The journey from small guy to teenager...

[weeksy]

I really like my Zebs - but they probably don’t have all the bells and whistles that yours will

I’ve got the previous iteration of Zebs on the Epocalypse and I really like them.

I've never tried a set so I'm looking forward to giving this bike a run or two when finished. With the Vivid Ultimate and the Mavens its likely to be ace

[weeksy]

Collected his Atherton A200 frame from Rotec yesterday. It's now got a full bearing replacement.

It was something i COULD have done, but with this bike and with the time i've had spare lately i wanted it doing right so gave it to my mate.
He informs me that some of the bearings are utter pigs and i've had to get an order in with bearing press/removal guys to get it sorted with different tools for the future.
It was interesting that Atherton COULD have made things easier by machining another face on 2-3 locations to make removing the bearing 10X easier. There's no reason why this can't happen at the time, just give every bearing a flat/square face to fit a removal cup tool. I think it's sloightly soured the appeal of the Atherton for him.
They also seem to have used really expensive dimension bearings, when arguably they didn't need to be.

I have no clue how much this has all cost yet as he'd not worked it out.... but i can't say i'm looking forward to it

But anyway, his Atherton is once again fully built with new bearings and a fully serviced set of forks on there..

[weeksy]

20260605_170620 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

20260605_170627 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

20260605_170650 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

20260605_170640 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

[weeksy]

Yesterday was pretend racing at FoD. There wasn't many big-hitters there as they're away at World Cups etc, but the Youth National Champion was playing. He lives about 1/2 a mile away so is there every day.
The boy started OK and picked up speed, eventually finishing 2nd to Coops the Nation champ. Less than 0.5s back so a pretty decent run at it.

We'd been playing with shock and fork pressures and by the end of it we think the shock was a little too soft, so that'll get a quick bit of attention before next outing and an extra 8psi i think.

But for now it's van loading time today and off racing a weekend up near Ludlow in a field is the order of the weekend for us.

[superstu]

What’s the racing plans this weekend? Is it an enduro or DH?
I’ll keep an eye on here in between trying to catch the UCI downhill!

[weeksy]

Dh mate. Practice Sat, then 2 race runs Sunday

[MingtheMerciless]

What's the feedback on the Zeb?

[weeksy]

What's the feedback on the Zeb?

Hes happy with the Zeb. It seems to give him a better feel on the back too.


We're at DH this weekend though so not on it today

[weeksy]

So the weekend was, well, a bit meh.

His pace was good, but not amazing. He ended up P10 I think, which isn't what he wanted but is where he ended up.
I think he was only about 1.3s off a top 5, but you've got to be right right on pave, or you're nowhere.

As to why, heck we don't know. Hes been mediocre for 26 really, just not quite there. So we're devising some plans and thoughts.

All in all, we both came home a little flat. So much so that im struggling to write much

[weeksy]

Well it seems we've both been having a somewhat radical thought at the same time. It came up in conversation on Monday.

"what if it's the Atherton". Yeah i know, a bad workman blames his tools and all that.
But, well, it's not completely impossible. Whether that's something in the frame context or whether it's 29/29 against mullet, i don't really know yet.

So, we're doing at day at the weekend up at Ponty. Taking both the Atherton and the old Session.
The Session was sitting in a very much unbuilt state of affairs.
So it's had a headset, bottom bracket, crankset and chainguide installed (waiting on chainring today).

I've removed the Maven from the Atherton and cable tied it on the outside for quick swaps.

We've only got 1 set of forks, so i'll be removing the forks in the car park, fitted them to the Session after 4-5 runs for timing on the Atherton. We'll then do 4-5 runs on 29/29 on it and then 29/27.5 and we'll see which bike is,

1. the most comfortable in terms of his riding
2. the fastest

It'll answer some of the questions potentially. Hopefully.

https://www.rootsandrain.com/event15265 ... /#h-17-18m

As you can see from results, his splits ain't bad, we're not talking minutes here, we're talking small margins. But the simple fact is, in 2026 he's not been 'there'.

