The journey from small guy to teenager...

[weeksy]

Every day at the moment seems to be a monsoon so the clips are a bit lacking sorry.

[Count Steer]

Every day at the moment seems to be a monsoon so the clips are a bit lacking sorry.

He seems quite happy in the slippy stuff though.

[weeksy]

He did more than me, I was kitted up ready as he came down, I'd checked his bike and was about to go out and the rain came, then stayed. After 2.5 hours he was bloody freezing and we called it early.
At the moment he has no choice other than to enjoy rain as that's all we're getting

[Count Steer]

He did more than me, I was kitted up ready as he came down, I'd checked his bike and was about to go out and the rain came, then stayed. After 2.5 hours he was bloody freezing and we called it early.
At the moment he has no choice other than to enjoy rain as that's all we're getting

Ah well, it's no good doing it if it crushes the fun out of it. The snowdrops will soon be out, the days will get longer. Everyone needs a winter break eh?

[weeksy]

I'm not sure if it's good or bad being as fussy as i am.... sometimes a little of both i think.

I picked up the lads Privateer to put it back up into it's spot on the wall.... 'clunk'... Hmmmm that's not right. Checked all the pivot points, shock mount, headset... Ended up being the wheel bearing on the front (we fitted a spare wheel to check/troubleshoot). Which was slightly weird as when i took them out they felt and seemed lovely. But in the bin they went and fitted (then ordered from Kinetic) 2 new ones.

Wasn't a long or complex job and i made sure the boy watched and followed closely everything i did as i'll make him do them next time with my supervision.

The Trek we've finally silenced with 2 new bearings as well, so both bikes are golden. Which is lucky as he's out with Katy this Friday on one of them and then Antur on the other on Sat.

[weeksy]

Nothing too exciting today. We spent the weekend at Dyfi and FoD.
FoD was coaching/riding with Katy and his mate Olly. It was really interesting as we learned a little about 'nutrition' mostly because 2 hours into their blast, the boy absolutely hit the wall. It was 2pm by then and he'd not had anything since the bowl of Cheerios in the morning... He was doing OK with pace and BOOM, wall.... hit... Just dead on his feet. He managed to drag himself back and consumed about 12,000,000 calories and went from looking white and drained, to somewhat normal. There's deffo something we need to learn and consider a bit more on this side of things it seems.

It was then straight up to Dyfi where the boy took this into heart and consumed about 10,000 calories in the morning before Dyfi with the buffet breakfast at Premier Inn
He then spent the day playing with a bunch of mates on the crazy trails of Dyfi bike park. Which according to him is the best place in the UK in terms of training/riding for learning DH... Bit saddening for me as i prefer BPW and it's obviously a lot closer than Dyfi. But i can see Dyfi playing a bit more of a part in things in the coming months in terms of training/riding.

We're off to Bucknell this weekend for a Pearce Uplift.

Pearce have also released dates for this season now.
11th May
6th July
31st Aug

No locations yet, but that's not massively important at the moment. We'll be doing our best though, however a slight complexity with 11th May as that's the start of GCSE's so not sure if he'll be allowed to play for that one, but arguably if he doesn't know it by then, he's not going to know it LOL.

At Dyfi it was interesting chatting with a few parents of racers who we know. It seems a fair few lad/families are concentrating more on IXS/International races this coming season, more than i'd expect in truth. Especially considering the expense of them in terms of driving/tunnel/ferry etc.. I just can't see a realistic way we could jump on that bandwagon at the moment in terms of time and expense, with his exams this year he needs to be at school, but with IXS he'd have to be taking 1-2 days off for it each time, let alone the £1000+ per race weekend.. So i just can't see it at the moment.

[weeksy]

24' pre season starts in full with Bucknell uplift day. Went pretty well apart from a great crash which was recorded by current world cup racer Luke Williamson, happily we know him and his dad as I used to ride Ducatis with the old man. So he sent us the clip.

