The journey from small guy to teenager...

[weeksy]

[weeksy]

So this weekend brings the last of the big races for 2023. Pearce @ Hopton. A track he knows well enough, although there's multiple layouts and i think they're racing one that isn't the one he's ridden most, but he's ridden plenty.

The bikes are ready, the kit is ready, we've got a van full of meat, beers, gazebo, bacon, chairs etc... So we're in for the weekend. Plan was to do a mates ride, but that may change as the weather isn't exactly looking as it was, it's a bit more on the rainy side of things than first forecast.

After that... we're onto 'winter' and 2024. There's a LOT of background stuff going on at the moment regarding things and lots of plans and some other stuff, but that's all a whole different conversation

[weeksy]

Practice run 1.
Sunday morning
IMG_20231001_092553 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[MingtheMerciless]

Sir suggests Michelin Mud tyres.

[weeksy]

After practice run 3 he was ready for race run. The day had gone OK, the bike was working, he was fed and watered, but as always "everyone is faster than me" echoed out.

Run 1 it was muddy, messy and yukky. He came down in P22/55 and had what was mostly clean run and OK...
2mins 29.8
Drew came down in a 2.24.8

After that the rain REALLY started and didn't let up all day...
But he got sent up and back down... Run 2 he stuck in a
2.25.2
Drew put in a 2.27

Drew ended up 20th and the lad went 23rd overall. Pretty happy with that and happy to find more speed in worse conditions
IMG-20231001-WA0004 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

We then had the trauma of getting packed up in the rain, sorting everything and eventually driving home

Kit is trashed, bike is trashed, i'm trashed.

[weeksy]

So that is essentially speaking 2023 racing over for me and the lad. It's been an absolutely bizarre year and thinking back at some of the highlights and low-times has been pretty interesting for me. Yesterday as a low-time we had a bit of a meltdown for the lad. He never/rarely shows any emotions, but yesterday we had a full on breakdown, he had a crash in practice and just fell apart. It was tough to take, but he bounced back quickly and got himself together.

But the highlights massively outweigh that. From the National DH at Fort William though being the top highlight for the year. Seeing him hitting the motorway jumps, well that was absolutely astounding.

Next years plans are already in place and along with the mighty Session we will once again be ploughing our way through a season of DH racing. It'll be tough/messy/fun/crazy... but hey, that's where we are and where we're setting out on the journey again.

The real hard work now starts for him and we've had in the last 72 hours some very deep conversations with him (and other people) about what the future holds, what the future will/may bring and most importantly what the next 4-5 months will need to push him on further. He's now closer than he's every been to the fast lads, he's stronger, fitter and faster... but still, of course, he's a chunk away from the best. So that's the top, the task and the goals for 2024.

We've made some good decisions this year, we've made some bad ones too... we've made some mistakes and we've had some adventures.. Long may it continue

[weeksy]

https://www.rootsandrain.com/event11505 ... /#h-15-16m

Doing the usual studying of results on monday morning. The lad put in a P20 for run 2... Which is excellent and really pleasing. But deeper analysis for me shows that the guys he'd regularly lose/match in races 6 months ago are now generally the next group behind his bunch. He's still improving and getting there, slowly slowly... Don't get me wrong, he's still got an insane level of speed he needs to find to get to next years goals, but gradually over time the targets seem fractionally more possible than they used to and when you look at the people he needs to get to, well they're within reach.

Need to make a few decisions as to whether we run a 2nd bike next year, with the GT Fury still being bike 2. He's not sat on it for a few months, basically since the Trek arrived. So is there any real point in keeping it... Meh, not so sure.

I've been taking the Ebike to a few events recently and whilst that's great, once you factor in the gazebo, cold box, BBQ, tents, chairs etc, taking 3 bikes, well it does get a bit bonkers in terms of space and you end up not really being able to do stuff in/with the van because so many sodding things are in the way. So i think that'll get dropped from most of the plans next year and i'll just be taking either his 1 bike or maybe his 2 if we run bike 2.