[weeksy]

The bike LIVES !

IMG-20260618-WA0007 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

All brand new parts apart from the rear wheel which is borrowed off a mate. That in itself was a bit of a nightmare as i had to swap the rear tyre to give a proper comparison. However he'd fitted a cushcore... but also the wheel doesn't hold air easily due to being pranged.... I got there eventually with a lot of persuasion. The Cushcore though went really well getting that out

It may or may not be an answer for us... but we now have the option to find out.

[weeksy]

a new genre, the downtrail bike. Session back end with 200mm of travel and 7 speed DH, along with a Fox 36 on the front

20260619_145632 by steveweeks59, on Flickr

[superstu]

Looks so wrong

[MingtheMerciless]

Looks so wrong

I know what you mean, the weeds are terrible.

[weeksy]

So today was approx 15 laps on tricky tech and steep Pontypool

Laps 1-6 were on the Atherton running 4 laps on 65mm rise bars and 2 on 35mm bars.
The 35mm were preferred.
7-14 were on the Session, all were on 35mm bars.
15 was back on the Atherton to sanity check results.

"Feels so fast through corners"
" changing direction is so much faster"

All the plaudits were for the Session. Using some software that overlays both videos you can compare times. Session was 1.2s quicker over a 1 min track.
We sanity checked using Atherton again at the end but it felt worse and was slower.

So the Atherton is up for sale and going. Brutal that may be, but the reality is, fastest wins.

[weeksy]

Build is now complete on the Session and the Atherton is boxed up and ready for a new home.

I need to do a quick bleed on the rear as I threw in some pads due the current ones being worn.

We do t yet know when it'll be out racing though. The new DH is in 4 weeks, but thats a clash with Bellwald EWS in Austria which he quite fancies.
I'm not against either decision as I thibk it'd be cool to hit something special like EWS before he starts work and begins life as a grown up.
But I'd also love to see if he can find form and get down a race run smiling again.

[Nordboy]

So today was approx 15 laps on tricky tech and steep Pontypool

Laps 1-6 were on the Atherton running 4 laps on 65mm rise bars and 2 on 35mm bars.
The 35mm were preferred.
7-14 were on the Session, all were on 35mm bars.
15 was back on the Atherton to sanity check results.

"Feels so fast through corners"
" changing direction is so much faster"

All the plaudits were for the Session. Using some software that overlays both videos you can compare times. Session was 1.2s quicker over a 1 min track.
We sanity checked using Atherton again at the end but it felt worse and was slower.

So the Atherton is up for sale and going. Brutal that may be, but the reality is, fastest wins.

So, is that down to how he feels on the bike? Or would it be an issue with the Atherton design etc? After all that's not a cheap frame and as an independant specialist frame/ bike maker, not a great advert if it's a 'them' issue? Interesting though.

[weeksy]

I think in reality it comes down to rider preference and riding style. We see it in motorcycle racing of course and see it in MTB where a rider changes bikes and can't quite gell fully. I certainly don't thibk the Atherton is a bad bike in the slightest
But, he's quicker it seems on the Session.

[weeksy]

Obviously this also brings a level of complexity with it.

Back in Dec at TFTuned we converted his Vivid Ultimate to the Atherton configuration. That meant it went from eyelet to trunnion as well as a different shaft length of size and stroke.
I've emailed tftuned to see about converting it back to Session. He was running the Super Deluxe yesterday which is decent, but the Vivid is better.

As well as the shock theres more complexity that he's now going back to full 29 on the back. So we need to get 3-4 ×wheels rebuilt, spoked and rimmed to 29" again. That may need some help from DMR as we're running their stans rims. I've got enough rubber though and will even fit 1 wheel up with a cushcore.

I've also got a full bearing kit for the Atherton as well as a full bolt and spacer kit, both will need selling