We were also chatting with another WC racer who's on a Session like his and let's just say he's not exactly in love with it. Feels the front end is too tall even though he's slammed it as much as possible. Which I totally get as I'd feel the same having ridden it around a few fields and car parks, but my lad is happy with it.

2 weeks until race 1 of 24 and we're as ready as we can be. The pro5 rear is off for a service this week along with getting the Argotal and Kryptotal on the spare wheels so everything is completely swappable.

I do need to find some funds for a decent work stand but they're so damn expensive, however mine is 10+ years old and was a cheap rubbish one on its best day, now it's absolute garbage lol.

[Mr Moofo]

^ The Park ones are good. Expensive but good

[weeksy]

Bit of a good/bad day today... The National DH race series open for entry today.. That's the good.

The bad is... We can't enter for another 2 weeks as it's early-entry for people with 150 points last season.

This is where it gets a little confusing. My lad has 154 points, however only 146 of those were logged due to an Admin error when we had a late entry to a race. Sadly this can't be re-added back onto the ranking points as they 'close' at a particular time. So we've got to sit and wait a couple of weeks until the first week of Feb.

Happily it's 99% certain they won't fill as not that many people have the required 150 points, in his class there were 40 ahead of him in the UK Rankings, so even if every one of those entered, it's still only 40 people in his class, so we're not massively worried but it's a little nervy i must admit.

We're still waiting for the Gravity series dates to be fully announced, these are usually 7-14 days before the National series at the same tracks. Obviously we'll only be entering the England/Wales ones, not the Scotland ones as we can't go there twice each time... That's just crazy talk. So we'll be entering Rheola and Rhyd-y-Felin as well as Antur Stiniog assuming they run at those places.

2024 is very much starting to take shape and looking just as bonkers as other years.

[weeksy]

Was working out a few things today.... Jeepers. This is the 'start' of the plan

28/01 100% FoD
18/02 Stile Cop
25/02 100% FoD
7/04 Gravity Rheola
14/04 National DH Rheola
11/05 Pearce Rhyd-Y-Felin
25/05 National DH Fort William
22/06 National DH Antur Stiniog
06/07 Pearce Bringewood
21/07 National DH Rhyd-Y-Felin (National Champs)
04/08 National DH Glencoe
10/08-17/08 Morzine
18/08 Les Meniures French DH Cup
31/08 Pearce Bucknell
14/09 National DH Rhyd-Y-Felin
28/09 Pearce Hopton

there's likely to be 2-3 more Gravity DH races which are usually the weekend before a National on the same track as the National (usually a feature or two less to make it slightly more friendly in terms of massive features)

On top of that list there's other options like even this weekend down in Gawton in Tavistock (Devon/Cornwall border), but that's open to discussion currently.

The big one on the debate thing there really is whether we do the French race. It means an extra 3 days over there which is obviously a good thing. Practice seems quite short though with 1hr30 on Fri morning then a total of about 4 hours over the weekend plus a seeding (qualifying) run and a race run. But it has potential to be a cracking event in terms of track, location and fun...
We're doing the usual camping at places thing again this year to save on costs, but we are B&Bing it for Fort William as we're taking Mrs Weeksy too and she wants the creature comforts. Of course i'd LOVE them.... But got to be realistic with what's possible.

I don't see many weekends throughout the year we won't be out and about for at least 1 day though, often both of them with BPW, Dyfi, Antur, Barrys Sidings, Rogate, Windhill all playing their part. I'm thinking of focusing a bit on Rogate and Windhill for some of it rather than Dyfi, despite the terrain not being quite as gnarly, the distance and fuel plays a factor at times. There's new stuff we're finding up at FoD all the time where plenty of people go to practice and Tirpentwys isn't too far away. There's another couple at Merthyr and Risca that we need to research a little more.

The boys bike is currently off at Rotec Cycles getting the lowers serviced on his Boxxers (rebound adjuster is sticky) and a service/rebuild on the Hope Pro5. I could arguably do both myself, but sometimes with the stuff we have going on i have to send stuff out just to ensure it's done and done correctly and Stefan at Rotec is a top lad and always squeezes me in.