[Couchy]

Was good to see how an event went with you this weekend, there's a lot to do and tbh you managed it all awesomely. One point and it was mentioned you sleeping in a tent in a gazebo seems madness. As we said surely there's room for a cheap caravan so you get a warm comfy nights sleep and there's warm place to relax and hide..the boy not you as you haven't time to relax

[weeksy]

LOL thanks man... i've got it pretty much down to a fine art. The sleeping though, that's kinda tough for sure... but if we only take 1 bike i can then take the actual memory foam matresses instead.

Caravan... just doesn't work in some ways. As you saw with trying to get out
Josh got stuck twice and needed towing out. We got lucky as they opened another gate and we were one of the first out. We managed it on a straight run. Trying that with a caravan, well it's just not happening The parking, driving, routes, just mean it's not plausible.

I was just chatting with Ceri regarding his improvements.

Looking at 2-3 of the guys from this race exactly 12 months ago he finished 25s behind Louis Brookes, this time he was 7s behind him. Ted Morris is a similar story... he's closed the gaps massively to these guys, they're regularly top 10-15 at Pearce. That's kinda the target and goal for next year, to get to where he's pushing top 15 in Pearce and then hopefully pushing for top 10s. I think there's a few more fast guys moving out of Youth than there are coming up from Juvenile, so again, that should hopefully help a little bit.

[weeksy]

image0 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

image1 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[weeksy]

Well i must admit today has a little bit of a tinge of sadness with it.

IMG_20231013_073614 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Due to sizing and the boy testing it last week when getting out of van, i decided the Fury was gone... So i threw it on Pinkbike yesterday afternoon and this morning it's sold. Long discussion with the buyer and he should be sending me a deposit shortly.
I'm slightly sad because it was the bike the boy did his first Nationals on, the bike he raced Fort William on and was honestly a brilliant bike for him. But the reality is, it wasn't going to get used again and even if the Session were to break, it's likely he'd not want to ride the Fury anyway due to sizing and being so used to the Trek now.
It's done him proud and it's a superb thing.

However this does add £2000+ into the race fund again which can only be a good things and brings openings in options for an extra week or two in Morzine next year potentially which again, would be pretty damn epic. Even if we just add on 4-5 days that would only be a superb thing.

Still waiting for his new DMR Sect to arrive, the wheels of the MTB industry do work and turn slowly i have to say. But it'll be ace to have a few more options in terms of skills and riding over winter.
Off to Pontypool tomorrow to his the Gnarly (sic) stuff and have some fun with his mates, should be 4 of them playing so will be as much about laughs and playing as it will be about seriousness.

[weeksy]

IMG-20231016-WA0008 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

[weeksy]

Well that escalated....
"my bike is making a clunk noise"

Teeniest tinyest bit of play could be felt... but, as we know, it has to be 100% so the stripdown began.

We then found this

3803 LLB-W
IMG-20231017-WA0002 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Seized and stuck.... sadly, it's insanely expensive at £20 a pop !!! needs 2 obviously....

Then put it all back-together and still the same play lol.

Maybe it was the shock bushings, so removed the shock and replaced both bushings... Nah, not that either.

It seems it the main rocker pivot then.
IMG-20231017-WA0004 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

You can feel a little bit of play once you remove the covers. But that's a VERY weird setup. The spacer/shaft in the middle has a flange on it, which is bigger than the bearing, so to get it out you have to use a bit of 'gentle persuasion' on it, but as you're doing that, you're pushing out one of the bearings...

Getting new bearings in there, well that's entertaining as when you try and press in bearing 2, it won't go because as you push it in, you're pushing out the other side. So ended up cutting down a spacer for both sides, which means you can then press it in. It's not a lovely solution and i need to get some spacers that are exact/correct for the job.. but i'll work on that.

For now, the job is done and i'm a lot poorer in the bank balance with the bearings being £20 a pop !!!

