguably closer to an earthquake than a wobble actually.

I wasn't sure he was actually going to make seeding at all. He later told me he had thought "Sod it, i'm going home" half way down a particularly crashy run. But he did and he managed a fairly clean P18. His run didn't set the world on fire, but it was solid and OK. There was 60 in his class so a top 1/3 run.

Sat night brought the insanity of the paddock with laughs and banter, some forgotten food and improvisation of cooking and the coldest night i've slept outside for. Well, in the van actually. Woke to a field full of frost, by eck it was chilly... we REALLY need to think of some plans longer term.

So Sunday after seeding the racing was on.
20260419_121922 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

Kitted up and ready to play... still not what i'd call in the best head-space ever. I was watching his time as he popped out of the woods, you can work out from there it's about 30s to the bottom. He looked to be on a decent pace. Came down and i could see he wasn't exactly ecstatic but wasn't the end of the world either. All sort of OK really.

The final upshot was a P18
https://www.rootsandrain.com/event15204 ... n/results/

He had a decent split on split 1, but split 3 was the field/grassy section, it's been his personal weakness for years now and he can't quite get it, he lost 3s on the last split, nearly 4s actually to the lads who are his speed... That could have seen him in P8. But instead it was P18.

I can't put into words how stacked these fields are for Nationals, especially this early in the season when Worlds haven't started, so everyone is there, all the pro juniors and these days even some Enduro gods trying their hands at DH racing etc. So i'd argue P18 isn't terrible in the slightest... but he's a little less convinced (as you'd expect)

We've got 3 weeks to the next NAtional and time to work on his issues and confidence, try and get him back up to speed.

[MingtheMerciless]

Is it lack of pedalling on the field grassy bits or running out of legs at the end?

[weeksy]

Is it lack of pedalling on the field grassy bits or running out of legs at the end?

Heck no. He's as fit and actually fitter than ever.

[weeksy]

It seems things are changing and flowing a little bit here for the boy. With an upcoming entry being made for a local Enduro race at Milland and then a World Enduro in Morillon (near Morzine) in August. I think at the moment he's having a bit of a self-discovery moment which isn't that deep, but has a bit of soul-searching and depth to it. There's another at QECP the weekend after next, which i think he may try and talk a mate or two into racing. I don't know where this all leads and ends, but one thing he's got to do is keep things fun.

With that in mind i've sorted his rear brake line which was too short when purchased and fitted a longer one on there. So that's all golden now. I've also got a Rockshox Vivid Ultimate arriving for the back end as he'd killed his Float X through over walloping and bottoming out... So a better and bigger reservoir shock will help there too.

We discussed a Trek Slash for Morillon, which would have been part-time as a 'me' bike for bigger days, but quite a few of the Enduro guys seem to be going less travel and more rolling/speed rather than bigger travel to smash through things. Choosing slightly lighter and faster flowey bikes to to pop and float instead. I was torn on this as the Slash quite suits some of my plans too i'd argue. But it makes sense to him, so we're going with a plan of sticking.

Need to work on getting his media on point next as i think he could do 'more' self promotion.

[Mr Moofo]

Why the change in thinking re travel? I would have thought you want 180 mm etc to absorb what is being thrown at you

[weeksy]

Why the change in thinking re travel? I would have thought you want 180 mm etc to absorb what is being thrown at you

The answer is, they're not as 'hard' as the stuff he'd ride elsewhere in terms of tech. But they are longer at times and more pedally.

[weeksy]

Oh my... that's a LOT of linkage bearings.... and they were not pretty !!!

IMG-20260424-WA0000 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

IMG-20260424-WA0002 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

This is going to feel like a different bike !!! Honestly it was ridiculous lol.

[MingtheMerciless]

How old is it? Not pretty as in seized or just graunchy? Is that the first time you've had to change them?

ohh and Leisure Lakes are doing the Aluminium Slash 9 at £3250........

and they've got one in my size.......its just a bit lardy at 38lbs and that's before proper tyres get fitted.

[weeksy]

How old is it? Not pretty as in seized or just graunchy? Is that the first time you've had to change them?

ohh and Leisure Lakes are doing the Aluminium Slash 9 at £3250........

and they've got one in my size.......its just a bit lardy at 38lbs and that's before proper tyres get fitted.

1. Bought in Dec... seized as it not moving at all.... LOL. First time yes... but it's been a hard hard muddy wet winter. I didn't actually swap any as my bearing press kit was garbage for removals of these due to sizes, so i'm just in the process of ordering one from Pro Bearing Tools.

2. Yes they do.... but the higher priced AXS and Vivid one is the better better one... i like the Float X version personally.
Lardy, yeah possibly mate, possibly.... i'd like to try one other than just a quick road spin I had on my mates lads bike.

[weeksy]

Today's was Barry's. Its a place that's simply outside of my skillet, even on my best day there's not a lot I can ride. So I never.

He was out for 3+ hours and came down from what was going to be his last run anyway with a flat rear.
It seems by looking he's hit it pretty hard so I wasn't sure whether he'd killed the tyre or rim.
Compressor on and wasn't sealing, so the yellow paint pen came out and marked wheel and tyre. Then rotated the tyre 90deg. Air pissing out at the tyre mark, wheel is OK.

Its made worse by the fact the tyre is 3 rides old. Ffs. So its now in the bin and an ex race tyre fitted. It'll roll slower but may survive longer.