That list looks somewhat daunting when viewed on a page... Gulp.

[Mr Moofo]

But other than that?

[weeksy]

But other than that?

not a lot, just chilling

[Mr Moofo]

But other than that?

not a lot, just chilling

Not long now until he can drive himself ...

[weeksy]

But other than that?

not a lot, just chilling

Not long now until he can drive himself ...

TBH mate, i'm dreading that day to a great extent. We spend a massive amount of time together and get-on really well. I can't imagine how much of a hole it's going to leave when he starts doing this without me. I know it'll happen of course, but i can't say i'm looking forward to it.

[Mr Moofo]

not a lot, just chilling

Not long now until he can drive himself ...

TBH mate, i'm dreading that day to a great extent. We spend a massive amount of time together and get-on really well. I can't imagine how much of a hole it's going to leave when he starts doing this without me. I know it'll happen of course, but i can't say i'm looking forward to it.

New hobby?
Buy a motorbike?

[weeksy]

Not long now until he can drive himself ...

TBH mate, i'm dreading that day to a great extent. We spend a massive amount of time together and get-on really well. I can't imagine how much of a hole it's going to leave when he starts doing this without me. I know it'll happen of course, but i can't say i'm looking forward to it.

New hobby?
Buy a motorbike?

Mmmm no.

[Count Steer]

not a lot, just chilling

Not long now until he can drive himself ...

TBH mate, i'm dreading that day to a great extent. We spend a massive amount of time together and get-on really well. I can't imagine how much of a hole it's going to leave when he starts doing this without me. I know it'll happen of course, but i can't say i'm looking forward to it.

Now why would he want to do that? You provide the vehicle, chauffeur, pay the petrol, do the spannering etc etc. He's a bright lad y'know...and you're 'team'.

[Noggin]

Don't know what you are thinking for accomm for Les Menuires, but I've messaged a friend that lives over there to ask if there's anything reasonable and near the course that she's aware of for a couple of nights. Will let you know what she says. Possibly a bit in advance, but I figured asking for info early wasn't a bad thing

[weeksy]

Don't know what you are thinking for accomm for Les Menuires, but I've messaged a friend that lives over there to ask if there's anything reasonable and near the course that she's aware of for a couple of nights. Will let you know what she says. Possibly a bit in advance, but I figured asking for info early wasn't a bad thing

Thanks, that's very very kind of you.

We've been browsing Air-BNB for this and it's coming in £75-100 a night, we'll be there 3 maybe 4 nights. The location doesn't seem to lend itself well to camping if you're racing so really it'll need to be indoors, especially with the amount of kit we will have with us.

We just need to wait for entries to open and we'll get on the case. I think they'll be a little while and that's a good thing as all the other series open on the 2nd Feb so they'll be getting booked firstly.

Just been and collected the Trek after getting the forks serviced, rear wheel serviced and a few other 'bits'.... The boy at Rotec performing exceptional duties as always.

[Noggin]

Don't know what you are thinking for accomm for Les Menuires, but I've messaged a friend that lives over there to ask if there's anything reasonable and near the course that she's aware of for a couple of nights. Will let you know what she says. Possibly a bit in advance, but I figured asking for info early wasn't a bad thing

Thanks, that's very very kind of you.

We've been browsing Air-BNB for this and it's coming in £75-100 a night, we'll be there 3 maybe 4 nights. The location doesn't seem to lend itself well to camping if you're racing so really it'll need to be indoors, especially with the amount of kit we will have with us.

We just need to wait for entries to open and we'll get on the case. I think they'll be a little while and that's a good thing as all the other series open on the 2nd Feb so they'll be getting booked firstly.

Just been and collected the Trek after getting the forks serviced, rear wheel serviced and a few other 'bits'.... The boy at Rotec performing exceptional duties as always.

No worries, she has said it's a challenge to get places because of the racing! But she's going to look. I said for three, but let me know if you will be more and I'll ask a couple of other people too
Also, let me know the dates I've guess the 17th because of Morzine but wasn't sure how many nights etc

Will see what we can find