[Mr Moofo]

I didn’t realise that the bike was second hand

[MingtheMerciless]

Well that escalated....
"my bike is making a clunk noise"

Teeniest tinyest bit of play could be felt... but, as we know, it has to be 100% so the stripdown began.

We then found this

3803 LLB-W
IMG-20231017-WA0002 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

Seized and stuck.... sadly, it's insanely expensive at £20 a pop !!! needs 2 obviously....

Then put it all back-together and still the same play lol.

Maybe it was the shock bushings, so removed the shock and replaced both bushings... Nah, not that either.

It seems it the main rocker pivot then.
IMG-20231017-WA0004 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

You can feel a little bit of play once you remove the covers. But that's a VERY weird setup. The spacer/shaft in the middle has a flange on it, which is bigger than the bearing, so to get it out you have to use a bit of 'gentle persuasion' on it, but as you're doing that, you're pushing out one of the bearings...

Getting new bearings in there, well that's entertaining as when you try and press in bearing 2, it won't go because as you push it in, you're pushing out the other side. So ended up cutting down a spacer for both sides, which means you can then press it in. It's not a lovely solution and i need to get some spacers that are exact/correct for the job.. but i'll work on that.

For now, the job is done and i'm a lot poorer in the bank balance with the bearings being £20 a pop !!!

It would appear I have competition in the bearing destruction department

[weeksy]

I didn’t realise that the bike was second hand

It would appear I have competition in the bearing destruction department

It had been used once/twice when we bought it... but we've owned it for ridiculously bad weather days, half of the days out have been mud-covered slop days where the bike has been washed half a dozen times in any day.... So it's bearings are getting a tough time.

[millemille]

@weeksy before you put the new bearings in do you pop the seals out and clean out the factory grease and put decent quantities of a high quality LM grease in and seal them back up?

[weeksy]

@weeksy before you put the new bearings in do you pop the seals out and clean out the factory grease and put decent quantities of a high quality LM grease in and seal them back up?

Well the bearings in the bike were not fitted by us... they're the factory bearings. I've bought some Enduro bearings from Kinetic this time.

I have at times done that seal and re-pack and currently that's what the bike has done with it for the next few days until the new bearings arrive, i've repacked what was in there, mostly because i don't have a set of 3803W in spares. Often i don't though, mostly because i'm never convinced my grease is any better than theirs. I've currently got multiple greases, but i never know which i ought to use, so tips welcomed.
I've got some white marine grease and some Weldtite TF2 Lithium grease which are my preferred products, but as i say, what grease i should use, i have no clue.
Chatting with my LBS guy last night about the spacer setup as i was unsure how it came out, he was talking about a new product he's got which is like a grease but completely waterproof for covering the surfaces/faces so i'm going to get some of that off him and hopefully help with the ingress.

[MingtheMerciless]

@weeksy before you put the new bearings in do you pop the seals out and clean out the factory grease and put decent quantities of a high quality LM grease in and seal them back up?

What grease do you use @millemille ?

All the MTB specific ones I’ve tried never seem very persistent and I’m left wondering if it’s the bearing seals that are the problem (even expensive bearings seem to allow detritus and water in).

[millemille]

I use Fuchs Renolit MP3 (now called GP3).

In a previous role as a consultant I specialised in tribology and spent a fair bit of time at both SKF and Timken looking at the condition of used train axle bearings to determine whether they could be allowed to run to higher mileages before overhaul/replacement.

Anyway, I was at Timken's place in Northampton looking at my bearings when a pallet of used bearings was delivered for overhaul and these things looked they'd been dug out of a peat bog after being buried for centuries.

"What are they off?" I asked.

"The trans Siberian express"

"Why on earth are they bothering to send them back, they've got to be fucked?"

Nope, absolutely immaculate inside. The grease Timken used at build was the Fuchs Renolit MP3 and that was as good a recommendation as I needed....